UB40 have said they wouldn’t reunite with their former frontman Ali Campbell for “all the money in the world”.
Campbell was a co-founding member of the Birmingham reggae and pop band, who formed back in 1978. He departed the line-up in 2008, with Mickey Virtue quitting shortly afterwards. Astro also left the group in 2013.
READ MORE: UB40’s Ali Campbell interview: “There will never be a reunion between me and my brother”
Campbell’s brother Duncan took over the role of lead vocalist in 2008, but he retired from performing live in 2021 after suffering a seizure following a stroke in 2020. He was replaced by Matt Doyle (formerly of reggae band Kioko), who remains in the current version of UB40.
Ali’s older brother Robin is still in the band too on guitar, as is Jimmy Brown on drums. The pair recently appeared on the podcast The Trawl, where they opened up about Ali’s heated exit in the late ’00s.
“What was happening was there were less and less records being sold with the rise of technology,” Brown explained. “And we were having to tighten our belts.”
He continued, recalling Ali’s excessive spending: “Ali got himself a new squeeze, a new girlfriend, you know, and rejected his family. And he was trying to impress, he was like Mike Tyson in a jewellery shop!”
The two musicians said they believe that Ali made a “calculated” decision to leave UB40 to embark on a solo career.
“I think he made the calculation, you know, encouraged by his girlfriend and our ex-manager, and made the calculation that maybe if he was to dump the band then he could go out and still live the same pop star life he’d been used to living for 20 years,” Jimmy remembered.
“Unfortunately, the tour that he booked at that time under his own name just bombed!”
Robin insisted that Ali’s departure was strictly business, rather than “a family fallout”. He continued: “It wasn’t brothers falling out. He left the band.
“And he was also closer to several members of the band than he was to me, even though he was my kid brother. For instance, Brian Travers, our sax player who’s passed away, they were best pals from the age of 10, 11 years old.”
When talking about Ali’s decision to part ways with UB40, Robin suggested that his brother “turned his back” on the band’s ethos and the advice given to them by their late father – which was about “sharing everything equally”.
Jimmy claimed that Ali left because of a desire to pursue a solo career, and “play that pop star role”.
Ali Campbell and Astro perform live. CREDIT: Gerardo Mora/Getty
“I think the problem with Ali was that he didn’t want to be told that he’s not a pop star,” he explained. “He didn’t like being brought down. He didn’t like having his feet kept on the ground.”
When asked if UB40 would follow in the footsteps of Oasis‘ Liam and Noel Gallagher to reunite with Ali, Jimmy responded: “All the money in the world wouldn’t get us to do that
“The conclusion I’ve come to in the end is that he’s done some big favour. We’ve got a brilliant singer. He’s fantastic and he’s only 30. He’s got a fantastic voice, and you can rely on him. He doesn’t get boozed up every night!”
Ali still performs live under the banner ‘UB40 Featuring Ali Campbell’. Astro, who died in 2021, also performed as part of the group (then called ‘UB40 Featuring Ali Campbell & Astro’). They initially toured with the name ‘UB40 Featuring Ali, Astro And Mickey’, with Virtue in the fold.
Speaking to NME in 2020, Ali Campbell was asked whether he would ever bury the hatchet with his former bandmates in the original iteration of the group.
He replied: “No, that’ll never happen. They’re failing miserably and we’re flying high, so I wouldn’t dream of going back to them. There will never be a reunion.”
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