UB40
UB40 can be booked through this site. UB40 entertainment booking site. UB40
is available for public concerts and events. UB40 can be booked for
private events and UB40 can be booked for corporate events and
meetings through this UB40 booking page.
Unlike most middle agents that would mark
up the performance or appearance fee for UB40, we act as YOUR agent in
securing UB40 at the best possible price. We go over the rider for
UB40 and work directly with UB40 or the responsible agent for
UB40 to secure the talent for your event. We become YOUR agent,
representing YOU, the buyer.
In fact, in most cases we can negotiate for
the acquisition of UB40 for international dates and newer promoters
providing you meet professional requirements.
UB40 Biography
Named after a British unemployment benefit form, pop-reggae
band UB40 was formed in a welfare line in 1978, and its multiracial
lineup reflected the working-class community its members came from. The
band consolidated its street credibility with political topics
appealing to dissatisfied youth and got a boost from fans of the waning
2-Tone ska-revival movement. Brothers Robin (lead guitar) and Ali
Campbell (guitar, lead vocals) formed the centerpiece of the group,
which also included bassist Earl Falconer, keyboardist Mickey Virtue,
saxophonist Brian Travers, drummer Jim Brown, percussionist Norman
Hassan, and toaster Terence Astro Wilson. The band purchased its
first instruments with compensation money Ali Campbell received after a
bar fight, even though few of the members knew how to play them. But by
the end of the year, the group was invited to tour with the Pretenders.
Their Food For Thought single reached the U.K. Top Ten in 1980,
beginning a long streak of chart appearances. Signing Off and Present
Arms were big sellers in Britain, if not America, and addressed the
political issues of the day in songs like One in Ten, a Top Ten hit
blasting Margaret Thatcher for the country's unemployment rate. 1983's
Labour of Love, an album of reggae cover songs, gave the group its
first chart album in America and first number one U.K. hit with Neil
Diamond's Red Red Wine. Several albums of original material sold well
in the U.K., but only respectably in the U.S., where the group's
biggest hit was a Top 30 cover of Sonny and Cher's I Got You Babe
featuring the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde.
In 1988, the group performed Red Red Wine at a Nelson Mandela tribute
concert, and a Phoenix radio station trotted the single out for a
second go-round. Listener response was far more enthusiastic, and Red
Red Wine re-entered the charts and went all the way to the top.
Finally having hit on a way to conquer the lucrative American market,
UB40 responded with another covers album, Labour of Love II, which
produced Top Ten singles with versions of the Temptations' The Way You
Do the Things You Do and Al Green's Here I Am (Come and Take Me).
The group scored a huge hit in America with Elvis Presley's Can't Help
Falling In Love, which was initially featured in the Sharon Stone film
Sliver and spent seven weeks at number one. By this time, UB40 had
largely abandoned its trademark left-wing politics and was
concentrating more on perfecting its reggae oldies covers than its
original material; however, the gimmick has thus far resulted in huge
sales figures in both the U.S. and U.K., with Promises and Lies
reaching number six and number one, respectively. In the spring of
1998, UB40 released Presents the Dancehall Album in the UK. A third
Labour of Love collection followed a year later. In fall 2002, UB40
bounced back with yet another collection. The Fathers of Reggae, which
appeared on Virgin in November, highlighted the band's roots in reggae
in a selection of classics. In 2003, the band scored a major hit in the
U.K. when their version of the spirtual Swing Low with the
multi-cultural choir United Colours of Sound became the official anthem
for the 2003 English Rugby Team. The song was featured on the 2003
album Homegrown. As their 2005 album Who You Fighting For? was being
released an announcment was made that the band would be working with
Birmingham's Repertory Theatre to stage a new musical in Spring of
2006. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
Written by Steve Huey