Festivals For All caught up with Ali Campbell, the voice of UB40, for a chat about the world tour, the importance of Reggae, what audiences can expect, and, erm, Papua New Guinea! Read on….

FFA - You’ve already played Nigeria, Dubai, Malaysia, and South Africa in the last few weeks – even Papua New Guinea – what was that like?

It was very whistle stop. We’ve recently done six dates, started in Dubai where we played a sell-out concert, which sadly got cancelled half way through because of hailstone… which is the first time they’ve had hail in the desert for 20 years! They didn’t invest in a stage canopy and I’ve played plenty of times in the rain – but we didn’t want to electrocute ourselves or the audience! … It was just as I’d launched into Please Don’t Make Me Cry and the organisers had to cancel – which was a shame. Then it was off to South Africa where we played to 17,000 people over two shows including the Botanical Gardens in Johannesburg where we played to 10,00 people, which was a great experience... We played in Kuala Lumpur and had a day off because we’d done a lot of travelling. It was good to rest for the boys – but they’re all old soldiers! Papua New Guinea was great … we played two shows – one was a corporate bash – we played in front of a swimming pool (just like Birmingham then, FFA quipped) … Yep (laughs) … it was really weird – just like being in The Monkees or something!

FFA - As having this ongoing global audience surprised you at all?

No not really. The worlds shrunk now hasn’t it and when we first started we used to tour around but had a bit of anonymity I suppose, but now with MTV & the internet everybody knows everybody all over the place… I was sat watching The Middle in Papua New Guinea and I thought – this is ridiculous! (laughs)

FFA - You’ve just announced some more UK tour dates for December 2014?

Yeah, basically we’re just adding more, we are on a world tour anyway - and there is plenty more to do – and plenty more coming in. We’ve just announced London & Birmingham … so that everybody there knows we are not running away for two years so.  … We’ll still be back and forth coming home to play for our core fans.

FFA - After 35 years, do you still enjoy life on the road?

I love it, I absolutely love it … it became a way of life for me 20 years ago really. I sort of realised then I was a buccaneer going round the world making treasure (laughs loud!) and it just became a way of life – it’s a lot of fun. 

FFA - You’re playing the highly regarded Bearded Theory festival in May and hitting the stage as Sunday Night Headliners – excited?

It’s great because we’d the ideal festival band in some respects – we’ve got a wealth of hits to tour from. We can sort of rock up anywhere and start playing and people know the tunes, yer know. We go round the world playing festivals – we are a festival band so it’s lovely to come back and do festivals in England like Bearded.

FFA - What can the Bearded Theory audience expect?  Do you have a ‘festival’ set list?

No. We go around doing a greatest hits show in some respects; … we know that people come to see UB40 expecting to hear the hits that they know and love already. That is really important and what we try to do… When I was younger, and a lot more precious about new material (laughs), we once went on tour and supported ourselves.. so we could play everything! We did the first set of classic Labour of Love stuff, then we showed The Labour of Love movie, then we came on again - in our new leather gear (laughs) and played the latest stuff… We took it that far really.  So I’ve been through all that, and now I’m very proud of playing our back catalogue.  

So at Bearded it will be hit after hit and we’ll be playing a couple of songs from the new album, and then a few surprise one's too!

FFA - Some would say your biggest achievement in music is bringing Reggae to a wider, mainstream audience … what would you say?

Yes absolutely, that was my mission from the off – to promote reggae music, we were often asked, as a band from Birmingham, why do you all play reggae music? Well doing the Labour of Love series, Red Red Wine and the like, all those songs made us love reggae originally and we were convinced they’d be massive hits – and we were right because they were already hits in the reggae world and we knew if we exposed them to a wider world then they’d be hits again.

FFA - There has always a political element to the band (it’s all in the name) with songs like ‘One in Ten’ – is that still important to you today and reflected in your new material?

Definitely, when I do my own lyrics you try and set a level you want to stay at and write something relevant. That said, I also want to promote music – I think sometimes you can say more with the drum and bass as much as with the lyrics. It’s a unifying music Reggae – it’s the same all over the world, it’s a family, and we’re speaking to each other as soon as the drummer and bass starts.

FFA - Is the new album material reflecting that approach?

Totally, its 100% reggae – I’m still on the production journey all producers are on – trying to get better and better with each album. I’m on my 30th album and I think I’m getting there, yer know (laughs).

I thought I’d finished it six months ago (laughs) and then Astro joined me … so what I’m doing now is incorporating Astro on tracks that I thought I’d finished. Its 14 tracks – half covers and half originals – 100% reggae music and fans are going to absolutely love it!

FFA - The press is full of debate about the UB40 brand name – what’s your take on it?

I think all of us have got the right to use the name. I’ve sat back for 5 years and watched my songs and the legacy of the band being destroyed… and when they released their latest country album then that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. When Astro came back we reclaimed the name for ourselves and rebuild the legacy… That’s where we’re at, why we are on a world tour, and releasing a new album etc.

FFA - As something got to give on ‘duplicated’ names’?

I don’t think anything has to give. Nobody ‘owns’ the name UB40… it’s a government benefits form after all. The name, as far as I’m concerned, and the fans are concerned, well: They’ve got a UB40 band not the original singers, and one with the original singers. They can decide which one they want to go and see really… Same with the album – there’s a country album out there and there’s a Reggae album.

Ali, Astro, and Mickey headline Bearded Theory on Sunday night 25th May 2014 as part of their ongoing world tour.

There is a free download of a new track ‘REGGAE MUSIC’ to whet your appetite available now.

Discover more about the guys and Bearded Theory.

Article by Barrie Dimond