If you haven’t already do watch the aptly named UB40 documentary ‘Promises and Lies’ on the BBC iPlayer. If you haven’t seen it **SPOLIERS!**
It’s extraordinary viewing – unlike most other BBC4 docs it’s not really a celebration of their music. In fact what is startling is just how good the early stuff is, and just naff it gets as they get into Labour of Love series and basically make it their business to water down classic reggae hits for mass consumption. However, as the music gets slicker and more Cod-Reggae the more globally huge they become and therein lies the problem.
Both sides of the UB40 divide contribute so we hear from the ‘official’ UB40 led by Robin Campbell and then Ali’s ‘UB40’ which now includes Astro and Mickey Virtue who have defected to his side. In spite of global megastardom and years of selling out enormodomes and selling gazzilions of LPs and CDs everyone concerned is in seriously reduced circs. Nobody seems to know where the UB40 millions went and both sides of grown men in their late 50s (brothers and lifelong friends) are at each others throats very publicly over who has the right to be UB40 and who shafted who.
It’s almost like a ‘Whodunnit’. For a while I found myself siding with Robin’s UB40 – until they decided to a Country Music album. Maybe I’m on Ali’s side – except this is the man who disowns the pre-‘Labour of Love’ era – everything before it was ‘out of tune’ he says and Labour of Love should have been the band’s first album.
If either side were selling a used car I think would buy from Robin’s lot rather than Ali, Astro and Mickey but I’m really not sure. What’s clear is that most of the money they made was spunked on maintaining a ludicrously expensive studio complex, keeping 8 band members and crew living in luxury and bales and bales of weed – which itself contributed to all concerned being less than astute in terms of keeping an eye on their finances over the years.
For Ali to leave the band and then decide to contest to ‘owning’ the UB40 name is a tricky one especially in an 8 piece band and he’s hardly a Morrissey or a Jagger or an Ian Curtis. He’s been replaced by brother Duncan who has the air of a man plucked from a pub darts match in Balsall Heath and plonked on the stage of the O2 with a mic. For now both sides would seem to have some claim to the name which ultimately is a (seriously reduced) pension plan for everyone concerned.
It would seem both sides probably knew more than they were letting on about the financial situation and you’d perhaps have sided with the ‘official’ band were it not that Astro – a somewhat haunted presence – had either been stitched up by his former bandmates in ways that were not quite made clear..or had just fallen out with his lifelong pal Travers and gone over to Ali. God knows. Bill Curbishley crops up and he says he had a go at the managing them – and he couldn’t sort them out – and he used to deal with Keith Moon and the fecking Who!
This isn’t like the ongoing bickering over Bucks Fizz (yes it’s still going on) – this is a band who can still put thousands of bums on seats or tents in festivals in territories even Iron Maiden can’t reach so the stakes are seriously high for these. Clearly they’d be better off cutting their losses, shaking hands and getting back together but nobody concerned seems to have in them to do that. So, watch it and tell me – whose UB40 side are you on – cos I’m not sure!
Agree, this was a fabulous documentary and well worth watching.
I found myself siding with the Robin version. There was just something about Ali’s explanations / comments that didn’t ring true. Nothing specific that I could put my finger on, its was just that gut feel that you didn’t really trust / believe this guy.
You would think that if its just about money, that could be sorted out – surely the end goal of the combined UB40 would make far more that either side ever could. Makes you think that there is something else going on.
Fascinating, and frightening stuff. I worked with Mickey Virtue in the mid 70s, no signing on for him at that time, so I guess I’d tend to side with him. It does make me wonder why there isn’t room for both bands. They both still qualify in terms of the number of members, play the same stuff, assuming Robin’s lot don’t actually perform the Country stuff on stage. I’ve seen them a few times, it wouldn’t bother me which one came to town, I’d go. And probably go see the other lot too when they turned up.
“It does make me wonder why there isn’t room for both bands.”
Perhaps they ought to have the same arrangement that I’m told Steve Priest and Andy Scott came to regarding the Sweet…the Andy Scott version gets the Americas and certain European territories, and the Steve Priest version gets the rest of the world.*
*these may not be the actual areas negotiated, but you get the idea.
Maybe they could do it by demographic, where Robin gets to entertain the tone deaf, country loving cod reggae fans who chose Lady in Red as their wedding song and Ali gets the less discerning ones.
Yep it’s a goody – the few shots of that early rehearsal room/flat/squat is of course of very local interest. Still amazed to see just how big they were from the mid-eighties to the mid-nineties. And it’s all desperately sad to see how riven they are as a band and as a family. Agree that both sides probably do know more about the money than they were prepared to go on the record with, understandably.
