UB40 – Kingston Town

UB40 – Kingston Town

2010–present
UB40 announced that after completing a coast-to-coast 2010 American tour they would be playing a nationwide UK tour of theatres in October/November 2010 performing their seminal album Signing Off, in full, along with a second set of popular UB40 songs. To coincide, on 1 November 2010 a remastered 2CD+DVD of Signing Off was released as a ’30th Anniversary Special Edition’.

In 2011 five founder members of the group and directors of their DEP International label, had bankruptcy proceedings started against them relating to debts of the record label. In October 2011 Travers, Wilson, Hassan and Brown were declared bankrupt. Former member Ali Campbell was also declared bankrupt. In 2013 a new album, Getting Over the Storm was announced, their first since 2010 and Labour of Love IV.

In November 2013, UB40 revealed dates in anticipation of their UK Tour in Spring 2014. The announcement of the tour follows the success of the band’s latest Top 30 album, Getting Over The Storm, which 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.

However, on 22 November 2013 Astro announced in a statement that he had left the band, describing it as a “rudderless ship” and criticising the “serious lack of communication between the band and management” and the country-orientated direction of their latest album.

Astro joined former UB40 members Ali Campbell and Mickey Virtue on stage at the indigO2 Arena in London on 6 December 2013 and on 17 January 2014 the trio announced on their website that they were in the studio recording new music.

Ali Campbell was highly critical of his replacement in UB40, stating “I sat back for five years and watched my brother Duncan murdering my songs.” Ali Campbell toured as UB40 with Astro and Virtue over the summer, including an appearance at the Brentwood Festival. The new album Silhouette, featuring the trio is now set for release on 6 October 2014.

In September 2014 the band served writs against Ali Campbell, Virtue, and Astro, claiming that were illegally using the UB40 name; The case is due to be heard in November. In December 2014 Ali Campbell claimed that would be prepared to go to the High Court over the matter rather than settle out of court.

Personnel
Members

Jimmy Brown (born 20 November 1957, Birmingham) – drums (1978–present)
Robin Campbell (born 25 December 1954, Birmingham) – lead guitar, vocals (1978–present)
Earl Falconer (born 23 January 1957, Birmingham) – bass guitar (1978–present)
Norman Hassan ( born 26 January 1958, Birmingham) – percussion, trombone, vocals (1978–present)
Brian Travers (born 7 February 1959, Birmingham) – saxophone (1978–present)
Duncan Campbell (born 3 April 1958, Birmingham, England) – lead vocals (2008–present)
Astro (born Terence Wilson, 24 June 1957, Birmingham) – trumpet, vocals (1978–2013, 2014–present)
Ali Campbell (born Alistair Campbell, 15 February 1959, Birmingham) – guitar, lead vocals (1978–2008, 2014–present)
Mickey Virtue (born Michael Virtue, 19 January 1957, Birmingham) – keyboards (1978–2008, 2014–present)

Touring personnel
Current personnel

Laurence Parry – trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone (1994–present)
Martin Meredith – saxophone (1997–present)
Tony Mullings – keyboards (2008–present)
Former personnel
Patrick Tenyue – trumpet (1983–94)
Henry Tenyue – trombone (1983–94)
Maxi Priest – vocals (2008)
Discography
Main article: UB40 discography
Signing Off (1980)
Present Arms (1981)
UB44 (1982)
Labour of Love (1983)
Geffery Morgan (1984)
Baggariddim (1985)
Rat in the Kitchen (1986)
UB40 (1988)
Labour of Love II (1989)
Promises and Lies (1993)
Guns in the Ghetto (1997)
Labour of Love III (1998)
Cover Up (2001)
Homegrown (2003)
Who You Fighting For? (2005)
TwentyFourSeven (2008)
Labour of Love IV (2010)
Getting Over the Storm (2013)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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