Dub is a genre of electronic music that grew out of reggae in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae. The style consists predominantly of partly or completely instrumental remixes of existing recordings and is achieved by significantly manipulating and reshaping the recordings, usually through the removal of some or all of the vocals, emphasis of the rhythm section, the application of studio effects such as echo and reverb, and the occasional dubbing of vocal or instrumental snippets from the original version or other works. It was an early form of popular electronic music.
UB40 are an English reggae and pop band, formed in December 1978 in Birmingham, England. The band has had more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart, and has also achieved considerable international success. They have been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album four times, and in 1984 were nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Group. UB40 have sold over 70 million records worldwide. The ethnic make-up of the band's original line-up was diverse, with musicians of English, Welsh, Irish, Jamaican, Scottish, and Yemeni parentage.
Signing Off is the debut album by British reggae band UB40, released in the UK on 29 August 1980 by Dudley-based independent label Graduate Records. It was an immediate success in their home country, reaching number 2 on the UK albums chart, and made UB40 one of the many popular reggae bands in Britain, several years before the band found international fame. The politically-concerned lyrics struck a chord in a country with widespread public divisions over high unemployment, the policies of the recently elected Conservative party under Margaret Thatcher, and the rise of the racist National Front party, while the record's dub-influenced rhythms reflected the late 1970s influence in British pop music of West Indian music introduced by immigrants from the Caribbean after the Second World War, particularly reggae and ska – this was typified by the 2 Tone movement, at that point at the height of its success and led by fellow West Midlands act The Specials, with whom UB40 drew comparisons due to their multiracial band line-up and socialist views.
"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is an African-American spiritual song and one of the best-known Christian hymns. Originating in early oral and musical African-American traditions, the date it was composed is unknown. Performances by the Hampton Singers and the Fisk Jubilee Singers brought the song to the attention of wider audiences in the late 19th century. J. B. T. Marsh includes an early version of text and tune in his 1876 publication The Story of the Jubilee Singers, with their Songs. The earliest known recording of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" was taken in 1909, by the Fisk Jubilee Singers of Fisk University.
"Red Red Wine" is a song originally written, performed, and recorded by American singer Neil Diamond in 1967. It is included on Diamond's second studio album, Just for You. The lyrics are sung from the perspective of a person who finds that drinking red wine is the only way to forget his woes.
The Very Best of UB40 1980-2000 is a greatest hits album from the British dub/reggae band UB40.
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' and 'Don't Let It Pass You By/Don't Slow Down' (16).
Now That's What I Call Music is the first album from the popular Now! series that was released in the United Kingdom on 28 November 1983. Initial pressings were released on vinyl and audio cassette. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the album and series, the album was re-released on CD for the first time in 2009. Alternative longer mixes of "Only for Love", "Double Dutch" and "Candy Girl" were included in place of the original shorter single mixes from 1983. A double vinyl re-release followed for Record Store Day on 18 April 2015. In July 2018, the album was newly remastered and re-released on CD, vinyl and cassette to commemorate the release of the 100th volume of the series.
Labour of Love is the fourth studio album by British reggae band UB40, and their first album of cover versions. Released in the UK on 12 September 1983, the album is best known for containing the song "Red Red Wine", a worldwide number-one single, but it also includes three further UK top 20 hits, "Please Don't Make Me Cry", "Many Rivers to Cross" and "Cherry Oh Baby". The album reached number one in the UK, New Zealand and the Netherlands and the top five in Canada, but only reached number 39 in the US on its original release, before re-entering the Billboard 200 in 1988 and peaking at number 14 as a result of "Red Red Wine"'s delayed success in the US.
UB44 is the third studio album of original material by UB40, released on the DEP International label in 1982. It was advertised as their 'fourth album' although Present Arms in Dub had been a remix album. The album reached No. 4 in the UK album chart and the early release of the packaging had a hologram cover. UB44 was the Department of Employment form letter sent to British unemployment benefit claimants when they missed their 'signing on' appointment.
Present Arms in Dub is a remix album by UB40 released in October 1981. The album contains eight remixed instrumental versions of original tracks from Present Arms and its bonus 12" single; only the tracks "Don't Let It Pass You By" and "Don't Slow Down" are not remixed and included. The album was the first dub music album to hit the UK top 40. The dub style is characterized as a mainly instrumental version of an existing song, typically emphasizing the drums and bass.
Guns in the Ghetto is a studio album by UB40. It was released in 1997 on the DEP International label.
"Food for Thought" is the first single released by British reggae band UB40. It reached number four in the UK Singles Chart in early 1980 and number one in New Zealand in September 1980.
Dub Sessions is a remix album by reggae band UB40 released in December 2007 as a download album and also available to buy on CD at concerts. The album features seven stripped-down dub versions of songs from the subsequent regular UB40 release, TwentyFourSeven, and three original dub tracks.
Love Songs is a compilation album by British reggae band UB40. It was released in 2009 and includes all the love songs from by the band. The album includes 17 solo tracks as well as the 2 tracks that the band performed with Chrissie Hynde from The Pretenders and the Robert Palmer track "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight."
Howard Gray is an English musician, sound engineer, programmer, composer, re-mixer and producer who has worked with Public Image Ltd, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Kirsty MacColl, The Armoury Show, The Pale Fountains, Japan, The Stranglers, Simple Minds, The Pretenders, XTC, UB40, Scritti Politti, Cherubs, Terence Trent D'Arby, Jean Michel Jarre, The Cure, The Manic Street Preachers, U2, Puff Daddy & Jimmy Page, Tom Jones and Van Morrison.
Labour of Love IV is the seventeenth album and fourth covers album by UB40, released on the Virgin Records label in 2010. It is the first UB40 album not to feature the classic line-up as longtime UB40 vocalist/guitarist Ali Campbell and keyboardist Mickey Virtue both departed the band in 2008; consequently it is the first album by the band to feature vocalist Duncan Campbell.
Dep International was a British record label founded in 1980 by members of British group UB40. It specialised in reggae and dub music. The label went into administration in October 2006 and into insolvent liquidation in April 2008. It was based in DEP International Studios in Digbeth, Birmingham.
For the Many is the twentieth studio album by English reggae band UB40. It was released on 15 March 2019 on the Shoestring record label. The album cover was designed by the band's saxophonist Brian Travers and depicts a silhouette of tower blocks, following the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire. The album's name has been associated with the Labour Party and its leader Jeremy Corbyn's use of the slogan "For the many, not the few". Travers commented on the connection in an article published in a Birmingham Live article, stating, "We're all socialists and Labour supporters".
"Don't Don't Tell Me No" is a song by American singer-songwriter Sophie B. Hawkins, which was released in 1994 as the second single from her second studio album Whaler. The song was written by Hawkins and produced by Stephen Lipson. "Don't Don't Tell Me No" peaked at No. 36 on the UK Singles Chart and remained in the Top 100 for five weeks.
