Say something complimentary about UB40

Something complimentary? "Rat in Mi Kitchen" is a very funny record.

I don't know if it's the same where you are from, but here in Dublin their support is drawn exclusively from the kind of people effete middle class snobs like myself refer to as *creamers*. They have followed UB40 through thick and thin in a fascinatingly loyal manner.

I think the term was originally a slightly dubious one for members of the travelling community, but in the world of effete middle class snobs its meaning has broadened to include all members of the lumpenproletariat.

Screw the popularization issue -- they just sounded dull, "Red Red Wine" being the one interesting exception back in the early eighties. Otherwise, who cares? I guess if I was forced to decide between them and Simply Red I'd go with them...

also like Food For Thought, If It Happens Again, Don't Break My Heart, Sing Our Own Song, Rat In Mi Kitchen, Where Did I Go Wrong

anyone recommend good early album tracks?

"tyler," from the excellent debut album, "signing off."

Uh, you mean "going?"

*proceeds to rise from the dead*
RARRRRRRRRRRR

I'm bemused by the statement that they were a better band than Steel Pulse, though - how does that work out?

....what about that rat in that kitchen? He was one of God's Creatures too, y'know!

http://www.pauseandplay.com/ub40.gif

Oh no? That guy on the far right seems pretty successful.

Yes, Tom, "One in Ten" is pretty good. While obviously a protest song, you have to work a lirrle bit to get all the references, which is a good thing. Musically, their songs could be a bit of a plod (and that saxophone can be really irritating) but they did come up with some fine melodies.

Search? for starters try (in order): Burden of Shame, Love Is All Is Alright, The Earth Dies Screaming, Little by Little, Folitician.

Uh, you mean "going?"

-- mike a (mik...) (webmail), February 18th, 2004 4:39 PM. (link)

uh, it's patois. or mock patois, in any case.

"If it happens again, I'm leaving
I'll pack up my things and go."

It may be hard to believe now but they really were a great band to start with. They were excellent live (I saw them several times) and the first few singles and the first album (with the free 12") were absolutely fantastic; the second album had it's moments but they seemed to be running out of material (and releasing a dub version of that album didn't really do them any favours).

Then they released an ill-conceived covers album (yet more evidence that the song-writing inspiration was rapidly dying up); inexplicably had a huge hit with an awful version of Red Red Whine (sic) from that album; and they immediately and irreversibly turned to shit.

pahahahaha!

although it does sound like 'feast' on rat, but it's not.

[oh no, more lyrical exegesis]

So obviously this must be a toy, mechanical, wind-up rat that Ali and Rob Campbell mistook for a real rat in theor kitchen , leading them, to shit their pants.

Obviously they're not going to admit that but when you think about it, it's obvious - and what's more it just goes to prove what a big bunch of jessies they turned into.

a great 80's 12-inch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eazi8sEhjMI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTnATywQj28

just a casual throwaway, let's be cool

i wonder if red red wine was the first time I (& a lot of ppl) heart jamaican dancehall toasting

I have a big soft spot for UB40. Even the cheesy crap.

me too. first dub album i heard was "present arms in dub"! love this one too

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

aswad suffer a similar affliction, the success of 'don't turn around' and 'give a little love' and 'shine' sort of obscure the great earlier stuff like new chapter of dub

it's all gone wrong for the 2 warring versions of the band/s themselves which seems ridiculous and a shame when you read the backstory

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/15/ub40-name-dispute-sets-campbell-brothers-against-each-other

Aswad's Live'n'Direct is an absolute masterpiece. UK reggae really gets a bad rap doesn't it? But man, Steel Pulse, Black Uhuru, Aswad, a lot of it is excellent.

wait, what am i talking about? black uhuru aren't UK at all. why did i think that?

This is my annual stop to reassert that UB40 is pretty great and one of the most underrated acts of all time, a band unfairly judged by many for their mediocre later work, which requires ignoring their first really good eight or so albums, which is more good music than most bands manage.

Josh is correct. Which makes this cover even more regrettable.

Their cover of "Johnny Too Bad" is uh... not too bad!

Food for Thought is great, not sure about the rest. As a child, I always thought that first line was "I'm a prima donna" ...

