Will UB40 ever visit Uganda?

By Harry SagaraMention UB40 and a whole bevy of songs start running through your mind: Red, Red Wine, Homely Girl, Rat in the Kitchen, Cherio Baby, Waiting in Vain... All these are punctuated by the outstanding croons of Ali Campbell. There is a surging wave of excitement and anxiety in Kampala over a story that this acclaimed group will be performing here come May this year. However, I am reliably informed that it’s not true UB40 are jetting into town.Sources at VR Promotions (the company that was supposed to bring them) swear that it is way too expensive to bring the British reggae band here.“Those guys want £120,000 (sh300m) before hand. We did our economics and discovered that organising their show(s) here successfully would take us about £250,000 pounds (sh625m),” a highly placed VR promotions official said. Pundits will tell you that it would not be wise for anyone to think about bringing UB40 to Uganda on a business mission because it costs an arm and a leg. This, coupled with the unreliability of Ugandan music fans, would cloud every idea of bringing such a group down here.UB40 is currently painting South Africa red with performances in Sun City (where we hear they dislodged a contingent of Congolese politicians from a hotel), Johannesburg, Durban and Port Elizabeth. Information on their website reveals that they are currently on a world tour dubbed ‘Cover Up’ following their newly released album. However, on their calender there is no sign of Uganda!Anyhow, for those who weren’t yet born at the time the, UB40 were running reggae rings around their competitors, I can tell you one thing; these boys are tight. The band has James Brown on drums, Ali Campbell on vocals and guitar, Robin Campbell on guitar and vocals, Earl Falconer on bass guitar and vocals, Norman Hassan on percussion and vocals, Brian Travers on saxophone and horn arrangements, Michael Virtue on keyboards and Astro on vocals and trumpet The groups fortunes changed at the beginning of 1980. Having spent the previous years working live, and rapidly developing an instant “buzz” among their fans, they were asked to join The Pretenders (you’ve heard of them?) triumphant national tour. The Pretenders were then at the top of the charts, and very hot indeed. Their first single was a double-A coupling of Food For Thought, a bitter meditation on third-world poverty, and King, a lament for Dr. Martin Luther King. King had seemed to be the favourite with live audiences, but it was Food For Thought, that got the airplay and became their first hit. The single was released during that tour, without the benefit of major-label marketing or promotion, and headed straight for the top five. Such was the band’s impact on their first major live audiences.The first album was released in September 1980. It was titled Signing Off in reference to signing off the dole (i.e. getting a job). It was both an acknowledgement of the band’s inception and a celebration of their new status. Because they were from the West Midlands, and because they were a large mixed race group playing music of Jamaican origin, UB40 were initially thought to be part of the two-tone phenomenon which had burst out of nearby Coventry. Signing Off made it clear that they were nothing of the sort. They were part of the same social and political tendency, of course, but their musical approach was quite different. Their sound was more relaxed, more sophisticated and sexier. You couldn’t help dancing to it, but you could do so without having to hold your hat on. At the end of 1980, the contract with Graduate Records expired, and UB40 formed their own record company, DEP International.Only nine months after Signing Off, while it was still on the chart, they released their second album Present Arms. It was eagerly awaited, and did not disappoint. It was as good as its predecessor, and featured One In Ten, an anthem to rival Food For Thought and Medusa. It even included another bonus 12 inches (of tape). Four months later, in October 1981, the UBs asserted their allegiance to their mentors by releasing a dub version of the album Present Arms. It could hardly be expected to match the extraordinary popularity of the first two albums, but it did resoundingly well for a dub album and went some way to establishing the band’s credentials as serious students of reggae. That commitment to innovation was further demonstrated by 1982’s album, UB44, an excellent record, unfortunately obscured by over-ambitious packaging. One year later, in September 1983, UB40 released the album they had been planning, and putting off, since their first faltering efforts. It was their first direct tribute to the musicians who had inspired and influenced them, and the title Labour Of Love said it all. Labour Of Love, including the astonishingly popular single Red Red Wine, was in the British chart for two years.Ends