Belfast band Skum were formed in 1980 by Chuck drums, Petesy Burns guitar, Paul Convery aka Spike Vocals and Cec Patton on bass (seen live above at St Mark's Parochial Hall, Newtownards). Cec was later replaced by Hillary Midgely. The band played mostly Sex Pistols covers although they did pen some originals including "Fornicate With You" and "Hate You". Hilary recalls a band practice session in Spike’s mum’s garage “Yes, Chuck was playing a combination of biscuit tins and watering cans (I kid you not) as we'd no drum kit. We had one small guitar amp and Spike was singing through a microphone from a tape recorder and the cops turned up and told us to turn it down!”

Despite police efforts the band got a set together and played some gigs around Belfast, the Manhatten, the Pound and some bars in West Belfast such as Heinz's and the Clubhouse before fizzling out. Chuck and Spike would turn up later in Asylum and Hilary later sang with Sledgehammer.