UB40 Feat Ali Campbell – Statement

It has continually come to our attention that Ali’s former band members and their current management are hell-bent on trying to stop UB40 Featuring Ali Campbell from performing shows globally including Ali’s forthcoming show in UGANDA.

For some time now the promoters of Ali’s shows and TV stations have been flooded with calls and emails from the forementioned that ‘UB40’ will not be performing, citing that Ali Campbell has no legal right to use the name and threatening them with legal action, in a clear attempt to stop Ali performing. 

For the record, UB40 was a band that Ali started after receiving compensation from an injury he sustained, making him the founding member of the band.

Quote from Robin Campbell taken from the book Blood and Fire.

“Make no mistake, UB40 would never have existed if it wasn’t for Ali”, says Robin. “Not only was he the catalyst, but he was the reason I was interested. If Earl, Jimmy and Brian, say, had asked me to be in the band I’d have said: ‘No thanks.’ But when Ali said: ‘We’re serious’, I believed him, particularly since he was prepared to put his compensation money into it. Having a few thousand quid back then was like having a fortune.”

When Ali Campbell put his band, UB40, together, his goal and ambition was to take reggae music to the masses globally, something he has continually achieved doing.

Since leaving the original set up of UB40 not only has Ali continued to tour using the name UB40, he has also continued to release successful Top Ten Albums – something which the former members of his band haven’t.

Since leaving the original set up of UB40 his former band members, despite their claims, have unsuccessfully via the legal system tried to stop Ali Using the name UB40.

In the past few years alone UB40 feat Ali Campbell has toured over 70 countries in arenas and stadiums and on TV shows and festivals without any legal challenge or dispute.

For the record there is no court or judge in the world that has ever told Ali Campbell that he cannot use the name UB40 at all, whether it’s to perform or to release new material.

Ali Campbell has never at any point tried to stop his former band mates using the name UB40.

Ali’s shows are clearly advertised as UB40 Feat. Ali Campbell and this is in place, so that fans clearly know they are getting the original singer who sang on all of the hits,  bar our dearly beloved Astros’ “Rat in Mi Kitchen”.

However, the former members of Ali’s band never mention that Ali is not performing with them, despite continually using footage of Ali to promote their shows.

We believe it is up to the fans of reggae music and UB40, to make their own decisions on who is UB40, is it the voice – Ali Campbell? is it the 4 other surviving members? Or is it all of them?

This is for you to decide, not Ali and certainly not his former band mates or their management.

But what we will say is this;

Ali Campbell will continue to do what he set out to do when he formed UB40, and that is to record, and perform the hits of UB40 that he was the lead singer of and spread his love of Reggae music globally.