UB40
UB40
British reggae band
Almost like a pop-music testament to the postulate that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, the strength of UB40, the enormously successful British reggae band, lies in the strong communal bond that holds its multi-racial membership together. All eight members of the group—brothers Robin and All Campbell, who play guitar and sing; singer, trumpeter, and “toaster,” or rapper, Astro; saxophonist Brian Travers; keyboardist Michael Virtue; drummer Jimmy Brown; percussionist Norman Hassan, and bassist Earl Falconer— were born and raised in Balsall Heath, a neighborhood in the English Midlands industrial city of Birmingham, an area that has always attracted large numbers of West Indians, Asian Indians, and working-class whites and blacks looking for scarce jobs.
Though times were tough growing up in that neighborhood in the 1960s, Travers told Time’s Jay Cocks: “Don’t get the idea that we grew up poor, because we didn’t. We didn’t go hungry and have holes in our shoes or anything.” And rather than being torn apart by largescale unemployment or racial tension, the members of
For the Record…
Band members are Robin Campbell (guitar, vocals); All Campbell (guitar, vocals); Astro (saxophone, vocals); Brian Travers (saxophone); Michael Virtue (keyboards); Jimmy Brown (drums); Norman Hassan (percussion); Earl Falconer (bass).
Reggae; group assembled in Birmingham, England, 1977; cut demo tape with producer Bob Lamb; signed with Graduate record label; toured with rock group Pretenders, 1980; single “King” made U.K. Top 30, 1980; parted with Lamb and Graduate to form own record label, Dep International, 1980; toured the United States, 1983; single “Red Red Wine” reached Number 1 on U.S. charts, 1988.
Addresses: Record company—Virgin Records, Ltd., 9247 Alden Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210.
UB40 came together in those days with the help of music, specifically the charged rhythms of Jamaican reggae and the lyric melodies of Motown that were popular in Balsall Heath. “At the age when you start to form your musical allegiances,” Robin Campbell told Rolling Stone, “we were hearing reggae. They used to play it at ear-bleeding volume, so you couldn’t help but hear it.”
Considering that at the time of UB40’s inception none of its members could play an instrument, the birth of the group was somewhat curious. Then seventeen, Ali Campbell “got very drunk and upset somebody,” brother Robin told Rolling Stone’s Parke Puterbaugh, “and he got a flying glass in his face.” With the money he received from criminal injuries compensation, Ali went out and bought a guitar and drum set, and the others went out and bought instruments for themselves.
What UB40 lacked in musical talent in those early days, they more than made up for with self-confidence and ambition. Embarking on their “master plan,” the group, which they named after the all-too-familiar unemployment benefits application form, had plenty of time to practice in a cellar, where they honed their sound and practiced scribbling their soon-to-be-famous autographs on the walls. To avoid becoming merely a local favorite, the band vowed to play its hometown only once every six weeks, and spread word that in the times between they were on the road touring, when in fact they were usually right back in the cellar practicing. The first producer to show genuine interest in UB40 was Bob Lamb, who played the group’s demo tape for several influential DJs and eventually got them signed to the Graduate record label. The band’s second single, “King,” received extensive airplay, and when Chrissie Hynde, lead singer of the path-breaking group Pretenders, heard UB40 playing in a London pub, she invited them to join her band on its upcoming tour.
The exposure brought on by this popular tour catapulted UB40 into instant stardom. Their subsequent album, Signing Off, became the first reggae record to reach the British pop 30, and UB40 has since amassed more than 25 hit singles in the U.K. But in the recording industry, to achieve true stardom and, of course, financial success, the greatest test for a group is whether or not it can conquer America. Strangely, UB40’s first foray into the U.S. pop world fell astonishingly flat. “No, no, no, it just doesn’t happen this way,” Time’s Jay Cocks sarcastically wrote of that ill-fated venture. “Smash Brit band, bedecked with hit singles and platinum albums from abroad, storms U.S. shores in 1983. Plays some concerts, manages to squeeze one hit onto the low midrange of the singles charts, then goes back home. Modest hit single, which had reached the Number 1 spot in twelve other countries, expires from widespread Stateside indifference.”
