“In towns, with a chip shop next door and a local bar, so you can have a beer before and after the gig. That for me is what I find exciting!“– Brian Travers
Hello all
I found out on Monday the sad news that Brian Travers, UB40 saxophonist and songwriter died.
UB40 was a big part of my growing up and as a young teenager listening to early UB40 albums back in the early ’80s, Brian Travers saxophone plying was pivotal in that early UB40 sound. These days most only remember UB40 for their Red Wine period, and they became uncool to like, but let you tell you this back in the day, they were one of the coolest bands to follow, I wore out their first two albums, Signing off and Present Arms., on my bedroom stereo system.
Some 40 years later I am still listening to these two great albums. One of the main reasons these albums have stuck with me and some of the songs I really look forward to are the instrumentals, with Brain’s wailing Sax playing a major part in these instrumentals.
Brain Travers’s horn blowing is one of the main reasons, for 40 years I have been listening to Reggae, especially instrumental/dub that has horn sections, it’s because of songs like “12 bar”, “Adella”, ” Reefer Madness”, “Don’t walk on the Grass” and ” Dr X” and the enjoyment I got from these made me explore other artists. Basically, Brain Travers’s was with me at the start of my musical education.
So thanks Brain for all the good times, rest in peace and keep on smiling.
For this edition of A Frankie View – Reggae Vibe, I wanted to share with you some of the music that Brain brought to me, via me listening to him in the early days.
I have also been putting together these playlists, I normally make up a playlist from a variety of different music genres and see if they fit together. So lately I have restricted myself to the albums I have posted about and have decided to share them with you, as we did in the old days with tapes
The only way I can think of sharing playlists these days is with something like Spotify.
