Robin Campbell told us in February 2016: “Ali resigned from the band. He never owned the name.

“He didn’t start the band. He wasn’t the founder. We all started the band together.

“There was no battle when Ali left.

Tough guys: UB40 star Robin Campbell with boxer Amir Khan after a Park Regis Hotel charity gig in November, 2016 (Image: Graham Young / BirminghamLive)
“He spent five years performing under his own name.

 

“He wasn’t the leader. We were a democratic band that he chose to leave.

“Thereby, leaving the remaining members to carry on as UB40 and that is what we did.”

 

Original UB40 lead singer Ali Campbell (Image: Graham Young / BirminghamLive)
In April 2016, Ali Campbell told us: “I left because of what was going on behind my back.

“They have stolen my back catalogue of 30 years’ work.”

Glassed in the face at the Red Lion in Kings Heath on his 17th birthday, Ali said he later received “£4,500 in criminal injuries compensation at a time when I was getting £7.50 a week on the dole at the age of 19.

 

“I gave a quarter of it to Robin and Duncan for a car business which they lost within weeks, and put the rest towards band equipment.

“Me, Earl and Jimmy were the original members of UB40.

“I only invited Robin into the band because he knew the chords to the House of the Rising Sun.”