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Before heading to Hawaii, Ali Campbell and his UB40 mates have been enjoying a “Red Red Winery” tour around New Zealand.
“It’s been great,” says the singer of the band’s many hits. “We’ve been off the beaten track in some beautiful spots. The whole tour is pretty much sold out, playing to 7,000 to 10,000 people in beautiful valleys.”
Original frontman Campbell, founding keyboardist Mickey Virtue and vocalist/rapper Astro are touring as UB40 Reunited. Campbell is stoked to have Astro back in the fold.
“It’s made all the difference,” he explains. “He left (UB40) for more or less the same reasons I did. The old band made a country album and he didn’t want to be part of that. When he came back, that’s when we decided to try and save the legacy of UB40, and record as UB40 featuring Ali, Astro and Mickey. We’re enjoying a bit of a renaissance, back up to (playing) arenas.”
The musicians have just completed an unplugged album.
“I have been asked to do unplugged sessions for Radio 1 and 2 (in the United Kingdom),” he reports. “There’s this trend for acoustic sessions on British radio, and I suddenly realized I had an album’s worth of acoustic stuff, so I might as well do an unplugged one. Warner Bros. heard it and said they loved it, so it will be out in the spring – ‘UB40 Unplugged.'”
Is it true there’s no bass on it?
“No bass at all,” he says. “It was remixed and the lead guitar was made to sound bassy. It’s still acoustic with conga drums and bongos and melodica. I love it.”
They have already put out a live CD, “The Hits of UB40 Live,” featuring classics like “Cherry Oh Baby,” “Here I Am,” “Rat in the Kitchen,” and of course, “Red, Red Wine.”
“Some of the tracks were from when we played Beijing,” he notes. “There are some from Holland, England and Dublin. It’s a cross-section of the world tour. But the set has changed since the live album. We’re selling it on the tour.”
Last year, they also released a new studio album, “Silhouette,” which mixed new songs and reggaefied covers of classics by the Beatles (“Any Time At All”), Bob Dylan (“I Want You”), the Chi-Lites (“Have You Seen Her”) and a song originally made famous by Diana Ross (“I’m Missing You”).
“‘Silhouette’ recalls the heydays of UB40 music,” praised Reggaeville. “All the elements are there – Ali’s and Astro’s distinct voices, Mickey’s keyboards and a full-blown brass section on top of it. This album is a must for UB40 fans.”
They open the album with a great cover of a track from the Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night.”
“I was asked to do seven covers and seven originals,” Campbell explains. “I was listening to the radio and I heard the Beatles, so OK, I’ll do that. I’ve done quite a few Beatles covers, but I try to keep to the lesser-known tracks. I grew up loving the Beatles. I was a ’60s child.”
As for the notable original songs, “History” questions relying on the perspective of victors and conquerors, and “Cyber Bully Boys,” which was released as a single to benefit the anti-cyber-bullying organization Cybersmile, takes a swipe at his old band mates.
“It was about the sax player and the drummer who actively bullied my fans online,” he says. “I couldn’t believe their behavior. But cyber-bullying is a massive problem anyway, and I’m a patron of Cybersmile.”
Known for transforming pop gems like Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe” and Neal Diamond’s “Red Red Wine” into hits for the British reggae band, Campbell released a whole CD of covers a few years ago, “Great British Songs.” It included the Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women,” the Beatles “Got to Get You Into My Life” and Free’s “All Right Now,” all highlighted by his distinctive voice and catchy arrangements, working with legendary producers/musicians Sly and Robbie.
“The whole album was a bit of an experiment,” he says. “I’d done a cover of Prince’s ‘Purple Rain,’ and everyone loved it, so it got me thinking how abstract could I get with iconic rock ‘n’ roll tracks. Sly Dunbar laughs every time he hears (Gerry Rafferty’s) ‘Baker Street.’ He couldn’t believe we took on ‘Baker Street’ with a reggae version. I loved doing the Paul McCartney song ‘Got to Get You Into My Life’; that’s his pro-ganja song.”
