UB40
<p>UB40's fortunes changed at the beginning of 1980. Having spent the previous years working live, and rapidly developing an instant "buzz" among the movers & shakers, they were asked to join The Pretenders' triumphant national tour. The Pretenders were then at the top of the charts, and very hot indeed. They could have hardly have chosen a hotter support act. <br>
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The first single with Graduate, their initial label, was a double-A coupling of "<em>Food For Thought</em>" a bitter meditation on third-world poverty, and "<em>King</em>", a lament for Dr. Martin Luther King.<br>
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The first album was released on September of that year. The sleeve was a reproduction of the familiar buff-coloured dole card (more familiar, at that time, than it had ever been), with the title "<em><a href="http://www.bigupradio.com/albumDetail.jsp?aid=3800">Signing Off</a></em>" apparently rubber-stamped in red. It referred to "signing off" the dole, i.e. getting a job. It was both an acknowledgement of the band's inception, and a celebration of their new status. <br>
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At the end of 1980, the contract with Graduate expired, and UB40 formed their own record company, <a href="http://www.bigupradio.com/labelDetail.jsp?lid=1441">DEP International</a>. </p>
<p>UB40 have maintained their instantly recognisable and highly distinctive style through nine more albums, as well as two hits compilations. <br>
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"<em>The Best Of UB40 - Volume One</em>", released in November '87, It stayed in the UK charts for 123 weeks.</p>
<p>For twenty years, UB40 have continued the job of popularising reggae around the globe. In the process, they continue to give enormous pleasure to a public too vast to be defined by age, generation tribe or fashion, Welcome to the party! </p>
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