RhoDeo 1308 Roots

Hello, now that we find ourselves at the end of this UK reggae/dub scene tour we're left with two of the commercially most succesful acts. Oddly both are not really happy stories. One of the bands saw it's original members declared bankrupt despite selling 70 million records-go figure. The other band saw it's young members succumb to pressures and split acrimoniously. Surprisingly they wrote most of their work themselves something the former band never managed beyond their first albums.  .... N'joy

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The band members began as friends who knew each other from various colleges and schools across Birmingham. The name "UB40" was selected in reference to a paper form  it stood for Unemployment Benefit, Form 40.Before any of them could play their instruments, Ali Campbell and Brian Travers travelled around Birmingham promoting the band, putting up UB40 posters. The band purchased its first instruments from Woodroffe's Musical Instruments with £4,000 in compensation money that Campbell, who would become the lead singer, received after a bar fight during his 17th birthday celebration.

UB40 caught their first break when Chrissie Hynde noticed them at a pub and gave them an opportunity as a support act to her band, The Pretenders. UB40's first single, "King"/"Food for Thought" was released on Graduate Records, a local independent label run by David Virr. It reached No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart. Their first album was titled Signing Off, as the band were signing off from or closing their claim on the unemployment benefit. It was recorded in a bedsit in Birmingham and was produced by Bob Lamb. Norman Hassan said of the recording: "if you stripped my track down, you could hear the birds in the background." This is because his tracks were recorded outside in the garden. Signing Off was released on September 6, 1980, and entered the UK Albums Chart on October 2, 1980. It reached as high as No. 2 in the UK and spent 72 weeks in total on the chart.

Signing Off  features a mix of reggae and dub material which was lyrically politically charged and socially conscious, while musically was reverb-heavy, doom-laden yet mellifluous, best exemplified in the hits "King" and "Food For Thought" as well as the searing "Burden of Shame". "King" was a song written about the late Martin Luther King, questioning the lost direction of the deceased leader's followers and the state of mourning of a nation after his death. Signing Off is considered by many to be by far UB40's best album, as well as one of the finest reggae albums by a British group. In 2000 Q magazine placed it at number 83 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.

UB40 went on to become one of the most successful reggae acts of all time in terms of record sales (over 70 million), chart positions and touring schedule. During their three-decade long career, they have been performing sell-out shows worldwide and headlining the Reggae Sunsplash music festival in Jamaica, as well as spreading reggae to Russia and South America, among others. Much of UB40's commercial appeal came from their releases of classic cover songs. In fact, all three of their UK number one hits and four of their five U.S. top ten hits were cover versions. 2008 saw the departure of singer Ali Campbell , he's been replaced by Maxi Priest and Duncan Campbell.

In 2009 the band released the first new album with their new lead singer Duncan Campbell – it was another in the Labour of Love cover series entitled Labour of Love 4. On 12 June 2010, UB40 played a one-off concert to motor racing fans at the Le Mans 24-hour race. UB40 announced that after completing a coast to coast 2010 American tour they would be playing a nationwide UK tour of theatres in October/November 2010 performing their seminal album 'Signing Off', in full, along with a second set of popular UB40 songs. To coincide, on 1 Nov 2010 a remastered 2CD+DVD of 'Signing Off' is released as a '30th Anniversary Special Edition.

Despite selling 70 million records and touring for 30 years, in 2011 five founder members of the group and directors of their DEP International label, had bankruptcy proceedings started against them relating to debts of the record label. The five named were Robin Campbell, Brian Travers, Terence Wilson, Norman Hassan and James Brown, in October 2011 they were all declared bankrupt. Another what's in a name then..

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Present Arms is the second album by UB40 and was released in 1981. It spent 38 weeks on the UK album charts, reaching number 2. An album of original songs, it spawned two top 20 hits in 'One In Ten' (number 7) and 'Don't Let It Pass You By/Don't Slow Down'.
Like their first album Signing Off, Present Arms contained many socially and politically charged lyrics, from the anti-militant title track to 'Sardonicus' which was about Risus sardonicus, the ironic smile on tetanus victims' faces. The UK top-ten hit "One In Ten" was an attack on Thatcherism. The album also touches on a subject very dear to UB40's heart: 'Lamb's Bread' and 'Don't Walk On The Grass' are written as part of the band's longstanding campaign for the legalization of cannabis. Musically, the album continued in the heavy, reverb-drenched, mellifluous style of the debut. The title track has been used to open UB40 concerts from the mid 90s onwards, usually with the blasting horn section beginning the concert.

