‘Red Red Wine’ was released in 1982 and was on the radio a lot in Delhi. I remember hearing it on A Date With You and thinking “this sounds cool – I wonder what wine tastes like”. We were middle-class kids and wine definitely wasn’t a familiar tipple in any of our homes back in the 70s and 80s ☺️. The song was so cool though – laid back and chilled, the soft reggae beat was so different from everything on the radio. ‘Don’t break My Heart‘ was on the radio a lot as well – the perfect song for all the distraught Romeos in Delhi!

Unemployment Benefit, Form 40 – that is the genesis of the band’s name. This is the form you had to fill out to get social security payments at the height of the Thatcher years and since a number of band members were unemployed, a friend suggested they name themselves after this form which was their lifeline. And their songs became at some level, British rebel anthems – ‘One in Ten’ , for example is about the statistic of  one in ten people who were unemployed in the Uk in 1980. Of course, when that song became a hit, they never had to fill out UB40s anymore and were no longer a part of the one-in-ten ??‍♂️.

Formed in Birmingham in 1978 by David Campbell and his brother Ali Campbell, they recruited a bunch of friends to form a reggae band – and their line-up stayed the same for 30 years!! Their choice of sound was a function of what was happening in Birmingham at that time – a huge wave of immigration from the Caribbean, India and Pakistan. In fact, Ali Campbell still talks about listening to Mohammed Rafi and Asha Bhosle on the streets around him – and listening to loads of Reggae! It was natural they sang Reggae – a White/Carrib band singing Mohammed Rafi would have been too weird I guess  ? .

They had quick success when they became the opening act for The Pretenders in ’80. Their music became popular very quickly – rebellious lyrics, solid reggae beats, dub overtones, scatting and horns – there was nothing else like that on air! They loved Reggae so much, they decided to an entire album of cover songs – Labour of Love – to cover some of their favourite tunes. One of those was ‘Red Red Wine’ which they had no idea was a Neild Diamond song. When they saw the writing credit N. Diamond they thought is was a Jamiacan artist called Negus Diamond??‍♂️?. But their light, reggae version totally transformed Neil Diamond’s heavy ballad – even today it is the version everyone, including one Mr. N Diamond prefers to listen to and perform!