UB40 singer Ali Campbell pleads with Birmingham to abide by lockdown restrictions

MUSIC legend Ali Campbell has pleaded with Birmingham to abide by lockdown restrictions amid continued reports of mass gatherings in the city.

And the UB40 singer has paid his own tribute to the doctors and nurses putting their lives on the line to heal a country brought to its knees by coronavirus.

The one positive to come from the pandemic, he insists, is a public realisation of the under-valued NHS’s true worth.

During dark days of deserted streets, claims of large gatherings still surface. Just this month the Birmingham Mail revealed 100 mourners had attended a Sutton Coldfield funeral.

And in the last few days, police have had to disperse sunbathers, bikers, boozers – and even a family who set the table for dinner on their driveway.

“The Government has given its guidelines,” says Ali. “If some members of the community are ignoring them, they are running the risk of infecting each other and infecting others.

Ali Campbell
“In the park they were playing football. I can’t think of a more certain way of spreading the virus than kicking a ball at each other.

“You have to do what they’ve told us to do and stay indoors. It’s the least you can do for health workers and carers who are putting their lives on the line.

“What’s happening is terrifying, it’s like a bad film. It’s like all those old horror films but it’s happening for real.

“But ‘isten, the sun’s shining, you’re with family, it’s another day. Observe the rules and we’ll get through this.”

For Ali, there’s a certain irony about the current crisis. “Unemployment is one in 10 again. Funny that,” he says in reference to the band’s 1981 hit of the same name.

In self-isolation, the Birmingham 61-year-old is doing his bit. Today, UB40 featuring Ali and Astro release their cover of Bill Withers’ classic Lean On Me in a bid to raise funds for the NHS Charities Together Urgent Covid-19 Appeal.

Nailed down largely by phone, the track took five days from inception to finished piece. “It’s changed the way I look at recording music,” Ali admits.

Interestingly, Wolverhampton soul singer Beverley Knight has chosen the very same song to raise funds for NHS workers – and her version was released last Thursday.

“Bill Withers passed away last month,” says Ali. “My wife Julie said ‘What a great song to sing’. I thought it was a great idea and a very apt lyric for what’s going on now.

“I wanted to do a tribute to Bill Withers – and if we can do it for NHS charities, all the better.

“Beverely released the same song – that’s not a problem for me because it’s not about me, it’s about the charity. We’ve been pipped to the post, but we’ll still carry on.

“Astro and I really felt it was the track that encapsulated everything that’s going on at the moment – we’re all needing to lean on our NHS heroes.

The track also gives Ali a platform to air his views – and they are strong views – about the steady erosion of the NHS.

“I recently watched a video of former US president George Bush saying how we should prepare for a pandemic,” he says. “Those at the top were aware back then that a pandemic was going to happen sometime, yet the NHS still doesn’t have the equipment it needs. After this, I hope they will hold the NHS in the regard it deserves.

“It is the beating heart of our country. It is a treasure.”

Ali knows, from painful experience, the true value of our health service. As a teenager, he was attacked and suffered a severe eye injury. Doctors managed to save 20 per cent of the vision in his left eye.

The financial compensation Ali later received funded the foundations of UB40.

Self-isolation is easier for the singer than most because he’s had years of practice.

“When I go on tour and come home, I pretty much self-isolate, anyway,” he explains. “When you’ve been on tour, you’re tired out. I close myself away. I’m self-isolating a lot of the time.”

He believes that society – post-pandemic – will be rinsed of some of the cynicism that stained it.

“It will be a new world and a better one with people respecting binmen, cleaners and doctors and nurses who are putting their lives on the line,” he insists.

That new world does not include reconciliation with brothers Robin and Duncan, who front their own version of UB40, however.

“It was an acrimonious split and remains so,” Ali says simply. “I’m happy with the band I’ve got.”

The well documented rift, it seems, has proved pandemic-proof.