UB40 - Red Red Wine

What this video is

Released in August 1983 as the lead single from UB40's covers album Labour of Love, 'Red Red Wine' was a reggae-style cover of a Tony Tribe version of Neil Diamond's 1967 original — a lineage UB40 themselves were unaware of at the time of recording. The video's Birmingham pub setting grounds it firmly in British working-class culture of the early Thatcher era. The song reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart in 1983,…

Why it matters

A landmark document of British reggae-pop's mainstream crossover moment, this video exemplifies the low-budget, location-shot promo aesthetic of early 1980s UK music video production. Its black-and-white pub setting became an iconic visual identity for UB40 and the Birmingham multicultural music…

The director

Bernard Rose (born 4 August 1960, London) is an English filmmaker and pioneer of digital cinema. He attended the National Film and Television School, graduating in 1982. In the early 1980s he directed music videos for UB40, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and…