With beginnings in a bar fight, a name from an unlikely source,
and friendships that spanned decades, UB40's history is as rich as a glass of red, red wine.
You might be surprised to discover that UB40, a band famous for such joyful, upbeat music,
owes its existence to an extremely violent event. In 1976, UB40 singer Ali Campbell
went out to a pub in Birmingham, England, to celebrate his birthday — and got hit in the
face with a glass. His injuries were severe, leaving him with 90 stitches on his face and
eight in his eye. He had to spend a month in the Birmingham Eye Hospital to recover.
About a year later, he applied to a program in the U.K. where victims of violence can receive
cash settlements – and was approved. By the time Campbell received his payment,
he was 19 and receiving about seven pounds a week on the dole. Suddenly
flush with 4,500 pounds from the government, he used the money to buy instruments for his
friends who wanted to start a band — the band which went on to become UB40.
Like all great band names, "UB40" is both memorable and mysterious.
But this combination of letters and numbers is far from random,
and actually holds quite a bit of significance to the band members.
A bit of backstory: in the late 70s and early 80's, millions of Britons were out of work and
receiving small welfare payments – including the members of UB40. And many citizens blamed Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher – who did things like eliminating social welfare programs – for making
things worse. As singer Ali Campbell explained in an interview with the "Guardian Newspaper:"
"We were eight people who had been unemployed since school, trying to wade through Thatcher's
quagmire of s--t. We were politicized, we were disenfranchised, and we had a lot to say."
Two of the band's early hits, "One in Ten" and "Madame Medusa," savagely criticized Thatcher.
"One in Ten," released in 1981, directly refers to the fact that about 10 percent of
working people were claiming unemployment benefits in their hometown at the time.
"Yeah, so then after a while we didn't want a job, you know.
After being unemployed for two years when you're a kid like that, you know."
And as for the band's name? It stands for "Unemployment Benefit,
Form 40," an "attendance card" given to people claiming these benefits.
Some bands grind it out in obscurity for years before their big break,
playing hundreds of shows to small crowds in tiny venues. UB40, however, got very lucky very early.
The group had played only a dozen shows when the legendary lead singer of the Pretenders,
Chrissie Hynde, took an interest after seeing them play at a club called "The Rock Garden."
Hynde liked them so much she asked them to open for the Pretenders on a national
tour in 1980. And that exposure helped drive interest in UB40,
who hadn't even released as much as a single yet. Everything came full circle in 1985, when Hynde
provided guest vocals on UB40's hit 1985 cover of the Sonny and Cher classic "I Got You Babe."
UB40 went platinum with their albums "Labour of Love" and "Labour of Love 2" in 1983 and 1989,
respectively. Many UB40 albums, but those two in particular,
are filled with the group's take on old reggae songs, many of which were written
by Jamaican musicians, whose efforts were often exploited by producers.
"He paid me 15 Jamaican dollars. That's the money I got. You wouldn't even buy a patty with that."
Those producers would then rake in royalties and proceeds on those recordings forever,
while the song's original writers and artists might never see a penny.
"A lot of the people that we consider to be stars were being ripped off by their
producers in Jamaica, you know, and in London."
So, after they started recording their favorite reggae songs, UB40 sought to right
the wrongs done to the writers of those tunes. Whenever they covered a chestnut,
the band would track down the original writer and register them with PRS,
the royalty collection agency in the U.K. For example, when UB40 scored a huge British hit
with "Kingston Town '' in 1989, songwriting royalties finally went to writer Lord Creator.
"He came to meet us at the airport in Jamaica and he brought his whole family, dressed up like
it was Sunday. He told us he'd been very ill and couldn't pay his bills. Now he's paid his bills."
"With the money that was generated from us doing "Kingston Town" he
paid off his hospital bills and he built a house."
Singer-songwriter Neil Diamond racked up many hits in the 1960s, but his 1968 single,
"Red Red Wine," wasn't one of them, seeing as it peaked at 62 on the Billboard Hot
100. A year later Jamaican singer Tony Tribe recorded an upbeat, reggae version of the song,
and that's what caught the attention of the future members of UB40.
In 1983, the group recorded its own reggae-style take on "Red Red Wine"
because they didn't know the song was anything other than a reggae song. It
would wind up being the band's breakthrough single, topping the
pop chart in the U.K. (and eventually, the U.S.), launching them to fame and success,
having no idea it was a Neil Diamond ballad from the '60s, or that they'd made a cover of a cover.
Diamond actually loves UB40's version, so much so that he covered their interpretation for his
2010 album "Dreams." On the record, Diamond performs the song in the pop-reggae style,
and when he sings "Red Red Wine" in concert, he even includes Astro's toasting bridge.
UB40 hit big in the group's native U.K. a lot faster than they did in the U.S.
Reggae is much more widely popular in Britain than it is in America,
and by the time UB40 hit No. 1 in the U.K. for the first time in 1983 with
"Red Red Wine," it had already hit the top 40 with eight other singles.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., "Red Red Wine" marked the first time UB40 appeared on the Billboard Hot 100,
peaking at a respectable No. 34 in 1984. A year later, the group's U.K. No. 1, a cover
of Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe," also charted in the U.S. at number 28.
