UB40 – ‘Signing Off’ – fine art print to commemorate 40 years of its release.

In 2020 this was individually signed by the 5 remaining original members – Brian Travers, Robin Campbell, Earl Falconer, Norman Hassan and James Brown, with photographic authenticity.

‘Signing Off’ was the first album ever released by UB40, it was recorded on a shoestring in a Birmingham bedsit, and would launch a career that would go on to sell over 75+ million records.

UB40 formed in 1978 against a backdrop of mass unemployment and civil unrest in the UK.  The band formed with no instruments and no money, only with a burning desire to be a band.  At first, they were supported by the only working member, Brian Travers, and later used a compensation payment made to Ali Campbell to buy their first instruments. They committed to spending the next year learning how to play them.

The album was recorded by Bob Lamb, who was the only experienced professional musician the band knew.  It was made in Bob’s tiny two room flat in Cambridge Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham.  Brian Travers recalls:

‘We recorded the album there on an eight-track machine, with the same 50p coin going through the electric meter continually because we’d booted the lock off it.  With it being a bedsit and us being eight in the band, we’d record the saxophone in the kitchen, because there was a bit of resonance off the walls, a bit of reverb, before putting the machine effects on it.  The percussion, the tambourines, the congas, the drums, we’d do in the back yard.’

 ‘Signing Off’ remains a seminal album in the career of the world’s best selling Reggae band.  It’s politically charged lyrics and reverb heavy dance hall dub sound came crashing onto the scene like an alien landing into the post punk music scene. 

The front and back covers of the album are a replica of the British unemployment benefit card which was officially designated as form UB40.  The design was created by brothers Geoffrey and David Tristram, the cover remains an icon of a particular place and time in music history.

This is a 1 of 1 large sized print signed by the band with their original autographs.