Ali Campbell blasts rival UB40: ‘I’ve heard better tribute bands’

Birmingham pop legend Ali Campbell will carry on using the UB40 name even if he loses the High Court battle which has already cost half a million pounds.

Meanwhile, the other UB40 – boasting his brothers Robin and Duncan, Brian Travers, Earl Falconer, Jimmy Brown and Norman Hassan – start the Birmingham 10k this morning.

It will be the first time for years that all the original members of the band are appearing in the same place on the same day.

But they won’t be talking to each other, unless it’s through the lawyers.

Father-of-eight Ali says he will continue to reference UB40 whatever the courts decide.

“We are playing the Barclaycard Arena as “UB40 Featuring Ali Campbell, Astro and Mickey’,” he says.

“I don’t want to be called just UB40 because I don’t want people to get me mixed up with what I call the Dark Side.

“It’s ironic that they are suing us for passing them off, when I don’t want people to think I am them!

“I didn’t just walk away from the band, I walked away from the brand of the most toured band in British pop history.

“They are a shadow of the band they were, and they are destroying the legacy by going on tour.

Original UB40 lead singer Ali Campbell at the Hotel Du Vin (Image: Graham Young)
“After I left, the end for UB40 came when they did their country album – Astro didn’t want to be standing on the stage with a stetson on.

“I’ve heard better tribute bands out there than the remaining members.”

But what if he loses the court battle?

“I will be called Ali Campbell – The Legendary Voice of UB40,” he replies without hesitation.

“That’s because I want people to know who I am.

UB40’s Ali Campbell supporting a Children’s Hospice Trust charity appeal in 1986
“That is a statement of fact – I am the voice! On the original songs, I did the melodies. I wrote every single UB40 melody apart from Astro’s.

“Being a socialist, I didn’t claim the money for every track. I split it eight ways.

“With the court case, we are now half a million pounds in, and the lawyers are getting fat.

“It’s really annoying that the other band members keep saying I left to pursue a solo career.

“They think if they keep saying things often enough, people will believe them.

UB40 in 1985: Astro, Norman Hassan, Jimmy Brown, Earl Falconer, Ali Campbell, and left to right (in front of mixing desk) Mickey Virtue, Robin Campbell and Brian Travers
“I left because of what was going on behind my back. They have stolen my back catalogue of 30 years’ work.”

Ali accuses some of his former bandmates of “skullduggery” and acting in ways that did not sit easily with the original UB40 ideals.

“There were things that were against everything UB40,” he claims. “I was disgusted. I stuck to my principles because UB40 stood for something.”

Ali is determined to tell his side of the story after reading recent interviews with his siblings.

While Ali congratulates me for becoming the first journalist to interview all four brothers – Ali, Robin, Duncan and David, the latter saying he was originally asked to be part of the UB40 story but was in prison at the time serving a stretch for armed robbery.

David Campbell at home next to a 1963 childhood picture of him with brothers Robin, Ali and Duncan (Image: Graham Young)
It’s a measure of how fractured the family is that not even his father escapes criticism.

Ian Campbell was a Communist and pioneering singer who recorded the first live folk EP at The Crown on Station Street.

“Dad made a complete fool of himself,” says Ali. “Just before he died, he received a lifetime achievement award from the folk institute.

“At his acceptance speech he said he had two sons who’d formed a reggae band and their first record had eclipsed his 19-year career.

“All along, I had been saying he was a bitter and twisted individual.”

The UB40 break-up and feud led to most of the members being declared bankrupt, Ali amongst them.

Under the terms of his own bankruptcy, which he says are different to the rest of the band members, Ali says he has to pay 80 per cent of his earnings for three years.

Earl Falconer, Jimmy Brown, Norman Hassan, Brian Travers and brothers Duncan and Robin Campbell revisiting the ‘Red Red Wine’ Eagle and Tun pub in Digbeth on February 3, 2016 (Image: Darren Quinton)
“It’s all to do with a UB40 account I didn’t even know about,” he says.

“With the rest of the other band, I don’t know how they can be surviving, let alone living, on what they are making.

“I am not allowed to earn a penny from the fact that I am selling out all of these stadiums. But at least I am doing it still, and still in it to win it.

“As the original UB40, we had three million card-carrying fans and they could get into gigs for half price with the UB40 card.

“We were the hardest-working band, playing more live shows than any other band.

Original UB40 lead singer Ali Campbell, 57 (Image: Graham Young / BirminghamLive)
“When Astro, Mickey and I left, they were like a rudderless ship with no direction.”

What of the future of Ali’s band?

Ali says they will carry on touring – but he also has an eye on Vegas.

“I want to do a Las Vegas reggae revue, with a guest every week or month,” he says.

“I Can’t Help Falling in Love went to No 1 and it was a better version than Elvis’s.

“I can record a new album in three or four weeks, while with UB40 it seems to take them a year.

Aiming for Las Vegas, Ali Campbell says: “My version of I Can’t Help Falling In Love was better than Elvis’s.” (Image: Graham Young)
“It was like pulling teeth because you could never get them all in the studio.

“We have eight musicians besides me, Astro and Mickey, and we are the same size as the original UB40.

“We are kicking ass. This is the best band I’ve ever been in.”