The “modest hit single” Cocks refers to was “Red Red Wine,” from the LP Labour of Love, a compilation of all cover songs taken from favorites the band had over the years of listening to reggae. Ironically, “Red Red Wine” was not, like most of the songs on the album, a classic Jamaican reggae hit; rather, it was penned in 1968 by the legendary Tin Pan Alley songwriter Neil Diamond and first covered by Tony Tribe. “Red Red Wine” was a Number 1 single in Britain and a smash hit worldwide, but U.S. audiences strangely shunned it when UB40’s new label, A & M Records, released it in 1983. Meanwhile, in the ensuing years the group released two critically acclaimed albums of original songs, Rat in the Kitchen (1986) and UB40 (1988), which were both, again, well-received in the U.K. and hardly noticed in the U.S.
In fact, UB40’s breakthrough in the American market did come finally in 1988, but it had nothing to do with either of these fine albums. Rather, it came with a lot of luck, by way of the whim of Phoenix radio station KZZP which, for some strange reason, put the five-year-old single “Red Red Wine” on its playlist in May of that year. By August, the song was the station’s Number 1 requested single, and other album-rock stations around the country began playing the record with such success that A & M decided to re-release it. By October “Red Red Wine” was the Number 1 song on the Billboard charts. This belated success left some of the band members admittedly a little confused and ambivalent about the U.S. market, but as Astro told Rolling Stone, “Who cares? As long as it’s a hit,I’ll accept it.”
Labour of Love received more belated honors when it was named among Rolling Stone’s Top 100 albums of the 1980s. The emphasis in making that record, Robin Campbell told the magazine, was to reestablish reggae as an enjoyable musical form in its own right, rather than merely a vehicle for religious or political messages as it had come to be known since Bob Marley’s Rastafarian days. Campbell said that before Marley, reggae was simply a form of Jamaican pop music, meant for dancing and feeling good.“It’s African and calypso rhythms fused together withAmerican rhythm and blues. All it’s ever been is homemade pop music, and it just gets up my nose when people start talking about reggae as a political or religious music.”
But that does not explain the overtly political and social flavor of much of UB40’s original music. Indeed, the band often targets the harshness of capitalism and racism and the injustice in South Africa. Perhaps this is why UB40 was extended an invitation to play a short tour in the Soviet Union in 1986, an experience that may have opened the band’s eyes a little about life in that country. For instance, though the concerts were sold out everywhere, the fans, under the watchful eyes of special security police, were not allowed to dance to the music; and when the band members spoke directly to the audience about the meaning in a particular song, the Soviet translator often misconstrued their meaning to make it less “controversial.” “There’d have to be some pretty strong persuasion to make me come back here,” a frustrated Robin Campbell told Rolling Stone.
UB40 instead likes to make itself a little commune. The band members all still live in Balsall Heath, albeit in nicer houses, and the democratic make-up of the group has created only one strict rule: “Do what you do easiest.” And in 1988 the group got together to realize the ultimate dream of all boyhood chums when they purchased 270 acres of land on an island south of Jamaica. “We thought, ’Why don’t we buy a place and build ourselves a bunch of houses and a shop and a bar and just have our own little community?’” Robin told Rolling Stone. “Sounds like fun to me.”
Selected discography
Signing Off, Graduate, 1980.
Present Arms, Dep International.
Labour of Love, A & M, 1983.
Geffrey Morgan, A & M, 1984.
Rat in the Kitchen, A & M, 1986.
UB40, A & M, 1988.
Sources
Books
Clifford, Mike, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Black Music, Harmony Books, 1982.
Periodicals
Rolling Stone, October 9,1986; December 4,1986; December 1, 1988; November 16,1989.
Time, October 31, 1988.
—David Collins
UB40
UB40
Reggae group
Almost like a pop-music testament to the postulate that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, the strength of UB40, the enormously successful British reggae band, lies in the strong communal bond that holds its multi-racial membership together. All eight members of the group—brothers Robin and Ali Campbell, who play guitar and sing; singer, trumpeter, and "toaster," or rapper, Astro; saxophonist Brian Travers; keyboardist Michael Virtue; drummer Jimmy Brown; percussionist Norman Hassan, and bassist Earl Falconer—were born and raised in Balsall Heath, a neighborhood in the English Midlands industrial city of Birmingham, an area that has always attracted large numbers of West Indians, Asian Indians, and working-class whites and blacks looking for scarce jobs.
