UB40 had been around since the end of the seventies, and were no strangers to the Top 10 in the early eighties. Unlike in 1982, when we went from Musical Youth, to Culture Club, to Eddy Grant, this is an isolated outbreak. Sadly, though, this #1 isn’t heralding a second consecutive Reggae Autumn. I suppose it would have been a bit of a stretch, in 1983, to have a bunch of Birmingham lads ordering bottles of Chateauneuf-du-Pape. The band order beers, though, not red, red wine. The video ties in with the theme, set as it is in a pub. It’s a bit lightweight, I guess, if you wanted to nit-pick, but it doesn’t outstay its welcome. Red, red wine… Goes to my head… It’s a song about drinking, which is usually a good thing, even if it is about drinking away your misery… Just one thing, Makes me forget… Red, red wine… It’s laid-back, it’s cool, the chimes in the background sound like my school bell. And when this record’s slow-shuffling rhythm kicks in, my heart does a little flip… But tracking the genre’s progress, from Desmond Dekker, past ‘Double Barrell’, Johnny Nash and Althea & Donna, to last year’s Reggae Autumn, I realise that I’ve enjoyed most of it. I was never that convinced by the genre, having spent too much time in beach bars on holiday, where the same dull ‘reggae chill-out’ playlists are looped year on year.
Red Red Wine, by UB40 (their 1st of three #1s)ģ weeks, from 28th August – 18th September 1983
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