Say something complimentary about UB40

Ah, messed up my geography - I mean beyond Coventry, the southernmost center of the Midlands, and further north into Birmingham. (Apologies, I’ve never even been in the Midlands!)

I have a very limited familiarity with British reggae so I’ll defer to everyone here. I figured if it were true, it was in a very general sense of crafting politically-charged British pop music based exclusively in a Jamaican musical genre (like beyond what a punk group like the Clash would do). Also as an extension of that, many of these groups are racially integrated, which feels like a natural result of this music rather than a calculated move.

According to some guy on the internet UB40 turned down an offer to record for 2-Tone, as did Dexys Midnight Runners. I knew Dexys had had some connection with 2-Tone but I'd never heard about a UB40 connection before. Then there's this:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/may/06/ub40-reggae-back-mi5-were-tapping-our-phones

“We weren’t very friendly, we kept ourselves to ourselves.” Rather than foster an affinity with the Specials, another militant, multiracial collective from the Midlands, UB40 dismissed the two-tone bands as “revivalists”. They regarded their own music as more subversive.

the guy who put out the early ub40 records on Graduate ended up running a tiny record shop in Tewkesbury (although discogs say they were based in Dudley which fits the Midlands theme)

a bit more digging and that may not be true... David Virr is the ub40 guy and none of the obits mention anything. the record shop had a lot of Graduate memorabilia and I'm sure i remember some kind of link, but a guy called Charlie Pollack is listed as running it from '84, unless that's a different one (but the two listed locations match my memory)

Two-tone had no influence on UB40, certainly. But it did have a bearing on how successful they were, channels were open and ready.

And distribution channels were open for independent albums to sell and chart by then.

Still, their achievement was stunning

For whatever reason, I couldn't get "Red Red Wine" out of my head this morning, so I put on Labour of Love. It is an absolute masterpiece of sterile 80s production.

I feel like a lot of reggae acts (not necessarily UB40 specifically) remain relatively unheralded electronic drum pioneers.

"Guilty" is smooth as buttah.

their first album had a cool proggy hologram cover variant

https://www.discogs.com/release/5469010-UB40-UB44

https://www.discogs.com/release/1450437-UB40-UB44

that's their 3rd album.

It would have made more sense as the fourth.

My mum has that

Anyway I really like the background ethereal vocal sample on this. I wondered if I'd heard it before - was it the credits to Cold Feet or some 2001 ITV show or something? - but no it isn't.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LylddF-Lnog

The Campbells didn't like the electronic d'n'b-ish stuff on Cover Up and Homegrown and blamed it on two of the other guys less bothered about 'eight guys in a room' after two decades but I think some, any, variation present on some bad selling mid/late-period UB40 albums is necessary.

Don't know if anyone mentioned the thing they did with Bambaata but I love it so much:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHrg6hBXDwM

glad i caught this thread a while ago and gave the first album a go, i really liked it

This was mentioned 21 years ago, but honestly what is their jungle B-side all about...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzxs5rFBlDk

I have no idea how it happened, why it exists, seen no commentary on it anywhere. This was the B-side to a total mega-selling single, well over a year before the first jungle hit in the UK (Incredible), in fact very much from jungle's infancy, but it's just invisible.

Made even more enigmatic by almost every UB40 interview I've ever seen or read hammering home the 'we're popularising some reggae songs and people and we're not interested in doing anything else' angle (which I assume made some band members fidgety - there are arguably dnb influences on a few later tracks)

Comment at discogs responding to query similar to yours:

Earl Falconer and Gerry Parchment (member of UB40) were E.Q.P. who were responsible for the Jungle Classic "Crackman The Return".

Falconer championed jungle from day one and is still active in the scene! He founded Maximum Boost Recordings and Circus Records (5) along Swan-E, which are responsible for the Jump-Up side of DnB and Dubstep. (Flux Pavillion, DJ Hazard, et al.)

Anyway I really like the background ethereal vocal sample on this. I wondered if I'd heard it before - was it the credits to Cold Feet or some 2001 ITV show or something? - but no it isn't.

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Monday, 25 September 2023 23:39 (five months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Watching some old Channel 4 idents and it's occurred to me where I recognise it from. Channel 4's schools idents from 96-99. Is this a sample from something else or?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMGB-rmG4ak

(One such ident ofc had a pre-fame Billie Piper in)