Though times were tough growing up in that neighborhood in the 1960s, Travers told Time's Jay Cocks: "Don't get the idea that we grew up poor, because we didn't. We didn't go hungry and have holes in our shoes or anything." And rather than being torn apart by large-scale unemployment or racial tension, the members of UB40 came together in those days with the help of music, specifically the charged rhythms of Jamaican reggae and the lyric melodies of Motown that were popular in Balsall Heath. "At the age when you start to
form your musical allegiances," Robin Campbell told Rolling Stone, "we were hearing reggae. They used to play it at ear-bleeding volume, so you couldn't help but hear it."
Considering that at the time of UB40's inception none of its members could play an instrument, the birth of the group was somewhat curious. Then seventeen, Ali Campbell "got very drunk and upset somebody," brother Robin told Rolling Stone's Parke Puterbaugh, "and he got a flying glass in his face." With the money he received from criminal injuries compensation, Ali went out and bought a guitar and drum set, and the others went out and bought instruments for themselves.
What UB40 lacked in musical talent in those early days, they more than made up for with self-confidence and ambition. Embarking on their "master plan," the group, which they named after the all-too-familiar unemployment benefits application form, had plenty of time to practice in a cellar, where they honed their sound and practiced scribbling their soon-to-be-famous autographs on the walls. To avoid becoming merely a local favorite, the band vowed to play its hometown only once every six weeks, and spread word that in the times between they were on the road touring, when in fact they were usually right back in the cellar practicing. The first producer to show genuine interest in UB40 was Bob Lamb, who played the group's demo tape for several influential DJs and eventually got them signed to the Graduate record label. The band's second single, "King," received extensive airplay, and when Chrissie Hynde, lead singer of the path-breaking group Pretenders, heard UB40 playing in a London pub, she invited them to join her band on its upcoming tour.
The exposure brought on by this popular tour catapulted UB40 into instant stardom. Their subsequent album, Signing Off, became the first reggae record to reach the British pop 30, and UB40 has since amassed more than 25 hit singles in the United Kingdom. But in the recording industry, to achieve true stardom and, of course, financial success, the greatest test for a group is whether or not it can conquer America. Strangely, UB40's first foray into the American pop world fell astonishingly flat. "No, no, no, it just doesn't happen this way," Time's Jay Cocks sarcastically wrote of that ill-fated venture. "Smash Brit band, bedecked with hit singles and platinum albums from abroad, storms U.S. shores in 1983. Plays some concerts, manages to squeeze one hit onto the low midrange of the singles charts, then goes back home. Modest hit single, which had reached the number one spot in twelve other countries, expires from widespread Stateside indifference."
The "modest hit single" Cocks refers to was "Red Red Wine," from the LP Labour of Love, a compilation of all cover songs taken from favorites the band had over the years of listening to reggae. Ironically, "Red Red Wine" was not, like most of the songs on the album, a classic Jamaican reggae hit; rather, it was penned in 1968 by the legendary Tin Pan Alley songwriter Neil Diamond and first covered by Tony Tribe. "Red Red Wine" was a number one single in Britain and a smash hit worldwide, but American audiences strangely shunned it when UB40's new label, A&M Records, released it in 1983. Meanwhile, in the ensuing years the group released two critically acclaimed albums of original songs, Rat in the Kitchen (1986) and UB40 (1988), which were both, again, well-received in the United Kingdom and hardly noticed in the United States.
For the Record …
Members include Robin Campbell , guitar, vocals; Ali Campbell , guitar, vocals; Astro , trumpet, vocals; Brian Travers , saxophone, vocals; Michael Virtue , keyboards; Jimmy Brown , drums; Norman Hassan , percussion, vocals; Earl Falconer , bass, vocals.
Group formed in Birmingham, England, 1977; cut demo tape with producer Bob Lamb; signed with Graduate record label; toured with rock group Pretenders, 1980; single "King" made British top 30, 1980; parted with Lamb and Graduate to form own record label, Dep International, 1980; toured the United States, 1983; single "Red Red Wine" reached number one on American charts, 1988; released Labour of Love II, which included top ten hits "The Way You Do the Things You Do" and "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)," 1989; "Can't Help Falling in Love" featured in film Silver, starring Sharon Stone, 1993; released numerous highly successful albums through the 1990s and into the 2000s; "Every Breath You Take" featured in major Hollywood film 50 First Dates, 2004.
