Lead singer Ali Campbell was replaced as frontman in 2008 by his brother Duncan. Ali claimed he had been fired. The band, which included his guitarist brother Robin, claimed he had quit to pursue a solo career.
Whatever the story, the aftermath saw the two rival UB40s go on tour. Using the original name, UB40, became Duncan, Robin and the four other founding line-ups.
Meanwhile, Ali and the remaining original members – co-vocalist Astro and keyboardist Mickey Virtue – toured and recorded as UB40 with Ali, Astro and Mickey.
Tragedy struck in 2021, when saxophonist Brian Travers and Astro died, and Duncan was forced to quit music after suffering a stroke. That did not, however, dampen the intensity of the dispute.
Ali insisted that he had no plans to end the feud, telling the Daily Express: “I don’t think I have anything to say to them. There’s no way I’m going to get them back together.”
The Birmingham-born singer, who was yesterday honoured with a star on the Music Walk of Fame – a pavement tribute in Camden, north London – still rues the split.
“Oh, it’s sad, of course. Things happened that should never have happened,” he continued. “It was all very messy and very silly. But I’m better off leaving it all behind. I’m happier without all that nonsense.”
Now 64, Ali is friendly and a natural storyteller. But it’s clear he’s still frustrated with his former bandmates and friends. “There were only four of us in the original lineup, which I call the ‘Dark Side Edition,’” he says.
“And they weren’t the most important people in the band. I don’t want to go back to them.”
UB40 at a photoshoot (Photo: Getty)
“I’m so happy to be continuing to grow with my band. Every time the dark version plays, it takes away the legacy of my band.”
Now known as UB40 with Ali Campbell, the second incarnation of the band has just announced a huge arena tour for next year. Ali enjoys playing in areas where global artists rarely perform.
“I’ve taken my band to 72 different countries,” he says. “We’re very lucky to have a really global fan base.” In 2013, for example, they played a show in the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific.
Ali laughs as he recalls the episode: “We met 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 followed them back to the airport, where they blew their horns and started playing UB40 tunes. It was the funniest thing that ever happened to me. I thought, ‘How do they know about UB40 music?’ “
It was just one of many strange moments Ali has experienced since UB40 formed in 1978. “I grew up in Balsall Heath, a suburb of Birmingham that was predominantly West Indian and Asian,” he recalls.
“That meant I grew up with reggae music as it came together. I was always a big reggae fan, but not many people at school knew what I was talking about.
‘If we start talking about England… but change the way they sing’ “My schoolmates were into glam rockers like Marc Bolan and Mud, that went straight to my head.”
While performing in Camden, UB40 were spotted by The Pretenders lead singer Chrissie Hynde, who invited them to support her on tour.
“We’d barely played a dozen gigs in our entire career before that,” Ali explains. “We released our first single, Food For Thought, while we were supporting the Pretenders. It went to number four and we never looked back.”
Soon after, UB40 scored another chart-topper – I Got You Babe, a cover of the Sonny and Cher hit – with Hynde. Named after the government’s unemployment benefit application form, UB40 stood out among the more glamorous bands of the early 1980s music scene.
Their political protest hits included King, One In Ten and The Earth Dies Screaming. “We now, we want Sunak’s you don’t do anything by talking about ‘We’ve got something to say, which the press don’t like,’” Ali recalls.
“They want fun pop, like the ABC and Culture Club. They don’t want disenfranchised kids like us moaning on Top Of The Pops. I remember a review of One In Ten saying, ‘Oh look, UB40 are crying in their beer again’.”
“Ali is still politically motivated, but admits: “As you get older, you get less angry, when you accept the fact that it’s all a piece of shit. If we started getting into music now, we’d have a lot to say about Sunak’s Britain too. We’d still be crying in our beer.”
But while I’m still as political as I’ve ever been, I don’t think things are going to get any better and I don’t think you can change things by singing about them.”
This month marks the 40th anniversary of UB40’s biggest album, Labour Of Love. The chart-topper saw the band cover iconic reggae and ska tunes including Red Red Wine, turning them into mainstream anthems.
“Those songs were huge hits in the reggae world,” Ali recalls. “We knew people would love them if they had a chance to hear them. That’s why I still enjoy playing them 40 years later.”
“We really wanted Labour Of Love to be our debut album, but at the time, every band was writing their own material. We were turned down. But UB40 went on to make three Labour Of Love albums [I, II and III], which sold 21 million copies. So we were right.”
Despite their phenomenal success, UB40 were not invited to perform at Live Aid in 1985, which, understandably, still charted.
“It was strange that we weren’t invited,” says Ali. “It’s even more strange when you consider that Food For Thought dealt with exactly the same subject that Live Aid was about – poverty. But black behaviour was conspicuous by its absence at Live Aid.”
Away from the band’s campaigning side, Ali found himself pressed into producing a song co-written by Infamous.
East End gangster Reggie Kray. As if that wasn’t strange enough, the song was also called Closet Queen. It happened around the time Ali met Krays associate Pete Gillett after his release from prison in 1987.
“Pete was singing Closet Queen at a club in Birmingham,” Ali revealed. “It was a long, drunken night and at 4am I said to Pete, ‘Okay, I’ll produce it.’
“I got a letter from Reggie Kray saying, ‘I hear you’re training my friend. Thanks for that. God bless your friend, Reggie Kray.’ But I had to go on tour before it was over and I wasn’t interested in the song anymore.”
Then he received a second, more worrying letter from Reggie. “It said: ‘My friends have told me you’ve lost your way. Remember: if you kick a dog, you kick its master. God bless your friend, Reggie Kray.’
“So I finished the song. But of course, no record company would touch it with a barge. Thankfully, Reggie understood. His final letter read: ‘Thank you for finishing the record. I have a picture of you in my cell. God bless me. Your friend, Reggie Kray.’”
Now happily living with his wife Julie in Dorset, Ali is as passionate about reggae as ever. He was delighted when the band’s most recent album, Unprecenced, made the Top 10 last year. But he’s still OK with playing shows without Astro, adding: “It’s always a big hole not having Astro there. He’s like a brother to me, but life goes on and UB40 goes on.
“We never stopped playing. The whole idea of UB40 was to promote reggae. All these years later, reggae is a huge influence. And I still love it.”
UB40 are joined by Ali Campbell’s The Hits tour, which runs from 6-16 April 2024. Tickets go on sale at myticket.co.uk at 10am this Friday
‘If we started now, we’d have a lot to say about Sunak’s Britain… but you can’t change things by singing about them’ The ABC did’
