Talk:UB40/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Ritchie333 (talk · contribs) 09:59, 18 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I recently added a small amount of content (after I saw the band at the Brentwood Festival), but I haven't touched the main bulk of the article so I'm happy to review this.

My initial concern is that the article seems to exhibit WP:RECENTISM issues. The section "1978-1999" is one of three sections in "history"; yet it is this time period where the band had the greatest critical and commercial success. This just doesn't seem to put things in balance.

Specific comments follow:

Lead

"and has also achieved considerable international success" - can you expand on this?
Who is "Virtue"? This is the first mention of Mickey in the article.
"Astro remained with the original band until November 2013, when he left to team up again with Campbell and Virtue in a new version of UB40." - as seen by reading events in the body, this may now be out of date and needed to be revisited

History

The first three paragraphs are unsourced. There is a footnote explaining what "UB40" means in the context of an unemployment benefit form, but no proof whatsoever that anything else here is factually correct.
There's no real explanation of how the band members got together. For a multi-racial band, this is particularly important. Possibly also a brief sentence explaining how and why Birmingham was a melting-pot of cultures (cf: Rivers of Blood) would be useful
"Their first gig took place on 9 February 1979 at The Hare & Hounds Pub in Kings Heath, Birmingham for a friend's birthday party." - I don't think the text after this is necessary - the picture's caption (with inline source) will suffice
"UB40 caught their first break" - suggest "UB40 gained national significance" or something else that's not colloquial
"The title of their first album, Signing Off, indicates the band was signing off from, or ending, their claim for unemployment benefits" - is this actually the case that most of the band were unemployed? The prose says that Travers was an electrical apprentice (though that claim is unsourced)
"supported local musicians and bands from Birmingham, such as Beshara, often bringing them on tour" - the source for this is a web forum, which is unsuitable as a reliable source, especially for a biography of a living person
"The album featured the song" - the YouTube link is a copyright violation and must not be used
"Earl was sentenced to six months' imprisonment in June 1988 and banned from driving for three years" - per WP:BLP, why is this necessary here? It may be suitable for Earl Falconer's own article, but it doesn't directly have anything to do with UB40 as a band
"The group also made a guest appearance in the 1997 feature film Speed 2: Cruise Control." - IMDB is not suitable as a reliable source for BLPs.
"In 2011 five founder members of the group and directors of their DEP International label, had bankruptcy proceedings started against them relating to debts of the record label" - the Daily Mail is generally frowned upon as a source to use for such a contentious claim as this.

Influences

I think this section needs to be greatly expanded, using a wider variety of sources. For example, why did the band choose straight reggae over, say, the ska revival style of The Specials or The Selecter? Why did they gravitate towards pop?
What makes Solarnavigator.net a reliable source?
"The Campbell brothers are the sons of the late folk musician, Ian Campbell." - what has this got to do with influences on the band. If Ian Campbell directly influenced his sons and got them involved in music and was hence instrumental in getting UB40 started, this should go in the "History" section
"Their early musical style was unique" - in whose opinion? This phrase does not employ a neutral point of view and should be changed

Achievements

Most of this section is unsourced

Summary

I'm stopping the review there. Not only does this article completely fail to meet the "citations to reliable sources", "broad in coverage" and "focused" sections of the good article criteria, but there are several contentious unsourced claims that per WP:BLP must be removed. I'm going to ping John to give me a hand in removing the contentious content.

In terms of going forward, I would strongly recommend you read up on our verification and citing inline sources guidelines, then buy or borrow a copy of Blood and Fire: The Autobiography of the UB40 Brothers (Random House, ISBN 978-0-099-47654-2) and use that as your main source. Ideally the article's prose should be supplemented by citations from back issues of journals such as New Musical Express and Melody Maker where possible.

Unless you use those level of sources, I don't see any chance of this article obtaining GA status soon. Sorry. Ritchie333 ^(talk) ^(cont) 09:59, 18 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]