‘You don’t change anything by singing about it’ - UB40 lead singer

“If you look at where we are today in England, nothing has changed,” says English singer and songwriter Ali Campbell, best known as the lead singer of renowned reggae band UB40. 

Campbell is a founding member of the original multi-racial reggae group UB40, which helped define the genre for a generation, giving a voice to the working-class dissatisfaction of the time.

Their music was a reaction to Thatcherism, racism, global poverty and social injustice.

The singer left the band in 2008 followed by keyboardist Mickey Virtue and was later followed by Astro in 2013 who teamed up with Campbell and Virtue in a new version of UB40.

The cover of Campbell’s latest album 'Unprecedented', showing Astro (right) who died in November 2021.

Campbell’s UB40 will be playing in Malta this month at the Għaxaq Music Festival as the headlined act. Previous international artists playing at the festival include Boney M, the British pop group Smokie and Johnny Logan of Eurovision fame, as well as Italian artists such as Vincenzo Carni and Marco Vito.

The upcoming concert on July 23 is envisioned as a memorial to Astro who died in November last year, aged 64.

The line-up includes songs from...