But then, almost inexplicably, "Red Red Wine" became intensely,
phenomenally popular in the U.S. — five years after its debut. Here's what happened. In June,
1988, UB40 performed at Freedomfest: Nelson Mandela's 70th Birthday. Freedomfest was a
televised concert from London's Wembley Stadium celebrating the
life and achievements of Nelson Mandela, who was at the time, still imprisoned.
An influential US radio DJ, "Guy Zapoleon," caught UB40's performance of "Red Red Wine" and loved it,
adding it to the playlist of his nationally syndicated show. That
boosted the song's profile. Numerous DJs added it to their own playlists, and it caught on,
to say the least, becoming a massive hit, reaching the number one spot on the Hot 100.
Many of UB40's early singles address the political situation in the U.K.,
particularly the controversial, archly conservative rule of Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher. One could assume that the band's 1986 album "Rat in the
Kitchen" and its semi-title track, "Rat in Mi Kitchen," a No. 12 hit on the British chart,
hint at animosity toward the government of the era. Nope! That song is literally about a rat.
"Oh rats!"
In 1981, Campbell bought a home in Birmingham, and it became the UB40 hangout house. At one point,
Terence Wilson, otherwise known as Astro, came over and asked if Campbell had any new songs
they could work on. Campbell had other, more pressing concerns, as he told "The Telegraph":
"At the time I had a rat in the kitchen. I tried to shoot it and hit it but it ran
away. I told him…I don't care about the album…I've got a rat in the kitchen!'"
And with that in mind, Astro went off and wrote "Rat in Me Kitchen!"
In 1993, UB40 experienced its biggest hit song when "Can't Help Falling in
Love," a reggae-flavored, uptempo cover of Elvis Presley's ballad,
spent seven weeks at number one. But that song's journey to the top was long and unlikely.
According to UB40 guitarist Robin Campbell, the band members had recorded a song for the 1992
Nicolas Cage comedy "Honeymoon in Vegas," that didn't end up in the film. Still,
UB40 believed in their version, releasing it on the 1993 album
"Promises and Lies." And apparently the world agreed, sending the song to the
number one spot. It was also later used in the Sharon Stone thriller, "Sliver."
UB40 maintained a stable lineup for nearly three decades, but in January 2008, it lost
one of its most important members: founder and lead singer Ali Campbell. Releasing a statement
on his website, Campbell described ongoing management difficulties as the reason, saying:
"I have been deeply unhappy with the administrative practices and with many
decisions that have been made in recent years regarding the band."
Campbell went on to say that he felt he "had no other option." The remaining
members of UB40 called foul, claiming that Campbell was thinking only of himself,
with one source accusing Ali of choosing his solo career over the band's.
But then, only a few weeks later, keyboardist Mickey Virtue left UB40 as well,
also blaming his departure on management and financial issues. Losing two key musicians
left UB40 feeling "like a rudderless ship," trumpet player and toaster Astro said in a
statement in 2013. As reported on "ITV," Astro effectively announced his exit as well, stating:
"I feel that it is time to draw a line in the sand and move on."
After Ali Campbell, Mickey Virtue, and Astro left the original group,
they reunited to create a new band called, yes, "UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, Astro,
and Mickey Virtue." Meanwhile, the remnants of the other UB40,
led by Ali Campbell's brothers, Robin and Duncan, continued on under its original name.
It's perhaps unsurprising what happened next: in 2014, UB40 filed suit against the splinter
group for improper use of the band name. Eventually both groups were allowed to
continue to use the names although the offshoot band changed its name after the 2018 departure
of Virtue to merely UB40 Featuring Ali Campbell and Astro. In 2018, the newer,
smaller, sort-of-UB40 released an album that felt like it could have come from the older,
fully together UB40 — an album of reggae covers called "A Real Labour of Love."
Money troubles began plaguing UB40 in the early aughts. beginning in 2007,
when the record label started by the band in 1980 to release its
own music and that of other reggae artists went out of business. Then,
in 2008, Ali Campbell left the band over issues with the management over finances.
In 2011, Campbell received some vindication, and cold comfort, when he was proven right
about financial mishandling. A judge in Birmingham County Court in England ruled that UB40 members
Brian Travers, Jimmy Brown, Terence Oswald, and Norman Hassan must file for bankruptcy.
In August of 2021, UB40 suffered a terrible blow when saxophonist Brian Travers passed away. He
was 62 years old and had previously undergone surgery for brain cancer. As one of the band's
original members, the ginger-haired Travers played an integral role from the beginning.
And then, later that year, in November, more shocking news: it was announced that Terence
Wilson, known by his stage name, Astro, had died at the age of 64. After co-founding the band in
1978, Astro was there through the heyday, playing trumpet and lending his legendary
"toasting" skills to the mix, most prominently in the songs "Red Red Wine" and "I Can't Help
Falling In Love." And of course, since 2013, he had been working side-by-side with Ali Campbell,
recording and touring. Campbell announced the news in a Twitter post:
"We are absolutely devastated and completely heartbroken to have to
tell you that our beloved Astro has today passed away
after a very short illness. The world will never be the same without him."
UB40 defied the odds at many points in their career,
starting with the fact that they were one of the most successful reggae acts
of all time despite being a group of working class guys from Birmingham,
England. Selling more than 70 million albums over the next four decades, their irresistible,
energetic songs provided a soundtrack to the '80s that will never be forgotten.