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UB40 / Present Arms Deluxe Edition

By Paul Sinclair

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38

presentarms

This November, Universal Music will reissue a deluxe edition of Present Arms, UB40‘s second album.

The British reggae/pop band’s 1981 long player peaked at number two in the UK album charts and featured two top 20 hits in One in Ten and Don’t Slow Down/Don’t Let It Pass You By. No track listings are currently available for the reissuse, but Amazon UK have this listed as a three-CD set. While that is hardly gospel, the slightly-thicker-than-normal digi-pack shown in the image above suggests it’s probably accurate.

We can assume the companion dub album Present Arms In Dub (release shortly after the main set in 1981) will be part of the bonus offering along with some remixes, instrumentals and perhaps some live tracks.

Present Arms is reissued on 3 November 2014.

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38 Comments

38 thoughts on “UB40 / Present Arms Deluxe Edition”

  1. These showed up on EBay with an Aug 4 release date. Seller told me record label provided date. Amazon does not have them however.

  3. So (just in case anyone is still reading this). I did some investigation and it seems like there are some copies of this floating around. Various people seem to have managed to obtain copies back in 2015. It seems some made it out into the wild but for some reason not very many.

    There are a few reviews online and a few people on Discogs seem to have it too (although there are many more people that want it than have it).
    Shame it doesn’t seem like it will be getting a wider release…

  4. I would love to know what happened to these.
    The Vinyl reissue came out (containing Present Arms and Present Arms in Dub) but no sign of the CD (which would actually be more interesting given the extra sessions etc).

  5. Order cancelled by Amazon :-(

    EMail just received:

    Hello,

    Unfortunately, we’ve had to cancel your order for Present Arms Deluxe Edition (ASIN: B00O4NP9RS) as it is no longer available. We’d planned on receiving this item from our supplier but when we contacted the supplier for an update, they informed us that they won’t be able to source it. You haven’t been charged for this item.

    If you’d still like this item it may be available from a third party seller on Amazon.co.uk Marketplace. An item being offered for sale by third-party sellers will be indicated by a blue box marked “More Buying Choices” on the product’s information page. You can check this by visiting the following link:

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00O4NP9RS

    We’re sorry for any inconvenience this causes and hope to see you again soon.

    Regards,

    Customer Service Department
    Amazon.co.uk

    Please note: This e-mail was sent from a notification-only address that can’t accept incoming e-mail. Please don’t reply to this message.

  6. Ordered my copy of “Present Arms” Deluxe from Amazon US, was due for estimated delivery on the 23rd of March. Nothing yet. I await nervously and impatiently til I finally physically have it.

  10. Well, surprise, surprise, Present Arms was supposed to released today, according to Amazon. Cometh the hour and, what do you know, they’re temporarily out of stock which, for a new release, is amazing! It’s just b******t! I did order through their New and Used policy, but I’m still not convinced I’ll receive it. As for the Labour Of Love reissue, I searched Amazon Canada, and the same scenario was on there, ie, it was available through the New and Used section, so I ordered it. The only snag being, they wouldn’t ship to the UK, so I asked them to ship to a friend of mine in Canada, and it has been despatched. These releases must be the strangest ever. And the annoying thing is, they are out there!

  12. So, 1st anniversary of this thread, and today’s news from Amazon is :

    Ub40 “Present Arms Deluxe Edition”
    Estimated arrival date: February 29 2016 – March 02 2016

  13. Well, according to Amazon it’s either :

    Currently unavailable.
    We don’t know when or if this item will be back in stock.

    or :

    Not yet dispatched

    Delivery estimate: Monday, 10 August 2015 – Wednesday, 12 August 2015

    ……….so take your pick!!!!!!

  15. Pingback: UB40 / Present Arms and Labour of Love deluxe details confirmed | superdeluxeedition
  16. Pingback: SDE Reissue Preview for 2015 | superdeluxeedition

  18. Amazon are now showing a release date of for this of Jan 26th 2015. I wonder if the tracklisting is being re-vamped to include extras such as the BBC sessions and unreleased pre-release mixes.

