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Ali Campbell, whose 30-year tenure with UB40 ended last January because of financial quarrels, will be replaced by his estranged brother Duncan on the band’s new tour. What is this, the Mafia? Maxi Priest, who has had his own history of reggae covers of classic schmaltz, will also be performing with the band. Duncan is a former professional spoon player, and evidently nothing else he’s ever done in his life is as noteworthy as that.
He said he asked for Ali’s blessing before stepping in, but stressed they were not otherwise on speaking terms.
Duncan said: “I told him if he objected strongly, I wouldn’t do it. But I haven’t spoken to him since” Duncan added. “The wounds are fresh.”
Ali replied that he was “disappointed but didn’t object”, according to Robin.
Robin Campbell said : “He left to pursue a solo career for the financial benefits that that brings. That’s what he told me.”
He went onto say that the brothers’ relations with Ali would “take a lot of healing”.
“He’s my kid brother and I felt dumped, as did every other member of the band. We felt deeply hurt and those things take time to heal.”
I was tempted to finally check out some original UB40 after reading this–I’ve heard it’s good!–but instead I went straight to the Sliver soundtrack.
What a delightful romp.
UB40 announce singer replacement [NME]
Can’t help falling in love – UB40 [Youtube]
Their old stuff is great until you hear something – anything – that was produced in Jamaica (and is not Bob Marley) before 1975. Then it sounds terrible.
I was going to say, “3 hours, and no Spoonman jokes?” But then I noticed the post’s page title.
I saw UB40 back in the day at the Pier here in NYC – before they went all Elvis I can confirm that they were actually pretty fucking great once. What a shame…
Here’s some of the goodstuff:
@Elijah-M: Huh? UB40 didn’t exist until ‘78, and they were from Birmingham – part of the whole scene that gave birth to the Specials, The Selecter and the Two-Tone era… they’re as British as Spotted Dick and football hooliganism.
He’s saying that UB40 doesn’t stack up to anything recorded in Jamaica prior to 1975.
@Audif Jackson Winters III: Oh… got it now… but that was kind of the point of the whole late ’70s Brit-reggae revival anyway – trying to get back to that vintage roots sound when almost everything coming out of JA was rockers and lover’s rock…
WEB SHERIFF
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Hi Idolator,
On behalf of Reflex Muzic and UB40, many thanks for plugging “TwentyFourSeven” (UK street date 16th June) … .. and thanks, also, on behalf of the label and UB40 for not posting any pirate links to unreleased material, although, if your readers want good quality, non-pirated, preview tracks, a selection of full-length, official previews shall shortly be available for free downloading off UB40’s web-site, that fans and bloggers shall then be very welcome to post / host / file-swap etc in advance of next month’s official release of the full / 17 track album (check-out http://www.ub40.co.uk for details on 24/7 and the band’s 2008 shows).
To clarify the suggested / requested guidelines for 24/7, if anyone has a copy of the (UK) Mail on Sunday, 10 track promo, both Reflex and UB40 have requested that fans and bloggers simply keep these for personal use and do not post / file-exchange copies on-line … .. that being said and, again, as a goodwill gesture to fans and bloggers, the official preview tracks shall be available for free downloading off UB40’s site very shortly.
Many thanks for your plug.
Regards,
WEB SHERIFF
Hmmmm. “I Shot The Sherif?”
Well, not ME, personally, but just sayin’.