Breaking apart UB40 stays a pink, pink line for Ali Campbell

Reggae legends UB40 loved big worldwide success, promoting greater than 70 million albums worldwide, and bringing us such classics as Red Red Wine, I Got You Babe and (I Can’t Help) Falling In Love With You. Yet, lately, their messages of affection and togetherness have been tainted by a bitter feud.

Lead singer Ali Campbell was changed as frontman in 2008 by his older brother Duncan. Ali claims he was axed. The band, together with his guitarist brother Robin, claims he stop to pursue a solo profession.

Whatever the story, the fallout has seen two rival UB40s touring. Using the unique identify, UB40, turned Duncan, Robin and 4 others of the founding line-up.

Meanwhile, Ali and remaining unique members – co-vocalist Astro and keyboardist Mickey Virtue – toured and recorded as UB40 FeaturingAli,Astro and Mickey.

Tragedy struck in 2021, when saxophonist Brian Travers and Astro died, whereas Duncan was pressured to stop music after struggling a stroke. Yet that hasn’t lessened the depth of the dispute.

Ali emphasises he has no plans to name a truce, telling the Daily Express: “I don’t think I’ve got anything to say to them. There’s no way there’ll be any getting together with them again.”

The Birmingham-born singer, who was honoured yesterday with a star on the Music Walk Of Fame – a pavement tribute in Camden, north London – nonetheless regrets the break up.

“Oh, of course it’s sad. Stuff happened that should never have happened,” he continues. “It was all very messy and very silly. But I’m better off out of it all. I’m happier without all of that nonsense.”

Now 64, Ali is pleasant and a born storyteller. But it is clear he stays pissed off along with his ex-bandmates and mates. “There’s only four of the original line-up in what I call ‘The dark side version’,” he says.

‘And they weren’t an important ones within the band. I’ve no want to go backwards with them.

“I’m happy going forward with my band. Every time the dark side version plays, it takes away the legacy of my band.”

Now billed as UB40 Featuring Ali Campbell, the second incarnation of the band has simply introduced an enormous enviornment tour for subsequent 12 months. Ali delights in enjoying in areas the place international artists hardly ever carry out.

“I’ve taken my band to 72 different countries,” he says. “We’re very lucky to have a truly worldwide fanbase.” In 2013, for example, they performed a present within the Solomon Islands, within the South Pacific.

Ali laughs as he remembers the episode: “We were met by naked men in the bush. They had bones through their noses and tribal feathers in their hair. And they were pointing blowpipes at us.

“We adopted their naked bottoms again to the airport, which is the place they whipped out panpipes and began enjoying UB40 tunes. It was essentially the most ridiculous factor that is ever occurred to me. I assumed, ‘How do they even learn about UB40 music?'”

It’s  just one of many strange moments Ali has experienced since UB40 formed back in 1978. “I grew up in Balsall Heath, a suburb of Birmingham that is predominantly West Indian and Asian,” he recalls.

“It meant I grew up listening to reggae music because it was coming collectively. I all the time was a bit reggae fanatic, however not many individuals in school understood what I used to be speaking about.

‘If we beginning have simply say about Britain… however change singing them’ “My school friends were into glam rockers like Marc Bolan and Mud, which went straight over my head.”

While enjoying a gig in Camden, UB40 had been noticed by the lead singer of The Pretenders, Chrissie Hynde, who invited them to assist her on tour.

Ali explains: “We’d barely played a dozen gigs in our whole career before then. We released our first single, Food For Thought, while we were supporting Pretenders. It got to number four and we never looked back.”

Much later, UB40 recorded the charttopper – I Got You Babe, a canopy of the Sonny and Cher hit – with Hynde. Named after the federal government’s unemployment profit kind, UB40 stood out among the many extra glitzy bands of the early Nineteen Eighties music scene.

Their political protest hits included King, One In Ten and The Earth Dies Screaming.”We were now, we’d as much to Sunak’s you don’t things by about “We had one thing to say, which the press did not like,” Ali remembers.

“They needed enjoyable pop, like ABC and Culture Club. They did not need disenfranchised youngsters like us moaning on Top Of The Pops. I bear in mind one assessment of One In Ten that mentioned, ‘Oh look, UB40 are crying of their beer once more”.

“Ali is still politically motivated, but admits: “As you become older, you get much less offended, as you come to phrases with the actual fact it is all a crock of s***. If we had been beginning out in music now, we would have simply as a lot to say about Sunak’s Britain. We’d nonetheless be crying in our beer.

But, whereas I’m as political as I ever was, I do not suppose issues get any higher and I do not suppose you’ll be able to change issues by singing about them.”

This month marks the 40th anniversary of UB40’s most successful album, Labour Of Love. The chart-topper saw the band cover cult reggae and ska tunes including Red Red Wine, turning them into mainstream anthems.

Ali remembers: “Those songs had been already large hits within the reggae world. We knew folks would love them, in the event that they solely obtained an opportunity to listen to them. It’s why I nonetheless take pleasure in enjoying them 40 years later.

“We actually wanted Labour Of Love to be our debut album, but at the time every band wrote its own material.We were talked out of the idea. But UB40 went on to do three Labour Of Love albums [I, II and III], which have sold 21 million copies. So we were right.”

Despite their phenomenal success, UB40 weren’t invited to carry out at Live Aid in 1985, which understandably nonetheless rankles.

“It was strange we weren’t invited,” Ali says. “It’s even stranger when you think that Food ForThought dealt with exactly the subject Live Aid was all about – poverty and starvation. But black acts were conspicuous by their absence at Live Aid.”

Away from the band’s campaigning aspect, Ali discovered himself coerced into producing a tune co-written by notorious

East End gangster Reggie Kray. As if that wasn’t weird sufficient, the tune was known as Closet Queen. It got here concerning the time Ali met the Krays’ affiliate, Pete Gillett, after his launch from jail in 1987.

“Pete was singing Closet Queen at a club in Birmingham,” Ali reveals. “It was a long, drunken night and at 4am I told Pete, ‘OK, I’ll produce it.’

“I had a letter from Reggie Kray saying: ‘I hear you are producing my buddy. Thanks for that. God bless, your buddy, Reggie Kray.’ But I needed to go on tour earlier than it was completed and I’d misplaced curiosity within the tune.”

Later, he received a second, more ominous letter from Reggie. “It mentioned: ‘My mates have instructed me you have misplaced curiosity. Remember: for those who kick a canine, you kick its grasp. God bless, your buddy, Reggie Kray.’

“So I finished the song. But, of course, no record company would touch it with a bargepole. Thankfully, Reggie understood. His last letter said: ‘Thank you for finishing the record. I have your picture in my cell. God bless, your friend, Reggie Kray.'”

Today dwelling fortunately with spouse Julie in Dorset, Ali continues to be as obsessed with reggae as ever. He was delighted when his band’s most up-to-date album, Unprecedented, reached the Top 10 final 12 months. But he is nonetheless coming to phrases with enjoying exhibits with out Astro, including: “Astro not being there is always going to be a big hole. He was like a brother to me, but life goes on and UB40 goes on.

“We’ve by no means stopped enjoying. The entire concept of forming UB40 was to advertise reggae. All these years later, reggae is massively influential.And I nonetheless adore it.”

UB40 Featuring Ali Campbell’s The Hits tour runs from April 6 to 16, 2024. Tickets go on sale at myticket.co.uk this Friday at 10am

‘If we had been beginning now, we would have simply as a lot to say about Sunak’s Britain… however you do not change issues by singing about them’ The who ABC didn’