Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / UB40 Celebrating 45 Years Of Reggae Getting To Know Jimmy Brown

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UB40 Celebrating 45 Years Of Reggae Getting To Know Jimmy Brown · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

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  Speaker 1: One of my favorite podcasts on Arrow.net, A-R-R-O-E.net, is Foodie Paradise.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: It gives me the opportunity to share and break bread
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: with the biggest names in the kitchen, restaurants, or wherever
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  Speaker 1: food is prepared. Foodie Paradise, only on Arrow.net, A-R-R-O-E.net. Enjoy
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  Speaker 1: your exploration. Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, I got to thank
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  Speaker 1: you from the very bottom of my heart, from the
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  Speaker 1: very beginning here. I want to thank you for helping
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  Speaker 1: to save Adult Contemporary Radio because you guys brought us
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  Speaker 1: a sound that we needed so desperately. And we don't
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  Speaker 1: give enough credit to the artists that helped us do that.
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  Speaker 1: And I wish the Radio Hall of Fame would recognize
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  Speaker 1: you guys as such.
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  Speaker 2: Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that.
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  Speaker 3: It's nice to get feedback sometimes because you never really
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  Speaker 3: hear that, you know. But, yeah, radio has been good
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  Speaker 3: to us, so we love it.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you've developed this style about you that gives us
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  Speaker 1: that opportunity. I know that every time a UB40 song
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  Speaker 1: comes on, I mentally go away. In other words, you
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  Speaker 1: give me that opportunity where everything is okay because UB40
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  Speaker 1: is playing right now. You have to know that while
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  Speaker 1: you're writing this music, that it is an escape when
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  Speaker 1: we check in with you guys.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think, you know, I mean, our approach is,
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  Speaker 3: even though, you know, we can be political sometimes, but
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  Speaker 3: our overall approach is that music's uplifting and it's just
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  Speaker 3: a real privilege for people to go home in a
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  Speaker 3: better mood than they were when they came to the show,
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  Speaker 3: you know.
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  Speaker 2: And we know we can do that.
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  Speaker 3: And, you know, it's a celebration of life and just
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  Speaker 3: being alive and just still breathing. You know, for us,
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  Speaker 3: at our age, you know, every day above ground is
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  Speaker 3: a good day. So, you know, we're just very happy
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  Speaker 3: to be where we are. The band have so much
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  Speaker 3: fun now on stage. And that really comes across, I think.
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  Speaker 3: And that goes into the audience as well.
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  Speaker 1: I love the fact that you did bring up that,
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  Speaker 1: you know, you do get a little political because through you,
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  Speaker 1: I've learned so much because I mean, I mean, we
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  Speaker 1: don't know here on this side of the ocean what
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  Speaker 1: it was like to go through those Margaret Thatcher years.
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  Speaker 1: And that's the craziest thing about it. I mean, even
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  Speaker 1: the Sex Pistols set me straight. He says, you got
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  Speaker 1: to know, you got to know what we really went through.
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  Speaker 1: And I depend on people like yourself to keep us
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  Speaker 1: up to date where the headlines do not.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think we are political because we're
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  Speaker 3: political people, you know, but we don't like wanting to
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  Speaker 3: bash people over the head with it. But also, when
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  Speaker 3: you've got a platform, you use it, you know. And
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  Speaker 3: I sit around with friends who aren't in the band
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  Speaker 3: and we can complain about this and complain about that.
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  Speaker 3: But what I've got is like an outlet for it
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  Speaker 3: where I think maybe other people might hear it and
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  Speaker 3: it might.
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  Speaker 2: Make a difference.
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  Speaker 3: But that's not the reason for us doing the music,
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  Speaker 3: because we do a lot of tracks that aren't political.
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  Speaker 2: But, you know, we believe in saying what we think.
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  Speaker 1: Well, one of the things that I've learned from UB40
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  Speaker 1: is that you approved to the entire world that reggae
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  Speaker 1: music doesn't have to come from Jamaica, that you really
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  Speaker 1: did bring us into this environment of what community is.
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  Speaker 1: And the community of Birmingham, you guys tapped into that
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  Speaker 1: because so many of us think that, oh, this is
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  Speaker 1: my community, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump. Well, you did,
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  Speaker 1: but you also brought something from it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we come from an area where a lot of
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  Speaker 3: immigrants came.
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  Speaker 2: You know, it's an inner city, working class area. That's
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  Speaker 2: where we were born.
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  Speaker 3: And that was an area where you can see the
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  Speaker 3: four corners of the world go by if you.
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  Speaker 2: Sit on your front doorstep.
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  Speaker 3: And I think that's an enormous privilege to live in
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  Speaker 3: an environment like that because you learn so much about
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  Speaker 3: the world. We'd never been out of Birmingham up until
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  Speaker 3: the point where the band became successful and then we
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  Speaker 3: were flying around the world all of a sudden. But
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  Speaker 3: we were prepared for meeting people from all different parts
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  Speaker 3: of the world because we had the.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, we're talking about... The British Empire, really.
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  Speaker 3: And the historical fact is that, you know, we took
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  Speaker 3: over the Caribbean, we took over parts of Africa, we
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  Speaker 3: took over India.
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  Speaker 2: And that's what you're going to get coming back.
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  Speaker 3: One of the few good things about empire is that
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  Speaker 3: the traffic goes both ways. So I feel that I've
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  Speaker 3: been enormously privileged. to have been brought up in a
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  Speaker 3: multicultural area. And I think we are a multicultural success story.