Addresses: Record company—UB40/DEP International, P.O. Box 117, Birmingham B5 5RJ, Englad. Website—UB40 Official Website: http://www.ub40dep.com.
In fact, UB40's breakthrough in the American market did come finally in 1988, but it had nothing to do with either of these fine albums. Rather, it came with a lot of luck, by way of the whim of Phoenix radio station KZZP which, for some strange reason, put the five-year-old single "Red Red Wine" on its playlist in May of that year. By August, the song was the station's most requested single, and other album-rock stations around the country began playing the record with such success that A&M decided to re-release it. By October "Red Red Wine" was the number one song on the Billboard charts. This belated success left some of the band members admittedly a little confused and ambivalent about the market in the United States, but as Astro told Rolling Stone, "Who cares? As long as it's a hit, I'll accept it."
Labour of Love received more belated honors when it was named among Rolling Stone's Top 100 albums of the 1980s. The emphasis in making that record, Robin Campbell told the magazine, was to reestablish reggae as an enjoyable musical form in its own right, rather than merely a vehicle for religious or political messages as it had come to be known since Bob Marley's Rastafarian days. Campbell said that before Marley, reggae was simply a form of Jamaican pop music, meant for dancing and feeling good. "It's African and calypso rhythms fused together with American rhythm and blues. All it's ever been is homemade pop music, and it just gets up my nose when people start talking about reggae as a political or religious music."
But that does not explain the overtly political and social flavor of much of UB40's original music. Indeed, the band often targets the harshness of capitalism and racism and the injustice in South Africa. Perhaps this is why UB40 was extended an invitation to play a short tour in the Soviet Union in 1986, an experience that may have opened the band's eyes a little about life in that country. For instance, though the concerts were sold out everywhere, the fans, under the watchful eyes of special security police, were not allowed to dance to the music; and when the band members spoke directly to the audience about the meaning in a particular song, the Soviet translator often misconstrued their meaning to make it less "controversial." "There'd have to be some pretty strong persuasion to make me come back here," a frustrated Robin Campbell told Rolling Stone.
UB40 instead likes to make itself a little commune. The band members all remained in Balsall Heath after their successes, albeit in nicer houses, and the democratic make-up of the group has created only one strict rule: "Do what you do easiest." And in 1988 the group got together to realize the ultimate dream of all boyhood chums when they purchased 270 acres of land on an island south of Jamaica. "We thought, 'Why don't we buy a place and build ourselves a bunch of houses and a shop and a bar and just have our own little community?'" Robin told Rolling Stone. "Sounds like funtome."
Following its success in the United States, the group released another album of covers, Labour of Love II (1989), which spawned top ten hits in covers of "The Way You Do the Things You Do" by the Temptations, and "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)" by Al Green. A cover of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love" cemented the group's American following, staying for seven weeks at the top of the charts and appearing in the motion picture Sliver starring Sharon Stone. Promises and Lies followed Labour of Love II in 1993, made the number six spot on the Billboard top reggae charts in the United States, and hit number one on the British charts.
Albums released by the group through the remainder of the 1990s and into the 2000s, including Guns in the Ghetto (1997), Labour of Love III (1998), and The Very Best of UB40 (2000), routinely landed on the number one position on the reggae charts. In 2004, UB40's cover of "Every Breath You Take" by the Police was featured in the film 50 First Dates starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore.
Selected discography
Albums
Signing Off, Graduate, 1980.
Present Arms, Dep, 1981.
Present Arms in Dub, Dep, 1981.
UB44, Dep, 1983.
Labour of Love, A&M, 1983.
More UB40 Music, Graduate, 1983.
Live, Virgin, 1983.
Geffrey Morgan, A&M, 1984.
UB40 File, Virgin, 1985.
Little Baggaridim, Virgin, 1985.
Rat in the Kitchen, A&M, 1986.
UB40 CCCP: Live in Moscow, A&M, 1987.
UB40, A&M, 1988.
Labour of Love II, Atlantic, 1989.
Promises and Lies, Virgin, 1993.
Anansi, Rabbit Ears, 1995.
Guns in the Ghetto, Virgin, 1997.
Presents the Dancehall Album, Virgin, 1998.
Labour of Love III, Virgin, 1998.
Homegrown, Virgin, 2003.
Compilations
The Singles Album, Dep, 1982.
