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Tapes of a live gig by UB40, at the start of their career, have been re-mastered and re-released, after being found in the home of the Worcestershire man who first signed them.

The set list for the gig

David Virr, who lived in Shrawley, came across the band in the late 70's early 80's, when he was a budding music entrepeneur.

He signed them to his Graduate Music Label and worked with them for a couple of years, before they went their separate ways.

David died after a prolonged illness at the end of 2006, and in the months leading up to his death he'd been working on previously unreleased music he'd recorded with the band.

His widow, Tina, told BBC Hereford & Worcester's Andrew Easton that he was determined to get the recording released:

"It just happened that when David was very ill he remembered that he'd got these tapes, and he was concerned that they were deteriorating, and that's why he asked George to take them to Muff Murphin's studio."

George Christie, from Busy Bee Music, says spotting and signing UB40 changed David's standing in the music industry:

"That put David into the mainstream – he was then in the business as a mainstream label, he was doing really good business, and he was a target for all the major labels, who wanted a piece of the action."

George says the orginal tapes were in very bad condition, and it took a lot of work to get them into a state where they could be released as a CD:

"The tapes haven't been played at all since they were recorded in 1980 – it was a live gig at The Venue in London. 

"The quarter inch master was not playable, it was terrible, and so we took the two inch tapes down to Muff Murphin in Kempsey, we digitised them, and I took them back to my studio, and I took a long time bringing them up to releasable standard.

"It's come out extremely well, and we're very pleased with the product… this coming out has filled a little gap in the history of UB40."

Set List at The Venue London, 1980:

• Tyler
• My Way of Thinking
• Burden of Shame
• Strange Fruit
• I Think It's Going To Rain Today
• Summertime (Instrumental)
• King
• Food For Thought
• Little By Little