UB40’s story begins in Birmingham in the late 1970s. What inspired you and the original members to come together and form the band?
We didn’t come together to form a band, we were already a group of friends who had been together since the age of 10 or 11, some even younger than that. Obviously Ali and I are brothers, so we’ve known each other all our lives, but Norman the percussionist was six I think. We grew up together on the same streets in the same area. We talked about forming a band from when we were kids literally, and it wasn’t until people grew up and we went to see Bob Marley and thought “Yep that’s what we definitely want to do we’ve got to stop talking about it.” Seeing Marley in 1976 was the catalyst, and then we finally took it seriously in 1978 when we spent the summer in a cellar playing together and learning our instruments.
Your debut album, Signing Off, marked the start of an incredible journey. What do you remember most about creating that album?
The fact that it wasn’t recorded in a proper studio, but in someone’s bedsit apartment. He only had an eight-track tape machine and it wasn’t enough for a band as big as ours so he hired another eight-track and linked the two together to make a 16-track studio. It was kind of done layer by layer because we didn’t have the technology or the room for the whole band to play together so it was done in bit parts. Norman our percussionist was out in the garden because his equipment couldn’t fit in the room. He was stuck outside, and the microphones were passed through the window which is why you can hear birds singing on some of our tracks!
UB40 has achieved so much over the years. What do you consider to be the defining moments of your career?
Over 40 odd years there are too many defining moments, you know the business is cyclical, you have ups a downs, you have amazing successes. The biggest for us was probably having a number one record but we’d already had a half a dozen top 10 records by the time Red Red Wine went sort of global and gave us our first number one in the US. I think it was five years after it was number one everywhere else that it became a hit again in the US. That was the highlight but so was Falling In Love in ’94 which was 10 years later. That was another number one in America and we played Madison Square Garden to a sold-out audience with a number one record. There are so many highlights throughout our career in fact I can’t give you one defining moment really, in fact I think that’s why we need to write a book!
Every band evolves over time. How would you describe the UB40 that fans will see in Malta?
We think we’re the best we’ve been in a long, long time. We have a new vocalist in Matt Doyle who joined us three years ago. We have a new keyboard player Jahred Gordon from Jamaica and my son Matt Campbell is on backing vocals, we’ve also got Gilly G as our MC doing what Astro used to do. We just think that with this influx of youth into the band we’re firing on all cylinders we’re re-invigorated and we’re probably having more fun live than we’ve had for over 20 years. We’ve also just had a UK top five album with UB45, so yeah we think we’re the best UB40 we’ve been for decades.
What can fans in Malta expect from your show? Are there any special moments or songs you’re especially excited to perform?
I’m always excited to play new stuff because that’s what keeps us going as a band is the new stuff. Every time you make a new record the one thing you want to do is get out on the road and play your new material to the fans and get their stamp of approval. I always enjoy playing the old stuff as well of course because that is what the fans come to hear – the songs that they know and love like Red Red Wine. I mean I hate rehearsing Red Red Wine but I love playing it live because of what the audience give you back every time. But for me the most exciting thing is playing new material, that’s what gets me going and keeps me wanting to do this.
UB40 will perform live at MFCC, Ta’ Qali on March 8. For more information visit https://vernalfestival.com/. Tickets are available from showshappening.com