The Best of UB40 (1980-1983), A&M, 1983.
The Best of UB40, Vol. 1, Virgin, 1995.
The Best of UB40, Vol. 2, Virgin, 1995.
Signing Off/Present Arms in Dub/Rat in the Kitchen, Dep, 1995.
Labour of Love/Labour of Love II, Dep, 1995.
The Very Best of UB40 1980-2000, Virgin, 2000.
Cover Up, EMI, 2002.
Fathers of Reggae, Virgin, 2002.
Labour of Love I II & III: The Platinum Collection, Virgin, 2003.
Singles
"Way You Do The Things You Do," Atlantic, 1990.
"Here I Am," Atlantic, 1991.
"The Way You Do the Things You Do," Alex, 1991.
"Impossible Love," Alex, 1991.
"Groovin'," Atlantic, 1991.
"Baby," Alex, 1991.
"I Can't Help Falling in Love with You," Alex, 1993.
"Way You Do the Things You Do," Virgin, 1993.
"Higher Ground," Virgin, 1993.
"Bring Me Your Cup," Alex, 1993.
"C'est la Vie," Virgin, 1994.
"Reggae Music," Alex, 1994.
"Kingston Town," Virgin, 1995.
"Tell Me It Is True," Virgin, 1997.
"Come Back Darling," EMI, 1998.
"Train Is Coming, Part 1," EMI, 1999.
"Train Is Coming, Part 2," EMI, 1999.
"Holly Holy, Part 1," EMI, 2000.
"Holly Holy, Part 2," EMI, 2000.
"Light My Fire," EMI, 2000.
"Swing Low," EMI, 2003.
Sources
Books
Clifford, Mike, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Black Music, Harmony Books, 1982.
Periodicals
Rolling Stone, October 9, 1986; December 4, 1986; December 1, 1988; November 16, 1989.
Time, October 31, 1988.
Online
"UB40," All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (April 19, 2004).
UB40 Official Website, http://www.ub40-dep.com (April 19, 2004).
—David Collins and
Michael Belfiore
UB40
UB40
UB40, one of the most successful reggae bands ever. Membership:Ali Campbell, voc, gtr. (b. Birmingham, England, Feb. 15, 1959); Robin Campbell, gtr. (b. Birmingham, England, Dec. 25,1954); Earl Falconer, bs. (b. Birmingham, England, Jan. 23, 1957); Mickey Virtue, kybd. (b. Birmingham, England, Jan. 19, 1957); Brian Travers, sax. (b. Birmingham, England, Feb. 7,1959); Jim Brown, drm. (b. Nov. 21, 1957); Norman Hassan, pere, (b. Birmingham, England, Jan. 26, 1958); Astro (real name, Terence Wilson), “toastemaster,” (b. Birmingham, England, June 24, 1957).
The product of England’s industrial melting pot, UB40 were a multiracial band like the two-tone ska bands that were peaking in popularity at the time. There were several crucial differences, though. Rather than playing the hyped-up ska that the two-tone bands favored, UB40 opted for a slower, more contemporary rock-steady sound. They also tended, at least in their early years, to take a far more political stance than the ska revivalists did. For them, “Stand Down Margaret” was a starting point for some ferocious anti-Thatcher music.
Legend has it, the members of UB40 met on the unemployment line; their name derives from the form used to get jobless benefits in England. The core of the band, Robin and Ali Campbell came from a musical family (their parents are Ian and Lorna Campbell, notables in the British folk scene). They bought instruments with money Ali received in the settlement of a bar brawl. Most of them had just a marginal idea of how to play. They spent six months in a basement, learning to play songs by artists like Gregory Isaacs. By February 1979, they began playing out. A demo tape started getting played on the radio and BBC deejay John Peel liked it enough that he brought them in for one of his infamous Radio One sessions. Chrissie Hynde brought them aboard as the opening act for the Pretender’s first tour of the U.K.
With all this exposure, the group signed a “one of” deal with independent Graduate Records, releasing the single “Food for Thought,” decrying third world poverty. The B-side, “King,” a tribute to slain American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., was a long-time favorite with live audiences. The single rose to #4 on the U.K. charts. Their debut album, Signing Off,featured several other singles as well. The album package looked like the form from which the band took their name, with the title rubber-stamped on it. The band announced, with their musical success, that they could sign off the dole.