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  Speaker 3: And I think that needs to be said more than
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  Speaker 3: ever these days because there's so much anti-immigrant feeling. And
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  Speaker 3: I think that that's a mistake. You know, I think
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  Speaker 3: we should be welcoming people from around the world, not
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  Speaker 3: keeping them away.
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  Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Jimmy Brown from
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  Speaker 1: UB40 coming up next. Celebrating music. 45 years. We are
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  Speaker 1: back with Jimmy Brown from UB40. I've always looked at
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  Speaker 1: it as being a celebration. I mean, when I need
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  Speaker 1: an up, I hit YouTube. I pull you guys up
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  Speaker 1: because I love watching you. That it's not just somebody
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  Speaker 1: stepping into a studio to do music. You guys are
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  Speaker 1: living this energy and you're transferring it to us.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it is our life experience that has made us
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  Speaker 3: what we are. Coming from Birmingham, it's a massively multicultural city.
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  Speaker 3: I think it's going to be one of the first
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  Speaker 3: non-majority cities wide cities in England, which means, you know,
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  Speaker 3: it's a complete mountain park. You know, the school I
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  Speaker 3: went to when I was just a little kid was
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  Speaker 3: a completely mixed school. And I think that, you know,
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  Speaker 3: that is a successful thing. And we represent that multicultural
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  Speaker 3: success story, which has made our city successful and made
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  Speaker 3: the band successful. And I think, you know, we're very
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  Speaker 3: lucky because it's circumstances, but also it gives.
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  Speaker 2: Us our strength, I think.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you guys helped teach me and this is a
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  Speaker 1: personal thing. You helped teach me multicultural because Charlotte really
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  Speaker 1: is becoming a multicultural city. And because of what you
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  Speaker 1: guys have experienced and what I've consistently read about you
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  Speaker 1: guys is that you embrace it. In fact, I do
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  Speaker 1: want to ask you, though, because I mean, we do
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  Speaker 1: have a lot of people from India who live here
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  Speaker 1: and I want to understand Bollywood. You had this music
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  Speaker 1: in your life. Did you get to toy with Bollywood-style
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  Speaker 1: music at all or play with the music of coming
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  Speaker 1: out of India?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we're very close to quite a few of the
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  Speaker 3: Indian musicians in Birmingham.
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  Speaker 2: We've certainly used doll drummers on our music.
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  Speaker 3: And when we did Live 8 a couple of decades back,
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  Speaker 3: We had an Indian singer who was singing Conor Roberts
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  Speaker 3: over our tunes. And also when it comes to Bollywood,
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  Speaker 3: what happened was that a lot of cinemas, when we
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  Speaker 3: were kids, a lot of cinemas were closing down, you know,
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  Speaker 3: in the 60s because of television.
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  Speaker 2: And really the Indians took over that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Over the cinemas.
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  Speaker 3: And, you know, you could hear Bollywood coming out, you know,
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  Speaker 3: whenever you pass one of those cinemas. 1930s art deco cinemas,
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  Speaker 3: you could hear Bollywood music coming out. You know, they
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  Speaker 3: were showing Bollywood films and seeing the posters. So we
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  Speaker 3: knew all about the aesthetic of that when we were kids,
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  Speaker 3: you know. So, yeah, it's influenced us. You've heard it
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  Speaker 3: in the music a few times, you know, mostly reggae,
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  Speaker 3: of course, is their influence.
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  Speaker 2: But that Bollywood influence is definitely there.
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  Speaker 1: So now with you being as close to Chrissy Hine,
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  Speaker 1: I know that she loves her farm in Ohio. Have
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  Speaker 1: you been to the farm? Because I'm jealous that she
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  Speaker 1: hasn't invited me to that farm yet because I want
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  Speaker 1: to do some farming with her.
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  Speaker 3: We've never had a chance, actually. We keep in touch
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  Speaker 3: with Chrissie. She's a lovely lady. You know, she's cantankerous,
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  Speaker 3: which I really like. And yeah, we've kept a good
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  Speaker 3: relationship with her over the years.
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  Speaker 2: The last time I saw her was a couple of
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  Speaker 2: years back.
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  Speaker 3: And when she came to uh because uh what our
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  Speaker 3: saxophone player passed away and uh they were really good
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  Speaker 3: friends and she came to his funeral and um it
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  Speaker 3: was lovely to see her and i'm sure we'll meet
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  Speaker 3: up with her again on the road but we always
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  Speaker 3: meet up with her uh when we're passing on the
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  Speaker 3: road she she works she still works like we do
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  Speaker 3: so uh yeah maybe one day she'll invite us but
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  Speaker 3: uh We never get the opportunity to do hardly anything.
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  Speaker 3: We're constantly working once we're on the road and we
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  Speaker 3: don't get time to do much else, really.
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  Speaker 1: You got to come back anytime, Jimmy Brown. The door
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  Speaker 1: is always going to be open for you.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, that's great. Listen, thank you.
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  Speaker 3: I'm sorry that we've got to cut you short like that.
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  Speaker 3: Certainly wasn't my idea. I would have carried on talking
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  Speaker 3: for another.
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  Speaker 2: Half an hour. But yeah, thank you for having me
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  Speaker 2: on anyway.
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  Speaker 1: You'd be brilliant today, sir.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you.