Reggae band UB40 were once under surveillance by the country’s secret security service MI5 because they “ruffled feathers with the government”, according to former frontman Ali Campbell.
The Birmingham-born singer, 67, claims the domestic intelligence agency compiled a list of music bands in the eighties, and the Red, Red Wine chart-toppers were included because of their radical left-wing politics. He tells the Mirror, “There was a list at one point published of bands being ‘watched’ by MI5. We reckon we all had our phones tapped because you could hear the ‘click’. I mean we were political, outspoken and, I suppose, that meant we ruffled feathers with the government.
View 4 ImagesUB40 stands for Unemployment Benefit, Form 40
“We’ve got a lot of crazy chapters in our past, but that was one of the craziest. We’re still political – that’s why our new tour’s called Big Love. The world really needs it. Look at what’s happening with that maniac Trump in America, and in Britain with the rise of Reform. It’s terrifying.” Campbell grew up in what was then Birmingham’s red-light district, Balsall Heath, with his three brothers.
HIs mum Pat Weaver was a full-time mum and dad Ian, born in Aberdeen, moved to the Midlands as a teenager, was the lead singer of the Ian Campbell Folk Group and often away from home, touring.
When Campbell came together with seven pals to form their band in 1978, the members were all unemployed and claiming benefits. “We were a product of Thatcher’s Britain, one in ten unemployed,” Campbell says. “Naming ourselves after an unemployment benefit form was a stroke of genius really, because we gave ourselves three and a half million card-carrying fans.” Thanks to Margaret Thatcher’s strict monetarist policies, Birmingham lost around 200,000 industrial jobs between 1971 and 1981, resulting in close to 20 per cent unemployment.
View 4 ImagesCampbell and Suggs attend the unveiling of The Music Walk Of Fame 2023 for UB40 in Camden(Image: Getty Images)
The name UB40 – which stands for Unemployment Benefit, Form 40 – referred to the card they were issued that allowed them to claim financial assistance from the government.
Their first album, Signing Off, was also a nod to the process of signing off the unemployment register. “I nicked my first ever guitar at a house party in the 80s. We couldn’t exactly buy our instruments at the start, on £7 a week.”
A couple of years later, Campbell received criminal compensation after he was smashed in the head with a beer mug. “That helped us a bit, but I gave a thousand pounds to my brother to set up his second-hand car business and spent the rest on obsolete instruments that you couldn’t play.”
Since then, Campbell – who now performs as UB40 Featuring Ali Campbell, after a bitter internal 2008 dispute saw the original group split into two iterations, has travelled the world, packed out stadiums and sold millions of records. One of the singer’s proudest moments, he says, was upholding the cultural boycott of South Africa, aimed at isolating the apartheid regime. “We refused to go. When we finally did, we played in Johannesburg to 80,000 people. One of the songs we sang was called Power, with our first clenched, I get goosebumps just talking about it.”
And he still pinches himself at just how far those Birmingham friends – bonded by unemployment and a deep love of reggae – have gone. “We’ve just come back from performing in the South Pacific. What a stunning place, And it’s funny, wherever we go in the world, we’ve got fans. Reggae is so loved worldwide.”
View 4 ImagesUB40 formed in 1978 in a deprived area of Birmingham
The current tour will please fans, with UB40’s biggest numbers on the setlist. And with 40 top 20 hits in the 2000s, there are a few to choose from. Most synonymous of them all, however, is Red, Red Wine, originally released by Neil Diamond – and fans won’t let Campbell forget it.
“I hear it in my sleep! It’s in clubs, pubs.. people sing it at me in the street, in airports… But it’s a cover I loved, I never get sick of singing it.”
What he has had enough of, he says, is the hard partying the band were once famed for. “I’ve been teetotal for two years, and gave up weed twenty years ago, I’m more health-conscious these days.”
“I want to see my beautiful grandchildren grow up. We’ve lost two of the original band members. You can’t party all your life. I’ll probably have a party when I reach 70, but I’ll never drink alcohol again. What’s amazing is, I don’t miss it at all. I drink 0% Guinness now, that’s my tipple!”
UB40 featuring Ali Campbell’s Big Love tour will head across the UK in November/December. Tickets on sale now at myticket.co.uk.
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