Despite the hit record, they didn’t get rich. As radical thinkers, they decided to control the means of production and formed their own DEP International Records for the release of their next album, Present Arms. The album included one of the finest pieces of political pop ever recorded, the single “One in Ten,” the title referring to England’s prevailing 10 percent unemployment rate at the time. It went to the English Top Ten. The band then took a cue from Jamaican artists, who nearly always released vocal-less versions of records remixed with lots of echo and effects. Called “dub” records, they took the music to a different place. A dub version of Present Armsalso sold extremely well, the first dub record to make the U.K. charts.
The packaging on their third album, UB44,was also distinctive. It was one of the first albums to use a hologram on the cover. However, the technology at the time was so primitive that many couldn’t read it, so after the limited first pressing of the album, they gave it a more conventional cover.
The band really broke out with its fourth album, a project members had been itching to do since they came together. Called Labour of Love,it covered some of their favorite reggae singles, including a Jamaican hit by an artist named Tony Tribe. Although the band didn’t realize that it was a Neil Diamond cover, the song “Red, Red Wine” rose to the top of the U.K. charts, and hit #34 in the U.S. This catapulted the album to #39 in the U.S. as well. They had a string of other English hits from the album, including versions of Jimmy Cliff’s “Many Rivers to Cross” and “Please Don’t Make Me Cry.” When their follow-up album, Geffrey Morgan,came out, the single “If It Happens Again” entered the U.K. charts at #9.
Their next album, Baggariddim,marked several collaborations. They reunited with Chrissie Hynde. She and Ali Campbell took a reggaefied version of Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe” to the top of the U.K. charts, hitting #28 in the U.S. The album hit #40 in the U.S. Many of the tracks also featured the work of reggae DJs for England. The tune “Don’t Break My Heart” hit #3 in the U.K. as well. They followed this with the Rat in the Kitchenalbum, which spawned the #5 U.K. hit “Sing Our Own Song,” featuring a trumpet solo by the head of their American record company, Herb Alpert. The tour for the album included dates in the USSR.
Their eponymous 1988 album featured another duet with Chrissie Hynde on the song “Breakfast in Bed.” The year-long tour that followed the release included the Nelson Mandela Homecoming show, broadcast around the world. Their version of “Red Red Wine” at the show sparked new interest in the record in the U.S., where a new version with a toast by Astro reached #1 and went gold. This sent the original Labour of Lovealbum to #14 and platinum, just in time for the second edition, Labour of Love II,to come out. A duet with Robert Palmer on Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” did well in the U.K., as did a cover of the Chi Lights “Homely Girl,” which rose to #6. A version of the Temptations’ “The Way You Do the Things You Do” went gold and rose to #6 in the U.S., and a cover of Al Green’s “Here I Am (Come and Take Me)” hit #7, propelling the album to 30 and platinum in the States.
Following a period of road work and rest, UB40 released Promises and Lies.A cover of Elvis’s “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You,” featured in the Sharon Stone film Sliver,topped both the U.K. and U.S. charts, going platinum after seven weeks at #1. The album hit #1 in the U.K., rising to #6 and platinum in the U.S. However, the group became embroiled in a lawsuit claiming that a young woman named Debbie Banks had actually written the lyrics to “Don’t Break My Heart.” She won the suit, earning considerable back royalties. In the meantime, the band only cut the instrumental backing to a children’s record featuring Denzel Washington telling folk tales, Anansi the Spider.
The group came back with Guns in the Ghetto,which spawned a couple of minor hits, including “Tell Me Is It True,” featured on the soundtrack to the film Speed II. They furthered their commitment to the state of the art in Jamaican music with The Dancehall Album,a recording that featured a variety of Jamaican toasters, including Beenie Man, Mad Cobra, and Lady Saw. They followed this with a successful third edition of Labour of Love. After nearly a quarter century, the group remained on top of their game.
Discography
Signing Off (1980); Present Arms (1981); Present Arms in Dub (1981); UB44 (1982); Labour of Love (1983); Live (1983); Geffery Morgan (1984); Little Baggariddim (1985); Baggariddim (1985); Rat in the Kitchen (1986); UB40 CCCP: Live in Moscow (1987); UB40 (1988); Labour of Love II (1989); Promises and Lies (1993); Anansi (1995); Guns in the Ghetto (1997); Presents the Dancehall Album (1998); Labour of Love III (1998).
