“We knew that we wanted to funnel our politics into the music,” states UB40 drummer Jimmy Brown. “Most of the songs on that first album could easily apply today. People talk about the 1970s being overtly racist, and it was, but in some ways it’s worse today.”
That “first album” he’s telling me about is Signing Off, released in 1980. Its cover displays the yellow
UB40 unemployment benefit card stamped with those words writ large, marking the band’s leaving the world of joblessness behind.
A positive step but it’s an album that harbours darker connotations that still resonate. Racial injustice and social inequality ought to have been consigned to our dark past but, a listen to the debut album from the trailblazing band — considered by some as one of the great reggae records — brings home how its subject matter and concerns are unfortunately still as applicable today as they were back in 1980.
READ FULL ARTICLE AT THE MORNING STAR HERE
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