A Real Labour Of Love is out on March 2

Starting out: the original UB40 line-up in 1983 with Ali Campbell (far right) and (left) Ariana Grande and Katy Perry who Ali says have been influenced by reggae music

Beres Hammond’s She Loves Me Now. “For me he is like the Otis Redding of reggae,” Ali adds. “He’s an absolute f ****** genius. He’s been a hero of mine for 30 years ... to go in and do a Beres Hammond cover, I’m like f ***, you are sure?”

With almost four decades of performing in him, it would

be easy to assume Ali had shaken off any nerves. But they were there when he covered Hammond, and he admits they still return now ahead of live shows.

“You’ll always find me in the toilets before the gig. You’ve got to be nervous if you’re going to perform properly. If you just walk on and don’t give a sod, you’re not going to give a very good performance,” he says.

A Real Labour Of Love puts Ali and Astro at the helm of an 11-piece band, including former Simply Red member and

long-serving trombonist John Johnson, who sadly died of cancer in 2017.

“Ironically he was the fittest bloke out of all of us, probably one of the fittest men I’d ever met really,” says Ali in words later echoed by Astro.

“He was 50 and he had the body of a 25-year-old. He didn’t have a spare ounce of fat and he spent all his time in the gym. His body was his temple and he ate all the right stuff. When we were in the bar, he was in the gym.”

Ali stresses Johnson will be very much in mind at the Teenage Cancer Trust gig, which came about after The Who’s Roger Daltrey — who helps organise the shows — roped him in for a reggae night.

It’s a sign of the revival the genre is enjoying, Ali says, adding it is “bigger than it has ever been”.

“Look, okay, at what is happening to pop at the moment — it’s all reggae,” he says, citing Katy Perry, Ariana Grande, Rihanna and Beyonce.

“Reggae is more influential now than it’s ever been. We’re not having a UB40 or a Sean Paul or a Shaggy moment ... it’s bigger than that because the whole of contemporary dance music is informed by Sly Dunbar’s beats and Bogle beats.”

It is the type of conversation Ali could maintain all day. A true reggae fanatic, he claims part of his frustrations with his old bandmates was over the lack of interest they appeared to have in the genre they were working in.

“We were serious about our reggae and I’ve always been obsessed by it,” he says.

“But with the dark side there’s several members who literally don’t listen to it.”

“That’s why we had two buses. My bus was the ragga bus where we just played it all day and all night.

“Then there was the librarian bus where the people who didn’t particularly love reggae, that’s where they sat and read books and did crosswords.

“There was a big divide in the band anyway and I’m happier now — we’re a more bona fide reggae band.”