—Brock Helander
UB40
UB40
Formed: 1978, Birmingham, England
Members: Astro, vocals, trumpet (born Terence Williams; Birmingham, England, 24 June 1957); James Brown, drums (born Birmingham, England, 21 November 1957); Ali Campbell, vocals, guitar (born Birmingham, England, 15 February 1959); Robin Campbell, guitar, vocals (born Birmingham, England, 25 December 1954); Earl Falconer, bass (born Birmingham, England, 23 January 1957); Norman Hassan, percussion (born Birmingham, England, 26 January 1958); Brian Travers, saxophone (born Birmingham, England, 7 February 1959); Mickey Virtue, keyboards (born Birmingham, England, 19 January 1957).
Genre: Rock, Reggae
Best-selling album since 1990: Promises and Lies (1993)
Hit songs since 1990: "Can't Help Falling in Love (with You)," "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)," "The Way You Do the Things You Do"
UB40 were the unlikely proselytizers who brought reggae to an international audience. Born from the same musical and social ferment that spawned British punk and ska, UB40 popularized reggae through their cover versions of "Red Red Wine," "I Got You Babe," and "Can't Help Falling in Love (with You)." Sporting full horn and rhythm sections, this multiracial group tackled numerous social and political issues, from local unemployment and Third World poverty to the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela and the dangers of nuclear war.
Named after the British unemployment form, UB40 slowly gained an audience around their hometown of Birmingham, England. While not firmly aligned with British ska or two-tone, they voiced similar commentaries on social ills and frustrations. The group was formed around the brothers Robin and Ali Campbell and was multiracial in its makeup. Local reggae toaster Astro joined the group for the recording of "Food for Thought" and soon became a full-time member.
After touring with the Pretenders, the group formed their own label and released Present Arms in Dub (1981), which features the song "One in Ten," a biting commentary on British unemployment. In 1983 they produced their tribute album Labour of Love, which includes a cover version of Neil Diamond's "Red Red Wine." Moderately successful at first, the song climbed to Billboard 's number one spot after their performance at the Nelson Mandela concert in 1988. Baggariddim (1985), an experimental album using local disc jockeys, includes the hit song "Don't Break My Heart" and the cover version of "I Got You Babe," with Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders. After extensive international touring the group returned with Labour of Love II (1989), their second tribute album, which features the Temptations' "The Way You Do the Things You Do."
In 1993 UB40 enjoyed tremendous success with their album Promises and Lies, which rose to number one in the United Kingdom and number six in the United States. Their version of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love (with You)" reached Billboard 's number one position. After the song is introduced by soft keyboard textures, Ali Campbell sings his first phrase in an earnest and caressing manner. After a dramatic drum entrance and horn buildup, Campbell returns with the first verse over a jaunty bass ostinato. During the choruses the backup singers surround the melody with horns providing tight punctuation. UB40's second single, "Higher Ground," peaked at U.K. number two and was followed by "Bring Me Your Cup" and "C'est La Vie."
After court litigation over the authorship of "Don't Break My Heart," UB40 returned to the recording studio. Reaffirming their commitment to reggae musicians, they recorded the collaborative albums UB40 Present the Dancehall Album (1998) and UB40 Present the Father of Reggae (2002).
While UB40 began their career by focusing on social issues, they gained widespread popularity through their musical covers, most especially "Red Red Wine" and "Can't Help Falling in Love (with You)." Unlikely as it may seem, this British band disseminated reggae to an international audience. At the same time, UB40 assisted many young stars and collaborated with elder reggae musicians.
SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:
Signing Off (Graduate, 1980); Present Arms in Dub (DEP, 1981); UB44 (DEP, 1982); Live (DEP, 1982); Labour of Love (DEP, 1983); Geffery Morgan (DEP, 1984); Baggariddim (DEP, 1985); Rat in the Kitchen (DEP, 1986); CCCP: Live in Moscow (DEP, 1987); UB40 (DEP, 1988); Labour of Love II (DEP, 1989); Promises and Lies (DEP, 1993); Guns in the Ghetto (Virgin, 1997); UB40 Present the Dancehall Album (Virgin, 1998); Labour of Love III (Virgin, 1999); Cover Up (Virgin, 2001); UB40 Present the Fathers of Reggae (Virgin, 2002).
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wynn yamami