This statement is a direct response to Ali Campbell’s post

It’s time to set the record straight and clarify the position between UB40 and Ali Campbell. Since Ali Campbell left UB40, 15 years ago in 2008 to pursue a solo career, his artist has gone by many different names that have been publicly

and promoted:

Ali Campbell, Ali Campbell & The Dep Band, Ali Campbell the Legendary Voice of UB40, Ali Campbell the Golden Voice of UB40, Ali Campbell the True Voice of UB40, UB40 Reunited, UB40 featuring Ali Astro & Micky, UB40 featuring Ali & Astro, UB40 featuring Ali Campbell Tribute to Astro, UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, UB40 Live featuring Ali Campbell

to name a few.

In response to one of the many false claims made by the Ali Campbell group, Ali Campbell has not used the name ‘UB40’ continuously for 45 years. This has been well documented.

“The promoters want to call us UB40, but we are Ali Campbell and the Dep Band. We are proud of who we are. ”

– Ali Campbell in ‘Time Out Dubai’ 2011: SOURCE

UB40 have toured and recorded successfully, globally and continuously for 45 years and are currently celebrating their 45th anniversary. It is well documented that Ali Campbell left UB40 to go solo in 2008 and after cancelled and failed tours, he began misusing the name and brand to sell his tickets, five years later, in 2013.

This video uses archive footage to show how Ali Campbell’s story has changed over time.

 

UB40 have always been a democratic band and despite a few line-up changes, four-fifths of UB40’s surviving founding members, Robin Campbell, Earl Falconer, James Brown and Norman Hassan, have been writing, recording and performing as UB40 since 1978. UB40’s legendary brass section of Brian Travers, Martin Meredith and Laurence Parry remained the same for over 30 years until Brian’s tragic passing in 2021, after a heroic battle with a brain tumour.

UB40 notoriously credited all members of the line-up as lyricists, so everyone always got an equal share. Contrary to popular belief, the current line-up of UB40 and Brian Travers have written all of the band’s original hits, and of course, Astro has written most of his own raps. The truth is, the only song Ali ever wrote while in UB40 was ‘My Way of Thinking.’

The truth is that Ali Campbell is ‘fraudulently’ labeling his current solo project, UB40, by claiming to be UB40 featuring Ali Campbell. This causes a lot of confusion, as claiming to be UB40 featuring Ali Campbell implies that Ali Campbell is performing with UB40. In reality, it is just a former member of UB40 and his backing band of musicians, none of whom have ever performed with UB40 or been involved in a UB40 recording.

Ali Campbell and his team continually use deceptive messaging, the image of the original band including our current line-up, and market their activities with the word UB40 in large print. The ‘Featuring Ali Campbell’ element has always been difficult to read, deliberately misleading fans, promoters and audiences globally into thinking they are watching UB40, when in fact it couldn’t be further from the truth. We have 1000s of archived examples of this deceptive marketing and Ali’s attempts to pass himself off as UB40.

When Ali Campbell markets his shows as ‘UB40’ it damages our brand and our business. We have to constantly make it clear to promoters, journalists, editors that they must differentiate between UB40 and Ali Campbell so that the public can understand what they are buying tickets for, to avoid confusion.

Most recently, a show in Uganda was marketed and hailed as a great return of UB40 to Uganda by the promoters. We were forced to contact the promoters and press, to inform them that UB40 were not performing in Uganda and that it was in fact former singer Ali Campbell. False and untrue claims were made by the promoters of Africa Talent Group and the marketing people even superimposed Ali Campbell’s face onto a photo of the current UB40 line-up, in a YouTube video. This is just one example – there have been constant issues with the way his shows are promoted and it is clearly causing confusion.

The announcement thumbnail screenshot shows Ali’s face photoshopped from a UB40 photo

We have the right to be clear and present the facts when there are deliberate attempts to misrepresent our brand and confuse people. It is in the public interest for them to know and understand clearly when they buy a ticket to see UB40 that they are in fact seeing UB40.

There are very few examples of bands that have lasted 45 years without a line-up change. While Ali Campbell has a history with the band, that does not legitimize his claim to the name. Ali chose to leave UB40 15 years ago. UB40 will continue to tour the world, performing and recording the music they love.