Every weekday between 1 and 5pm we play tracks from our #spotlightartist. They’re an artist with a body of work which has stood the test of time. We’ll play the hits – but also some deep cuts. Listen ad-free through New Zealand via @tunein at https://goo.gl/VL6m3N
UB40 came together in 1978 in Birmingham, the eight band members beginning performing in 1979. From the beginning they played popular reggae songs, and got their break when the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde saw them playing at a pub and offered them the opportunity to play as her backing band. Astonishingly their first single reached no. 4 on the UK charts. We’ll play a few tracks this week from their first album Signing Off.
The band crossed over to US popularity in 1983 with an album of cover songs, Labour of Love. This included the Neil Diamond cover “Red Red Wine” which stayed in the charts for over 100 weeks.
We’ll enjoy tracks from throughout their career this week. The band are performing in New Zealand next year as part of their 40th anniversary tour, and they released a great album earlier this year called A Real Labour of Love.
Florence & The Machine – Big God
James Vincent McMorrow – Me and My Friends
Mitski – Nobody
Jack River – Confess
Kota Banks – Child
As a 15 year old he joined the Spencer Davis Group, his talent on the keyboard and amazing vocals resulting in two big hit singles (Gimme Some Lovin’, I’m A Man). At 19 he formed the band Traffic, and worked with Eric Clapton in Blind Faith. The 80s saw another era for his talent to flower in slick pop tracks off albums like Back In the High Life. We look forward to sampling his varied output over four decades through the week.
Demi Lovato – Sober
OneRepublic – Connection
Dan + Shay – Speechless
A band so melodic and talented they attracted the great Beatles producer George Martin to work with them, America exemplified early 1970s smooth breezy sounds. Meeting as Air Force personnel in London, the band released their self titled first album in 1971. After its re-release in 1972 with smash hit “Horse With No Name” added this album hit number 1 in the US and was a worldwide phenomenon.
The Guardian described it as a parade of EMO-Pop Pizzazz. This certainly is a professional job, theatrical with great layers of great instrumentation, good melodies and wordy lyrics. We’ve been playing the infectious “High Hopes” for a while but you’ll enjoy the rest of the tracks, especially the awesome “Amen (Saturday Night)”. Check out the video – must have been a lot of fun!
Bebe Rexha – I’m A Mess
Martin Garrix – Ocean ft Khalid
Noah Kahan – Come Down
Alessia Cara – Growing Pains
Khalid – Stay
Music writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine who wrote many of the articles in the influential All Music Guide (my musical bible in the 1990s) said “What the Beatles were to the ’60s, Led Zeppelin were to the ’70s: a band so successful and innovative they wound up creating the prism through which their entire epoch was seen.” A few words can’t really sum up the legacy of this band, one who surround themselves with influences ranging from blues and folk-rock to psychedelia. Although they might have been the greatest of heavy rock musicians, much of their output transcended that genre. We’ll let the music speak for itself this week as we sample well known and less common tracks from their first album in 1969 through to 1979’s In Through the Out Door.