Cancer-fighting UB40 star Brian Travers wanted to cheer everyone up, so he’s made a film of his 85-year-old dad’s recording studio debut singing the Charlie Chaplin song Smile, while son Jamie ran the controls

Bridging the gap between three generations with different talents has never been easy – but UB40 founder member Brian Travers has done just that.

The cancer-battling sax star rushed his 85-year-old dad into a recording studio for an impromptu duet on a classic Charlie Chaplin song just two days before the pandemic lockdown.

Or even to well up when you think of your now-isolated older relatives and listen to the lyrics of the famous song reminding us to ‘Smile, what’s the use of crying’.

Where the idea came from

Brian’s sound engineer and musician son Jamie, 38, said he’d enjoyed listening to his dad playing Smile on his saxophone over Christmas.

With the pandemic lockdown looming by mid March, Brian, 61, then had an even better idea – and decided to take his dad to a recording studio he uses in Coventry.

The three generations then recorded their own definitive version of the song together for old times’ sake.

Jamie looked after the technical side as well as the keyboards and software instruments, while UB40 star dad Brian played sax and grandfather Joseph made his debut as a singer – at the age of 85.

UB40 sax player Brian Travers, 61, with father Joseph, 85, and son Jamie, 38 on the day they recorded Smile at the King Loud Studios in Coventry just two days before the coronavirus pandemic lockdown(Image: Margaret Maslanka / Greg Gdowski at Fifty Seven Studio  )

Instead of setting off with his UB40 pals on a 40th anniversary world tour, he had to stay at home.

Remembering how UB40 built a platform in the late 1970s by using their own unemployment to learn instruments and gel as a band, Brian decided to make himself even more creative than ever.

Jamie Travers, 38, helps UB40 star dad Brian Travers and grandad Joseph Travers to record Smile at Coventry’s King Loud Studios(Image: Margaret Maslanka / Greg Gdowski at Fifty Seven Studio  )

After last year’s life-saving operation at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital left him with a scar on the right side of his head, Brian literally put his thinking cap on while churning out artwork identifiable with his famous red, green and yellow circles logo.

He is currently contributing to five other artistes’ albums as well as writing a film score and painting non-stop like veteran crooner Tony Bennett – the Symphony Hall regular who will turn 94 in August 2020.

But with the lockdown coming up so fast, Brian decided to take dad Joseph to a recording studio for the first time in his life at the grand old age of 85 and give him a Charlie Chaplin classic to sing ready to cheer everyone up.

The result is Smile, a new version of a tune the silent film star wrote for the film Modern Times (1936) before lyricists John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons later added those emotive words.

Joseph Travers, 85, making his recording studio debut with his sax-playing son Brian Travers from UB40(Image: Margaret Maslanka / Greg Gdowski at Fifty Seven Studio  )

With vast parts of the whole world now in lockdown, lines like ‘Smile, what’s the use of crying? / You’ll find that life is still worthwhile / If you just smile’ now take on an even more universal resonance than ever before.

The song has already been covered by stars from Nat King Cole to Barbra Streisand and Michael Jackson.

Now we can add another name to the list – retired pipe fitter, Joseph Travers from Hall Green.

More than 40 years after helping son Brian to buy his first saxophone to play with UB40, former pipe-fitter’s mate Joseph Travers makes his recording studio debut at the age of 85 by singing the Charlie Chaplin song Smile just two days before the coronavirus pandemic lockdown(Image: Margaret Maslanka / Greg Gdowski at Fifty Seven Studio  )

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Joseph Travers revealed

Dublin-born Joseph was the first-born child in a family of ten siblings and Brian refers to himself as ‘The oldest grandchild in the family’.

Despite his own background as a manual worker, Joseph never stopped Brian from following his dreams in art, music and creativity.

“He just said to me ‘Go like the wind’, so I did,” says Brian, recalling how he went from Moseley School of Art to Top of the Pops via unemployment lockdown.

We’ve cracked it! UB40 star Brian Travers salutes his dad Joseph’s singing debut at the age of 85(Image: Margaret Maslanka / Greg Gdowski at Fifty Seven Studio  )

“Even if I did something wrong, he would look at me as if I was right in his eyes.

“But as well as being liberal in that sense, he always protected me, too and helped me to get my first sax and supported me all the way.

“It’s not easy for people to be great mates with their dad.

“But we can always talk honestly with each other.

“And I really value that.”

Before chemotherapy and radiotherapy: Brian Travers enjoyng a pint of Guinness at his favourite pub the Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath on April 16, 2019 – less than three weeks after his double brain tumour operation on March 28, 2019(Image: Graham Young / BirminghamLive)

Harder for others than it is for me

When UB40 took off and became a chart-topping band that could tour the world, things would never be the same again.

But Brian is proud that he feels he is still the same down to earth person that he ever was, while recognising the fact that when your own world changes it makes like more difficult for others.

“I think I’m still the same person, but when you are having hits and touring, I think it’s harder for those around you than it is for you because I still feel like I’ve never done a day’s work in my life.

Three generations, one classic song: UB40 sax player Brian Travers, 61, recording a version of Smile with father Joseph, 85, and son Jamie, 38(Image: Margaret Maslanka / Greg Gdowski at Fifty Seven Studio  )

“And the same thing applies with my cancer. It is harder for my family than it is for me.

“But it was worth it just to see the joy it brought to my son, to my dad and to me.

UB40 sax player Brian Travers, 61, recording a version of Smile with father Joseph, 85(Image: Margaret Maslanka / Greg Gdowski at Fifty Seven Studio)

“It was just the tonic I needed and we did it just two days before the complete lockdown – I really didn’t realise how therapeutically rewarding it would be for me.

“I know my dad has never sung before – and he admits in the video he was nervous – but the important thing is that, like the rest of us, he enjoyed it even more than he thought.

“So now that recording is such a lovely thing for us all to have.”

 

 

“I always says it’s hard to get a great song, wrong – just like you can hear a busker playing Yesterday on three strings in Underground station and it sounds good.”