What an opening track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSdT5jerxhk

I saw them at Red Rocks years ago. This was about . . . 1985? While they were overshadowed by the opening act (Midnight Oil), they were still an immensely enjoyable act. Solid live band.

This LA Times review of the Irvine show from the same tour is pretty spot on.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-08-12-ca-4161-story.html

I've been meaning to give these guys another chance, but I was told the best stuff was the early stuff, specifically the singles, which can be confusing because those records were re-sequenced into different releases here in the U.S. Any recommendations as to which compilation, CD, etc might be best? I know their first covers album (the one that finally got them a hit in the U.S.) is supposed to be good too, and I do love "Red Red Wine," but I get the feeling any argument for true greatness lies with the original material.

Geffery Morgan is a very good record.

Like I think I posted a while back, i think the first seven or eight albums are sold.

solid, too

I ended up doing a pretty deep listen yesterday, albeit concentrated on the first few years. At the moment, I generally have a strong preference for their earliest recordings, specifically everything released in 1980 that's been repackaged into way too many configurations. (Wading through that probably ate up too much time due to redundancy, but FWIW, the two-CD/one-DVD 2010 reissue of Signing Off is THE way to go - listen to that and you can ignore every other release covering that year. Just go straight to Present Arms after that.)

Yeah, this was a good band - seems almost too appropriate that they'd get so big in the UK and Europe given their focus on reggae and how they came up with the ska-driven two-tone movement.

First one's still THE record for me. Second one isn't quite on the same level but it's a pretty strong follow-up, third one feels like treading water but it's not bad and "So Here I Am" is excellent. It's not too surprising that Labour of Love sort of defined their popularity in the U.S., but heard in context with everything else, it does feel a lot like their own Moondog Matinee or Pin Ups. (I happen to love "Red Red Wine" - I imagine it's overplayed in certain contexts, but I rarely hear it and it's a great track to me. It's too bad the single cuts out the toast.) The downside is that things start to get a little too polished for my tastes as well. But Geffery Morgan, Little Baggariddim and Rat in the Kitchen are all fine records. My interest starts to wane past the point of no return on the self-titled album, which to be fair isn't bad, but after that I found myself skimming through the rest. Still, that's a fairly consistent bit of quality work, and sustaining that for a decade is nothing to sneeze at, even if they don't reach the same lofty peaks as my favorite two-tone groups. (The Beat is easily my favorite, but they only had three albums. The Specials began splintering even sooner.)

seems almost too appropriate that they'd get so big in the UK and Europe given their focus on reggae and how they came up with the ska-driven two-tone movement

(By this, I mean they kind of echo reggae's emergence as the popular musical form in Jamaica after ska influenced its development.)

They weren't too connected with two-tone though? I mean they didn't really have the same audience.

I didn’t think of them that way before but I looked into it and they were cited as an example of how two-tone’s influence grew beyond the Midlands and moved up north to Birmingham. No idea if they were directly influenced but I can see the same principles being applied to reggae rhythms in UB40’s first records.

Should be say something complimentary but beyond 1st two albums

like how Rat In Mi Kitchen rules

I didn’t think of them that way before but I looked into it and they were cited as an example of how two-tone’s influence grew beyond the Midlands and moved up north to Birmingham. No idea if they we're directly influenced but I can see the same principles being applied to reggae rhythms in UB40’s first records.

I don't really see the influence tbh, I would have thought Steel Pulse (and other British reggae acts) were much more of an influence, or inspiration or whatever. I don't know though. Also Birmingham is very much in the Midlands!

they were cited as an example of how two-tone’s influence grew beyond the Midlands

I don't think Two-Tone had any influence on UB40. It's worth remembering that Two-Tone's rise was stratospheric and went UK wide in an incredibly short period of time. UB40 definitely had a very different audience (with a small crossover) but had an even faster rise to the top than Two-Tone and went from total obscurity to huge in the blink of an eye. It's often discussed how impressive it was that Stiff Little Fingers managed to have a 100% independently distributed UK top 20 album with "Inflammable Material" in 1979 but I've always wondered why it isn't more remarked on that UB40 managed to have a UK No. 1 album (maybe it was no. 2 but still...) just a year later with "Signing Off" that was also 100% independently distributed.

and also, yes, geographically Birmingham and Coventry are very close to each other (about 25 miles apart).

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)