Campbell grew up in Birmingham, England, with a father who was an acclaimed folk singer.
“I hated folk music,” he says. “The music of the streets where we lived was reggae. After my Beatles’ period till about 9 years old, I got into ‘African Herbsman’ by the Wailers, the quintessential reggae album of all time. I had that when I was 10 and it changed my life. When I started UB40, reggae was only about 12 or 13 years old. Before that it was rocksteady and ska. I started UB40 to promote reggae, and that’s why when the dark side, as I call them (his former band mates), started doing country stuff, it was a slap in the face.”
Campbell, his brother Robin Campbell and six school friends founded the group in 1978 and went on to become the best-selling reggae band of all time, with sales of more than 80 million records.
Out of work, they took their name from a U.K. unemployment benefit form. And it was while they were receiving benefits that Campbell was involved in a pub fight that resulted in a compensation payment that allowed the fledgling band to buy instruments.
“I was only 17 and I shouldn’t have been in the pub,” he recalls. “It was my 17th birthday and I ended up fighting and I got a beer mug smacked around my head. I was in hospital for a month and had eight stitches in my eye and 90 stitches on my face. My older brother was a legal executive and he put in a claim for criminal injury. I didn’t even know he had done it. A couple of years later, when we were thinking of forming the band four grand came through and we were on 7.90 (pounds) a week (about $11). It made me like a millionaire. That enabled us to buy a bunch of equipment.”
Discovered by Chrissie Hynde, they were invited to open for a Pretender’s tour, and this valuable exposure fueled the success of their first single, which sold half a million copies.
Scoring more than 50 hits on the U.K. Singles Chart, UB40 broke into America in 1988 in the form of a reggae cover “Red Red Wine,” from the band’s tremendous 1983 album, “Labour Of Love.” A few years later, they again topped the U.S. charts with a soulful cover of Elvis’ ballad “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” The hit song was included on their album “Promises and Lies,” which sold more than 9 million copies worldwide.
Was he surprised by their success?
“Not really, because when we did the ‘Labour of Love’ series they were all No. 1 hits to us. They had all been hits in reggae circles. We grew up listening to ‘Cherry Oh Baby,’ ‘Kingston Town’ and ‘Many Rivers to Cross.’ We knew if other people got to hear them, they would be hits again.”
One song I’ve long been curious about: their memorable hit “Rat in the Kitchen” (which featured Herb Alpert on trumpet).
So what inspired it?
“Astro came ’round to see me in my new home and I had a rat in the kitchen,” he reveals. “I shot it and it jumped in the air and climbed under the washing machine. I was waiting for him to come out to kill him. So Astro’s going, ‘Have you got any lyrics?’ I’m, ‘F— that, I’ve got a rat in the kitchen,’ and that became the chorus. He went home and wrote it. What’s funny was that the music press at the time was all talking about how the rat was Margaret Thatcher and the kitchen was the country. No, there was a rat and I was going to kill that rat.”
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Tonight, Charley’s Restaurant & Saloon in Paia will feature “Austin’s Piano Queen” Marcia Ball performing with Johnny Nicholas & Hellbent.
As USA Today noted, “Marcia Ball plays rollicking roadhouse rave-ups and soulful Gulf Coast R&B. Her barrelhouse playing and her feel-good party tunes are iconic.”
A regular at New Orleans’ annual Jazz & Heritage Festival, Ball has been nominated for a Grammy and appeared in the PBS special “In Performance at the White House,” along with B.B. King and Della Reese. She also performed in “Piano Blues,” directed by Clint Eastwood, which was part of Martin Scorsese’s “The Blues” series.
Nicholas has toured and recorded with many blues and Americana roots music legends, including Mississippi Fred McDowell, Robert Lockwood Jr., Johnny Shines and Big Walter Horton. The Dragons Jazz Band will open at 8 p.m.
* Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. For more information, visit www.charleysmaui.com.