Reggae legends UB40 head for Exeter

Due to popular demand, reggae legends UB40 have confirmed seventeen UK live dates for October 2015.

The autumn leg of UB40’s ‘Getting Over The Storm’ tour begins on Friday, 2nd October at De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill and ends at Cardiff’s new state-of the-art Tramshed venue on Saturday, 24th October – by which time the band will have completed ninety UK shows and performed to over 170,000 people since the tour began in March 2014, making it the biggest UK tour of UB40’s career.

UB40 are Robin Campbell (co-lead vocals and guitar), Duncan Campbell (lead vocals) Earl Falconer (bass, vocal), Brian Travers (sax and keyboards), Jimmy Brown (drums), Norman Hassan (percussion, vocals).

The band also feature, Martin Meredith (sax) and Laurence Parry (trumpet), who have both been in UB40’s touring line-up for over twenty years, and Tony Mullings (keyboards).

Naming themselves after the unemployment benefit form, UB40 formed in 1978, before releasing their debut album ‘Signing Off’ in August 1980 – considered by many to be one of the greatest reggae albums ever released by a British band. It was the start of a career that has since seen the band have over forty UK Top 40 hit singles and achieve sales of over 100 million records, making UB40 one of the most successful British groups of all-time. The band’s latest Top 30 album ‘Getting Over The Storm’ was awarded BBC Radio 2’s ‘Album Of The Week’ accolade and received 5-star reviews from the UK’s music press on its release in September 2013.

Also, just to put you fully in the picture with what’s going on behind the scenes:

UB40 have issued writs against Ali Campbell and two other former members of the band – here’s the story, as reported in The Daily Mirror:http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/ub40-take-legal-action-agains...

Ali left the band in 2008, but suddenly started touring under the name ‘UB40’ with two other former members at the beginning of 2014 - complete with some very misleading marketing. It’s caused a huge amount of confusion, hence the writs being issued – and me sending you all this info!

UB40’s current line-up is:

Duncan Campbell – co-lead vocals
Robin Campbell – co-lead vocals, guitar
Earl Falconer – bass, vocals.
Brian Travers – sax and keys
Jimmy Brown – drums
Norman Hassan – percussion, vocals.
Martin Meredith – sax
Lawrence Parry – sax

Robin, Earl, Norman, Jimmy and Brian are all founding members of UB40, with the latter two being (and always have been) the principle songwriters of the band. Martin and Lawrence have been in the band for over 20 years.

Duncan Campbell (Ali and Robin Campbell’s brother) joined the band when Ali left in 2008. He was originally asked to be in the band when UB40 formed, but he declined the offer because he never thought much would come of it! Duncan officially joined the band in 2008 with Ali’s blessing, but Ali hasn’t spoken to him since.