UB40

First steps

All participants UB40 were familiar from school. Brian Travers bought his first saxophone with his money when he was an apprentice electrician. After quitting his job, he, along with Jimmy Brown, Earl Falconer and Eli Campbell, organized the band. Having not yet learned to play musical instruments, the UB40 participants traveled around Birmingham and pasted group posters on the walls. The sound of the UB40 was forged and honed during long rehearsals in various locations in Birmingham. The first performance took place on February 9, 1979 in the pub “The Hare and Hunting Dogs”, where the birthday of their mutual friend was celebrated.

Signing Off (1980)

The breakthrough came when Chrissie Hinde saw their performance in a pub and gave them the opportunity to play "warm up" with their band The Pretenders ^[2] . The first single, UB40, “King” / “Food for Thought”, was released on Graduate Records, a local independent label, and reached 4th place on the respective list.

The first album was called Signing Off (meaning that the band members were removed from the list of receiving unemployment benefits). He was recorded in a small apartment in Birmingham. Part of the material was recorded in the garden, so - according to Norman Hassan - birds can be heard on some sound tracks. Signing Off went on sale on August 29, 1980 and reached the 2nd place in the album chart; was certified as a "platinum" disc.

Musically, the first three albums are sound landscapes characteristic of reggae - and dub performers. The style of the wind instrument section is intentionally close to the sound of the “antediluvian” Caribbean orchestras. The lyrics are overloaded with aggressive criticism of the socio-political situation in the UK at that time and direct attacks against Thatcherism ^[2] .

At the peak of popularity

After great success in Great Britain, they also gained popularity in the USA, releasing an album of cover versions of songs by other artists ^[2] (musical idols of the band) Labor of Love in 1983. This album is considered a turning point for more commercial sound. Three years later, they performed at the Heart Beat Charity Concert in Birmingham.

In August 1986, the album “Rat In The Kitchen” was published, covering the topics of poverty and unemployment ^[3] (hit the top 10 UK album charts). By many critics, he is considered one of the best in the discography of this musical group (four out of five out of five possible stars are exhibited at Allmusic ) ^[2] . The song "Sing Our Own Song" was written in support of black musicians in South Africa . We should not forget that at that time apartheid regime still existed in this South African country, and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher called Nelson Mandela a “dangerous terrorist”. The disc was released in the Soviet Union by the company "Melody" under license from DEP International. In November 1986, UB40 had a concert at Luzhniki, where for the first time in the USSR spectators were allowed to dance, although on the ground according to the tickets purchased.

In 1987, Ray "Pablo" Falconer, producer of UB40, died in a car accident. Earl Falconer was sentenced to six months imprisonment, as he was driving a car crashing into a factory wall in Birmingham ^[3] .

In 1988, UB40 made a long world tour, performing in Australia, Japan and South America. In July of the same year - along with other most popular performers at that time - took part in the Free Nelson Mandela concert (“Freedom to Nelson Mandela ”) at Wembley Stadium in London ^[2] . This musical event was watched by millions of TV viewers in many countries of the world (including the Soviet Union) on the air. After that, music lovers began to show interest in the group in the USA ^[2] : the Labor of Love II album (1989) entered Billboard's Top 20 and gave several hits (“Kingston Town”, “Here I Am (Come And Take Me) "," Homely Girl "," The Way You Do The Things You Do ").

In the early 1990s, UB40 did the collaboration “I'll Be Your Baby Tonight” with Robert Palmer .

By 1994, after the release of the successful disc Promises and Lies (1993), UB40 slowed down touring speeds (before that they performed in South Africa: a total of 250,000 people attended their concerts there) ^[4] . The ensuing creative break was filled with the work of musicians on their own projects: Eli Campbell recorded the Big Love solo album in Jamaica, and also with his brother Robin participated in the recording of the hit “Baby Come Back” by Pato Benton. Earl Falconer engaged in production.