  20. If it is out next week UMC are doing an appalling job on the marketing side. If you search the web there are only two clues this will come out next week, one is the Amazon link and the other are this newspost on SDE and various forum posts linking back to it. Nothing on the UB40 official site. I’m not too hopeful, although the Level 42 post from NeilKelly earlier on helps a bit

  21. Strange that this is being released in 6 days yet there is still no track listings to be found anywhere on the net. I would imagine it will probably not be released now till 2015 due to the lack of information.

  23. Cool, await the track list it’s only two weeks away. There again, still awaiting a full track list for Level 42’s Standing in the light and that’s 6 days away, apparently

  25. Really small thing but I much preferred the original vinyl sleeve with the red “artwork” more discreetly in the top right hand corner. All the CD issues (I think) have had the artwork shown. I did say it was a really small thing.

  26. Mt54ine wish as well. I have never seen the long 12” versions of watchdogs, sing our own song, rat in me kitchen dub (the b-side) on cd tpo name a few. Nor the rare b-sides dubs from our own song (7” ansd 12” completely different, as with all I want to do)

  27. Great album , I didnt like the dub version as much but it will be intresting to see what extras will be on this .
    I wish they would put out a set with all their 12″ mixes on it , as I you cant get long versions of songs like Dont Break My Heart on cd anywhere as far as I know .

  28. Great album, highly underrated, as the (for me) poorer Labour of Love series which followed UB44 became UB40’s commercial identity. Excellent follow up to Signing Off and I hope Present Arms in Dub is included.

  29. There was a sublime live version of Silent Witness tucked away on a B-side at the time, I hope that makes it’s way into here.

    The Remastering of Signing Off was excellent, so I hope this matches it and doesn’t go up to 11.

    1. Live versions of ‘Silent Witness’ and ‘Dr. X’ were released as b-sides to the 1982 single ‘So Here I Am’. Although not taken from the 1982 album ‘UB40 Live’, these tracks are probably from the same period. My assumption is the ‘UB40 Live’ album (and associated live tracks) would feature as extras to a possible future ‘UB44’ deluxe reissue.

  30. Fantastic news.
    I was really only ever keen on UB40’s first three album releases, as in:
    – Signing Off
    – Present Arms
    – Present Arms in Dub

    and Present Arms/Present Arms in dub are my absolute favourites of theirs – great songs before they become a covers band.

    Really looking forward to this! Can’t wait to see the tracklising…

    1. I agree that UB40’s purple period was at the very beginning of their career, although I would probably be more generous and extend this to include the following album ‘UB44’.

      For me, the rot set in with 1983’s covers album ‘Labour Of Love’ and a move to a less-organic and more sequenced sound throughout the rest of the 80’s.

  31. I like UB40, I’m not a fan though.
    Having said that, the deluxe release of ‘Signing Off’ allowed me realise I had missed out on a great album. The extras on ‘Signing Off’ deluxe were great, I’d recommend buying this deluxe album to non-fans. I listen to it more than I listen to their ‘Very Best Of.’.
    Like i said, I’m not a fan, but if this is a smooth as ‘Signing Off’, I’m buying it.
    I look forward to hearing the review and reading your comments.

  32. I’m looking forward to this. I expect the extras will include the ‘Present Arms in Dub’ album, the 7″ version of ‘Don’t Let It Pass You By’, the 12″ version of ‘Don’t Slow Down’ and the Richard Skinner BBC Radio Session (‘One In Ten’, ‘Present Arms’, ‘Silent Witness’ and ‘Sardonicus’).

    1. …and the 1981 BBC ‘In Concert’ recording from the Paris Theatre?

      Track Listing:
      ‘Introduction by Gary Crowley’
      ‘Present Arms’
      ‘Tyler’
      ‘Food For Thought’
      ‘Don’t Let It Pass You By’
      ‘Sardonicus’
      ‘One In Ten’
      ‘Madam Medusa’
      ‘Don’t Slow Down’
      ‘Burden Of Shame’
      ‘Don’t Walk On The Grass’
      Encore Medley: ‘I Think It’s Going To Rain Today’/’Dream A Lie’/’My Way Of Thinking’

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