Sounds fascinating – hope I get to see it eventually.
Think this is it on YouTube
https://youtu.be/OOl8u11fWRI
Well, ignore that – a promo doco for Promises nd Lies. One interesting thing -they say how they are a democracy and that everything gets put to a vote…..”time consuming, but it works”.
Then the comment is made that in the end if Ali doesn’t like something, Ali just won’t sing the song and it never sees the light of day – that’s just the way it is.
So a democracy except for Ali.
An excellent documentary and likewise review Dr V. As you say, the dismissal of the genuinely awesome first 2 albums was a bit of a gobsmacker. I seem to recall, Ali tried the solo career route and it just didn’t put bums on seats. Very sad what happened next.
Great review Dr. I felt the same – baffled as to who the ‘bad guys’ were but inclined to put more trust in Robin’s side of things. Ali kept telling us he was ‘asking questions’ about where the money had gone during his last few years with the full band. Well, does that mean he was standing there in dressing rooms saying in very general way, ‘Yow lads, whurs thauw munoiii gone?’ I suspect it does. Curbishley’s recollection that he could never get them all in a room without people being blissed out on cannabis rings true.
I suspect the years of lavish lifestyles, 8 in the band, 40 on the payroll, and a (well-fed) rat in their kitchen, while pumping out albums full of songs written by others (no PRS monies accruing for band members from that source) might to a large extent answer Ali’s question.
The bigger question is why they stopped writting the great songs of the early years and gor trapped into pumping out blancmange cover versions of Neil Diamong songs. Has anyone heard their version of ‘Holly Holy’? Jeez, it’s awful…
Haven’t seen the documentary just yet but a friend raved about it and will make the point of catching up with it. Remember seeing Ian Campbell at the folk awards before he passed away and he commented that the first UB40 album sold more copies than the whole of his catalogue which actually had done well at the time.
Anyway this particularly acrimonious argument has robed me of the deluxe edition of Present Arms which was scheduled for release last year but eternally delayed because of their squabbles.
They need to grow up – life is too short.
It was rather good.
Colin and Steve make good points. The early stuff was the best, whatever Ali says, and I’m also on the Present Arms deluxe edition pre-order list.
Having recently finished Peter Hook’s book, I see parallels bewteen UB40 and New Order. The wheels fell off when Barney started writing songs solo, and Hooky became teetotal. If I was in telly land, I’d be on the blower to Manchester.
…another Present Arms deluxe edition pre-orderer here!
I’ve given up; they are tossers if they can’t see that they need to get their heads out of their rizlas and SORT IT OUT so they can still make some cash before those who care about their early albums have all decided that they can’t be bothered any more.
I didn’t see it but I’ll have a look – it’s on iPlayer.
I really enjoyed this. The cocktail of ego and drugs has done for a lot of bands, but throw in sibling rivalry and it all goes up like phosphorous. I came away thinking that the band never quite grasped the relationship between income and expenditure. Discovering mid-tour that being on the road was costing them more than they were bringing in was a spectacularly dim.
I suspect there’s no big conspiracy about where the money went – they just carried on living like rock stars way longer than they should and no one could get them to understand what the consequences would be.
I saw the Ali Campbell version of UB40 last year, they were pretty good and he seemed to be in a good mood. They did play Food for Thought (and One in Ten), so I guess he thinks those tracks have some worth.
Definitely worth a watch. As you say, it went a different route to most BBC4 docs by not just doing the history, and then saying “but they don’t get on now” at the end.
There seemed to be a lot un-said in the film, but the division seems to be a definite one.
Whatever has gone on, a handshake may not be enough, but Spandau Ballet managed it after one of them took the others to court for sole ownership of everything.
Paul Weller and Bruce Foxton also hit the “life’s too short” buffer, so who knows …
To me UB40 were mere also-rans, compared to Aswad, Misty In Roots, Steel Pulse etc. from the UK and set against the Jamaican stuff that was available in those days
Their records were pretty weak in comparison to the opposition.
I don’t think I ever saw them live, and if I did they created no lasting impression.
I did side with Ali but as mentioned, to disown the early (i.e. their best) material is a huge let down.
Frustration is the reissues of their early material got curtailed or rather are extremely hard to find. I bought the deluxe of Signing Off when it came out, 2 cd + DVD of an early BBC show, fantastic. The second album was due the same treatment, last Christmas i believe but not clear if it was ever released, my amazon order got cancelled. I have the vinyl of the first two and a cd of the early stuff, remixes and 12″ mixes. Get what you can of the reissues while you can as I imagine any reissue will long be delayed by the mess.
