Firstly, for those not familiar with what was happening in England in the late 70s - early 80s, an explanation.
This was the beginnings of Thatcherism, the rise of the National Front and mass unemployment. People out of work - 'on the dole' - had to fill out Unemployment Benefit Form 40.
In short - UB40
The band started forming in 1978 when Ali Campbell and a couple of his mates got together to play some of the reggae songs that were around. After a couple of changes and the addition of Ali's brother Robin, the band increased to 8 members settling on the line-up that would last for almost 30 years.
As they were all unemployed at the time, the name of their benefit form seemed an appropriate name for the group.
After spending almost a year practising and writing material they played their first gig for a friend's birthday party in February 1979.
UB40 were from Birmingham and were spotted by Chrissie Hynde when she saw them playing at a pub and offered them the support band spot with her group The Pretenders. Not a bad gig for an 8-piece band starting out.
The title of their first album, 'Signing Off' signified their hope that they were gaining full employment from making music and could 'sign off' from the dole.
The album was recorded on a friends equipment in his ground floor flat. The sax was recorded in the kitchen because it had better reverb and the percussion was done in the garden. The story goes that if you split the tracks down you can hear birds singing !!
'Food For Thought' was the single from the album and the song had a few firsts -
First single by UB40
First release of the label Graduate Records
First single to get to the UK Top 10 without being from a major company.
The tracks on the album were mainly "politically charged and socially concious" and with two exceptions were all written by UB40.
One of the covers was a brilliant version of Randy Newmans 'I Think It's Going To Rain Today' - one of my all time favourites.
The other cover was 'Strange Fruit' originally done by Billie Holiday.
The release also held a surprise. Apart from the 10 tracks on the 33rpm album, there was a seperate 12" 45rpm EP with 3 extra tracks.
They did the same formulae with their second album 'Present Arms', which included a 12" single. Just to keep it going, their 6th album 'Baggaridim' also had a 12" 45rpm EP, this one containing the Sonny & Cher cover 'I Got You Babe' with long time fan and supporter Chrissie Hynde.
Chrissie came back a few years later and did a cover of 'Breakfast in Bed' which if you recall from my earlier post was written for Dusty Springfield and recorded on 'Dusty in Memphis'.
It's a testament to my liking for UB40 that I have 19 of their albums in my collection and the following 6 of those are in vinyl and have travelled half way around the world with me.
1980 - Signing Off
1982 - UB44
1983 - Labour of Love
1984 - Geffery Morgan
1985 - Baggaridim
1986 - Rat in the Kitchen
If you want an introduction to UB40 you can't go past 'Labour of Love', but if you're into something deeper then 'Signing Off' is a good place to start.
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