I regard them as brothers and feel betrayed

Mar 21 2008 by Emma Pinch, Liverpool Daily Post

UB40 tunesmith Ali Campbell has just announced a Liverpool date for his first solo tour. He tells Emma Pinch what was behind the group’s dramatic split.

ALI CAMPBELL, UB40’s laid back frontman, should be effortlessly cruising towards two big milestones at the moment.

Next year not only marks his 50th birthday but 30 years since he formed the most successful reggae outfit on the planet.

Instead, he’s embroiled in a messy public split with the seven boyhood pals he’s come to regard as family and is facing the daunting prospect of starting out again with a totally new line up.

The split came after Campbell fell out with the erstwhile management over money, while the rest of the band accused the lead singer of disrupting their careers because of his solo work.

Feelings are still raw.

In his husky smoker’s voice Campbell lets rip: “I’m f---ing furious. I regard them all as my brothers and I feel betrayed. But I couldn’t carry on the way it was.”

News of the split leaked out while UB40 were touring Down Under at the end of January and Campbell and the rest of the band then became locked in a public slanging match.

Campbell claims tensions had been building since a group of business managers took over four years ago from Bill Curbishley who also manages The Who.

“It’s been a bit like opening a bank account and asking for my account details a week later and them saying no,” he claims.

“I’ve been trying to talk about it to Robin (his brother) for years, so much so that every time I said anything everyone would go ‘oh shaad up, here we go again’.

“So it didn’t really get seriously sorted out.”

The tensions reached boiling point during rehearsals for their last tour.

“We had the meeting discussing what we wanted to do and how I was going to do my stuff alongside doing the UB40 stuff.

“When I did Running Free it was in my spare time and I was also touring with UB40. They told me certain things and I told them certain things

“I went back to the hotel and wrote an ultimatum saying I can’t work with this management team any more and I wasn’t going to tour with them unless they changed it.”

“I gave each band member a copy of one of those when we were in rehearsals, then we went upstairs and had this meeting and I said ‘I don’t want to carry on’.

“The mad thing is that they’ve all gone with the management and that’s unheard of.”

If Campbell was nursing any hopes the group would come over to his side as the tour went on, he was mistaken.

He hasn’t spoken to Robin since their last show in Uganda and admits that “things aren’t good really,” between them.

He’s left messages on his brother’s phone but so far he hasn’t had any reply.

He is still genuinely baffled by the band’s decision to go its separate way.

“We’re all brothers” he says. “We’ve been through everything together.

“When I started the band 20 odd years ago it was the compensation for being bashed in the face that paid for the equipment when we first started.

“We played our last show together in Uganda and then when I realised the band weren’t going to come on my side, I thought I’ll get my own band together’.

He might be nearing 50 but Campbell’s passion for playing and touring is as fresh as it was when they recorded their first album, Signing Off.

It was made as they came off the benefits the band was named after, in a bedsit in 1979.

The group, friends from school and college, had spent £4,000 on instruments and optimistically went round putting flyers up advertising their first pub gig before they had even played them.

They went on to sell 70m albums world wide and enjoyed three number ones including Red Red Wine, I Got You Babe with Chrissie Hynde and (I Can’t Help ) Falling In Love With You, and have toured the world six times.

In terms of UK hits UB40 are up there with Elvis Presley, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Until the split they were arguably the nation’s favourite group still touring and recording, U2 included.

On Campbell’s debut solo tour he will sing a mixture of songs from his solo albums, Big Love and Running Free and some of the old UB40 favourites.

He’s procured a line up of seasoned reggae artists to take round the world with him.

Two weeks ago, he confesses, he was “terrified” at the prospect of starting again with a new band.

“I’ve never been in any other band apart from UB40,” he says candidly.

“I was worried because It’s an unknown quantity and I didn’t know what we were going to sound like.

“But I’ve done a week’s rehearsals and I’m really happy with the way it’s going. They’re all seasoned and good musicians anyway. It’s nice to be doing fresh stuff.”

While the venture is rejuvenating, he won’t be revisiting the drink and cocaine soaked tours of earlier years.

He ditched them when his contemporary Robert Palmer died suddenly in 2003 at 54.

These days, aside from music, travel and time with his daughter give him a high – and the odd crafty joint – and he counts a morning dish of porridge, taking his daughter to school and returning to tune into ITV’s Loose Women as some of his simpler pleasures. Hawaii and the Seychelles are two exotic stops he’s plotted for his new tour.

“For the last couple of tours we’ve done what are called runners from the shows,” he says. “I do the last number, I come off stage get into a waiting car and go straight to the hotel to avoid any of the parties. I don’t miss it.”

He doesn’t rule out performing again with his old band. But for now feelings are still a little too raw to properly consider it.

“In 28 years I could have killed every one of them and done less time,” he reflects ruefully. “I would have actually been out three years ago.

“I certainly wouldn’t do anything with them again while they’ve got the same management. But never say never.”

ALI CAMPBELL plays the Liverpool Empire on June 16. Tickets can be bought on 0870 735 5000.