The Bill Curbishley appearance and fact he of all people could not save them shows what a mess they are in. They will go to their dying days fighting and wasting money on lawyers.
They are all fools. And they must know it. Too much pride. Neither side will ever give in.
Started watching it last night. Even if (as in this case) it’s a band I can take or leave, those BBC documentaries are always really interesting.
I never noticed before that both Campbell brothers play guitar left-handed. What are the odds!
Robin seemed a decent enough fellow so sided with him until I actually got a listen of the ‘country’ record. A proper proper shocker.
Very perplexed by Ali’s disowning the earlier work. The first 4 albums were truly great and groundbreaking. UB40 were up there with the likes of The Clash, The Jam and The Specials documenting the early Thatcher years but sounding like Steel Pulse and Black Uhuru.
Those songs (Food for Thought, Present Arms, King, Tyler, One in Ten, Madam Medusa, So Here I Am etc) are GREAT songs. Then Labour of Love, nose goes in the trough (I suspect literally as well as metaphorically) and never comes out and any creativity gets bundled overboard chasing cash, as is their right.
Bill Curbishley had a cracking line in response to the off camera interviewer
“What happened to the money? Well, they probably spent it”.
There you go, from the longstanding manager of The Who. No mystery, nothing to fall out over, aside ego; cash well spent on studios, instruments, wages, divorces, kids, houses and drugs.
And wouldn’t we all.
One of the first UK bands to play the USSR. Not Russia, the actual Soviet Union. Respect for that if nowt else.
The Live album from that tour is not a bad record either
I’ve mentioned before here that the actual first Western band to do this, as far as I can tell, was the Dooleys, in 1974. Remarkable, isn’t it?
Afterword fact / t-shirt right there.
I always knew the real reason I bought the “The Chosen Few” single was because it had anti-establishment subversive street cred.
Clearly, the ‘chosen few’ was a Bolshevik slogan cunningly disguised as a piece of pop pap.
The Dooleys? Jesus, I knew things got pretty savage in the cold war but that’s just not on.
Thousands of Muscovites would have probably preferred if we’d sent over the missiles instead.
Chrissie Hynde, still looking totally fabulous, speaking about working with the Brummie boys UB40:
“I couldn’t understand what they were fucking talking about most of the time”
S’funny, cos when Brass In Pocket was number one I remember me and mates arguing about what the FLAC she was singing about after the first four words..
“Attention? Feeling minty!
Gonna make you, make you, make you, make you moulted”
Gonna use my sausage…
Gonna use my Findus…
Gonna use my, my, my irrigation
The title of that song has always bothered me. Why was an American immigrant using an archaic colloquial Yorkshire expression which even people in Yorkshire didn’t use anymore?
Yeah, and she should say “Gonna use my ass” not ” Gonna use my arse”
Gonna use my donkey
Caught up with it. As Doc said, really compelling and interesting. Which idiot was managing them in the early days? I assume whoever was together enough to pick up the phone. They ought to be minted with the touring revenue, never mind album royalties (though as Colin says, covers doesn’t make much for the recording artist). I’m sure a forensic accountant could unearth it all but would probably charge more than they revealed, and as (Bill Curbishley?) said in the doc, it would be nice to think there’s a big pot of money there for someone to find but like Chiz I suspect they just frittered it away. Fools/money as ever. VV is on the money – this is the moment for a bit of pride swallowing, some decent management and a few pension tours to sort out the cash flow.
I suspect that a forensic accountant would start by asking questions about certain uses of cash that the lads might not want asked. Or answered.
Watched it twice in last 4 days – it was compelling to say the least and we can only form opinions on our own instincts. My instinct is that Ali is the bad egg – obviously he thought he was better than the rest of the band and maybe he was but to fall out with his brothers is pretty inexcusable. Not a fan of their Labour of Love foray but the comments that some great songs would never be heard were it not for them does ring true to some extent. Kingston Town is a great song that I wouldn’t have heard of until they covered it.
Quite a few years ago there was a documentary on about Les McKeown of the Bay City Rollers and his post-fame career. It has some terrific moments. He’s got a savage way with words and will eloquently disown and disparage anything to do with the BCR with ferocious certainty. Then we see him in a tartan suit, smiling and singing the old hits.
Did Ali really dismiss the early records? What I heard was he said that the first album had great songs, but they were lacking technically as musicians. It was also stated that Labour of Love could have been the first record, but they were advised not to start with a covers one. Don’t think that dismisses the early albums.
Fairly tragic story in the end with him missing his dad’s funeral. Yet more evidence that brothers in pop/rock music is fraught with danger.