UB40’s adventure back in the USSR
Since singer Ali Campbell left reggae hitmakers UB40 in 2008, there have been two versions of the band.
After years of internal quarrels and accusations of financial mismanagement, Ali quit his own group, but to his dismay found that his replacement was his brother, Duncan. (Another brother, Robin, was already in the band)
“Duncan betrayed me,” Ali tells The Post. “I used to tell him that I wasn’t happy with management. So he advised me to down tools [strike or quit], so, eventually, I did. The next day, he joined the band!” (Duncan has his own version of events; litigation over the band’s name is ongoing.)
Now 58, Ali and two other members of the classic lineup tour as UB40 Legends — Ali, Astro and Mickey Virtue — and they play at PlayStation Theater in Midtown on Friday. Having sold 70 million records, and notched four Top 10 Billboard singles (most famously, their version of Neil Diamond’s “Red Red Wine”), Ali isn’t short on classics to sing. Here, he discusses the band’s illustrious history.
You’ve often said that Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson were big influences. Did you get to meet during the band’s peak?
I did meet Stevie and I sent him a track to work on, but he lost it! He is blind, I suppose. I never met Michael, but I did meet [his sister] Janet at a party in London. I put my arm around her and inadvertently put my hand on her bum. It wasn’t quite a Taylor Swift groping moment, though. Thankfully, a big security guard with a gun grabbed my hand and put it on her shoulder!
In 1986, UB40 was one of the few Western groups allowed to play in the USSR. What was that like?
We’d just got in from LA, living the life of spoiled rock stars, and when we got to the Soviet Union, it was National Cabbage Day and they were floating cabbages down the Volga River. People were diving in and getting them fully clothed. That set the tone. We were there for 16 days, and we only ate about twice because the food was horrible. The people there had never seen Rastas, so they would come up to Astro and pull his dreadlocks. One time, an ice hockey team started a fight with us for no reason. It was all really unpleasant.
When your version of Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” from the soundtrack of 1993’s “Sliver,” got to No. 1, did you get a taste of the Hollywood life?
No, we were too stupid for that! One time, we were playing Jones Beach Theater and we got a message saying that [“Sliver” star] Sharon Stone would love to come up and sing “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” I very preciously said, “No, we haven’t rehearsed that, she’ll ruin it.” I was a bit of a wanker back then!