UB40

UB40 took their name from a British form used to claim unemployment benefits and came together as a pop-reggae ensemble while standing in a Birmingham welfare queue during 1978. The band’s racially mixed membership mirrored the working-class neighborhood that produced its members, and they built early credibility on the street by tackling political subjects that spoke to disaffected young listeners, receiving an early lift from supporters of the fading 2-Tone ska revival. Across subsequent decades the group became widely recognized for reggae interpretations of well-known hits and achieved broad commercial breakthrough on either side of the Atlantic. Late in the 1980s they reached the top of the charts with their readings of Neil Diamond’s “Red Red Wine” and Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” sustaining British momentum through the 1993 number-one album Promises and Lies. Although American popularity waned, UB40 stayed prominent in the United Kingdom deep into the twenty-first century despite lineup shifts and internal disputes. Releases such as the 2013 album Getting Over the Storm largely followed their established pattern of cover material, whereas 2019’s For the Many consisted entirely of original songs. After two founding members passed away, the remaining musicians reassembled to mark their forty-fifth anniversary with the 2024 album UB45.

Robin Campbell on lead guitar and his brother Ali Campbell on guitar and lead vocals formed the core of UB40, joined by Earl Falconer, saxophonist Brian Travers, drummer James “Jimmy” Brown, and percussionist Norman Hassan. The ensemble began performing live in 1979 and secured an opening slot with the Pretenders before the year ended. By 1980 UB40 had incorporated keyboardist Michael (Mickey) Virtue and toaster Terence Wilson, known as Astro, completing their original roster.

Their debut single “Food for Thought” climbed into the U.K. Top Ten in 1980, launching an extended run of chart entries. Signing Off and Present Arms sold strongly throughout Britain, though less so in America, and confronted contemporary political concerns, most notably in “One in Ten,” a Top Ten single that criticized Margaret Thatcher over rising unemployment. Issued in 1983, the covers album Labour of Love delivered the group’s first American charting LP and its initial U.K. number-one single with Neil Diamond’s “Red Red Wine.” Subsequent collections of original songs performed solidly at home yet only moderately across the Atlantic, where the band’s strongest showing at the time was a Top 30 remake of Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe” that featured the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde.

During 1988 UB40 played “Red Red Wine” at a Nelson Mandela tribute concert, prompting a Phoenix radio station to revive the track; audience reaction proved far stronger, sending the single back up the charts until it reached the summit. Now positioned to crack the American market, the band followed with another covers set, Labour of Love II, which yielded Top Ten singles via versions of the Temptations’ “The Way You Do the Things You Do” and Al Green’s “Here I Am (Come and Take Me).” A major U.S. success arrived with Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” first heard in the Sharon Stone film Sliver and holding the number-one spot for seven weeks. By this stage UB40 had largely set aside their signature left-leaning politics in favor of refining reggae interpretations of older hits rather than new compositions, yet the approach produced substantial sales on both sides of the Atlantic, with Promises and Lies peaking at number six in the States and number one in Britain.

UB40 issued Presents the Dancehall Album in the U.K. during spring 1998. A third Labour of Love collection arrived the following year. In autumn 2002 the group returned with another compilation, The Fathers of Reggae, released on Virgin in November and spotlighting their reggae foundations through a selection of classics. The band achieved a major British hit in 2003 with its rendition of the spiritual “Swing Low,” recorded with the multicultural choir United Colours of Sound and adopted as the official anthem for the 2003 English Rugby team; the track appeared on that year’s Homegrown album. As their 2005 release Who You Fighting For? reached stores, an announcement revealed plans to collaborate with Birmingham’s Repertory Theatre on a new musical slated for spring 2006. Two years afterward, the album Twentyfourseven marked the final recording with vocalist Ali Campbell and keyboardist Michael Virtue. UB40’s 2010 album Labour of Love IV introduced Ali’s brother Duncan as the new lead singer, while a remastered two-CD/DVD edition of Signing Off was issued as a 30th Anniversary Special Edition that the band supported with tours across America and Europe.

In 2011 Robin Campbell, Brian Travers, Terence Wilson, Norman Hassan, and Jimmy Brown initiated bankruptcy proceedings against the current group over debts accumulated by their label, DEP International; together with former singer Ali Campbell they were declared bankrupt that same year. The band released its eighteenth studio album in 2013. Titled Getting Over the Storm, the record presented covers of country songs by artists including Willie Nelson, George Jones, and Randy Travis. Astro departed after Getting Over the Storm and later formed a separate trio with Ali Campbell and Mickey Virtue in 2016 under the name UB40 featuring Ali, Astro & Mickey. Meanwhile the remaining UB40 lineup continued touring and marked their fortieth anniversary in 2018 with a concert at the Royal Albert Hall plus the new album For the Many. Saxophonist Brian Travers died on August 22, 2021, at age 62 following treatment for brain tumors. Terence Wilson, better known as Astro, died on November 6, 2021, after a brief illness at age 64. With new lead singer Matt Doyle, UB40 performed at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in their hometown of Birmingham alongside other local figures such as Dexys, Ozzy Osbourne, and Musical Youth. Preparing for their forty-fifth anniversary, the band issued the single “Gimme Some Kinda Sign” in early 2024 ahead of the album UB45.