2000s

In 2002, Virgin Records released a collection of the best things Young Gifted & Black with an explanatory article by Robin Campbell. The next studio album, Homegrown (2003), contained the song "Swing Low", which was used as the official theme of the Rugby World Cup the same year. 2005 Disc Who You Fighting For? was nominated for a Grammy Award as a reggae album in 2006. ^[5] It is more politicized in the spirit of the 80s. Released by Rhino Records in the USA. In 2007, UB40 acted as the main band at the Live Earth concert, which was held near Johannesburg . On January 24, 2008, it was announced in the media that Eli Campbell was leaving the group after 30 years of work. In the beginning it was said that he wanted to concentrate on solo work; however, the singer later stated that he was leaving because of disagreements with the management and financial problems. ^[6] The remaining five participants of UB40 commented on this decision: “Eli considered his solo career more important for himself than continuing to work in a team. It's very simple. ” ^[7] In some Birmingham newspapers, it was also reported that Maxi Priest will become the new lead singer of the group and will record a cover version of Bob Marley ’s song“ I Shot the Sheriff ”. Articles were based on information from sources close to the group. Priest joined UB40 during their tour in 2007, which ended in Birmingham in December (tickets were fully bought) ^{[8] [9].} Other local newspapers reported that Maxi Priest will become the new frontman of UB40, but the statement of the group spokesman refuted these statements. It read: “Maxie collaborates with UB40 musicians, but no decision has been made to replace Eli Campbell. The messages are not entirely accurate - he is simply invited to record several songs. ” ^[10]

In April 2008, according to the BBC, Duncan Campbell came to the team, and reggae singer Maxi Priest also remained to seal the line-up for the duration of the tour. ^[11] Around the same time, the new album TwentyFourSeven was released , recorded by the usual (with Eli Campbell) line-up ^[2] . ^[12] This led to the fact that on the day of the release of the full seventeen-track version of the album, the retail trade refused to deliver it to the warehouses. Because of this, the disc did not enter the top 75 of the UK, reaching 84 places, while all previous ones were in the top 50. The next album was a collection of Love Songs (3rd place on the UK charts), released on EMI - a collection of songs from the Labor of Love series. ^[13]

The group made several tours around the country in 2008. Then it performed in the USA, for the first time at the Hollywood Bowl. During the UB40 tour in the USA, fans were offered live recordings on USB flash drives (with plastic bracelets), as well as dub-session remixes and photos. ^[14] In 2009, UB40 released a new album from the Labor of Love series, recorded with a new vocalist, Duncan Campbell.

June 12, 2010 played a single concert during the auto racing Le Mans 24 hour race. The following numbers were performed: “Red Red Wine”, “Can't Help Falling in Love” and “Kingston Town”.

November 19, 2018 commenced jubilee tour of the UK. ^[15]

Current composition

• Jimmy Brown - Percussion (1978 - Present)
• Robin Campbell - guitar, vocals (1978 - present)
• Earl Falconer - bass guitar (1978 - present)
• Norman Hassan - percussion, trombone, vocals (1978 - present)
• Brian Travers - Sax (1978 - Present)
• Duncan Campbell - vocals (2008 - present)

Former members

• Ali Campbell - guitar, vocals (1978–2008)
• Mickey Vercha - keyboards (1978–2008)
• Astro - trumpet, vocals (1978—2013)

Studio Albums

Concert albums

• 1983: UB40 Live
• 1987: UB40 USSR. Live in Moscow
• 1998: UB40 Present the Dancehall Album
• 2007: Live at Montreux 2002
• 2008: The Lost Tapes - Live at the Venue 1980
• 2009: LIVE 2002 Arena: 12/12/2009
• 2016: Unplugged

Singles

• The video clip for the UB40 song “Red Red Wine” was different from everything that was fashionable then for video producers (beautiful exotic landscapes, Greek goddesses, yachts, elephants, limousines, etc.). It showed one day in the life of a laborer: loading scrap metal in a wasteland, drinking in a beerhouse, stealing money from the pocket of the main character, staring at a beautiful girl; Returning to the cramped apartment of an older brother (a big dog lover) in a deranged state. ^[sixteen]
• In October 1986, a historical concert of the group took place in Moscow. A considerable part of the audience consisted of conscripts of the Soviet Army.
• In the song "Reasons" on the album Who You Fighting For? (2005) there are fragments executed in Punjabi .
• Duncan Campbell is a professional spoon musician , the only one in the UK (as he says). ^[17]
• Duncan Campbell could be the vocalist of the UB40 in 1978, not 2008; but he did not want, calling the newly created group "trashy" and "going nowhere." After that, he worked as a casino manager in Barbados and in a cafe in Australia. ^[17]
• Norman Hassan is a passionate music lover. His musical interests range from reggae and soul to opera music ^[18] .
• The band managed to acquire basic musical instruments in 1978 “thanks to” the fact that Eli Campbell received money for reimbursing the moral and physical damage caused to him as a result of a bar fight. ^[nineteen]
• In October 2011, four founding members of UB40, Brian Travers, Astro (Terence Wilson), Norman Hassan and James Brown, were declared bankrupt due to the debts of the record company DEP International. ^[20]

• Official site 2019
• Official site
• Discography at discogs.com
• Site of Russian fans UB40
• UB40 on allmusic.com