As with Signing Off, Present Arms was critically acclaimed and commercially successful in the UK.

UB40 - Present Arms (flac  289mb)

01 Present Arms 4:08
02 Sardonicus 4:29
03 Don't Let It Pass You By 7:45
04 Wild Cat 3:02
05 One In Ten 4:33
06 Don't Slow Down 4:28
07 Silent Witness 4:15
08 Lambs Bread 4:49
09 Don't Walk On The Grass 5:07
10 Doctor X 5:20

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Releasing dub versions of recent hits (if not whole albums) is, of course, a Jamaican tradition. And being the students of reggae that UB40 were, they dutifully followed that tradition with their second album. The results were middling, though you had to admire the group's approach: Rather than merely lift out the vocals and tinker with the bass, they rewrote vast tracts of the album. Ultimately, there's enough excruciatingly bad Jamaican dub out there already, and UB40's contribution to the pile, however well intentioned, did nobody any favors. However, it was a sign of their huge U.K. popularity that even the dub version of Present Arms became a Top 40 hit.

UB40 - Present Arms In Dub (flac  188mb)

01 Present Arms In Dub 3:04
02 Smoke It (Dr X) 3:22
03 B Line (Lamb's Bread)  4:35
04 Kings Row (Sardonicus) 5:01
05 Return Of Dr. X (Don't Walk on the Grass) 5:24
06 Walk Out (Wildcat) 3:14
07 One In Ten 4:14
08 Neon Haze (Silent Witness)  4:04

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Musical Youth originally formed in 1979 when the fathers of Kelvin Grant and Patrick and Junior Waite put together an original band, and featured two sets of brothers, Kelvin and Michael Grant, plus Junior and Patrick Waite. The latter pair's father, Frederick Waite, was a former member of the jamaican reggae group, The Techniques. Frederick sang lead with Junior at the start of Musical Youth's career. Although schoolboys, the group managed to secure gigs at certain Birmingham pubs and released a double single in 1981. During the autumn of 1982, the group issued one of the fastest-selling singles of the year, "Pass the Dutchie". Based on the Mighty Diamonds' "Pass the Koucthie". The title had been subtly altered to feature the patois "dutchie", referring to a type of pot used for cooking. This idea was reinforced throughout the political and economic overtones of the song about extreme poverty and Musical Youth asking the question "How does it feel when ya got no food?". The record went to number 1 in the UK Singles Chart in October 1982. It went on to sell over four million copies, and was nominated for a Grammy Award. A Top 10 placing also followed in the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The accompanying video made them the first black artists to be played on MTV.

Their debut album The Youth of Today was certified Gold in the UK. Their second album, Different Style!, was released in 1983 and showcased more R&B-influenced repertoire to make the band more accessible in the North America, but flopped on both British and American market. With their career going downhill, the band members became embroiled in legal, financial, and personal problems. The Waite brothers struggled with drug addiction, and Junior Waite began to show signs of mental illness. In 1985, Dennis Seaton departed the band, leading to its dissolution. Plans for a reunion of Musical Youth were initially halted when Patrick Waite, who had gone on to a career of juvenile crime, died in Birmingham in February 1993. Only 24 years old, he collapsed from a hereditary heart condition while awaiting a court appearance on drug charges.

This compilation actually consists of the two Musical Youth album, it leaves out "Gone Straight" and "Rub 'N Dub" from their debut 'The Youth Of Today'

Musical Youth - Musical Youth Anthology (flac 435mb)

01 Pass The Dutchie 3:23
02 Heartbreaker 3:45
03 Blind Boy 3:50
04 Rockers 3:00
05 Youth Of Today 2:56
06 Young Generation 3:20
07 Mirror Mirror 3:50
08 Children Of Zion 3:00
09 Never Gonna Give You Up 3:00
10 Schoolgirl 3:20
11 Shanty Town 3:21
12 She's Trouble 3:06
13 Whatcha Talking 'Bout 5:06
14 Incommunicado 3:22
15 No Strings 3:01
16 Tell Me Why 3:09
17 Sixteen 3:49
18 Yard Stylee 3:39
19 Air Taxi 3:50
20 Mash It The Youth Man, Mash It 4:22

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previously, new rip

UB40 - Signing Off ( 80 ^ 419mb)

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