UB40<\/a> in 2008 and hasn’t spoken to the rest of the group since his departure, which he admitted is “very sad” but suggested he won’t be the one to pave the way for a reconciliation.<\/p>\nAsked about the situation, Ali told i newspaper: \u201cIt\u2019s very sad.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019m a man of principles. And I don\u2019t need them to promote reggae. I\u2019ve been doing it successfully for 20 years with my new band.\u201d <\/p>\n
Pressed on if it is difficult being estranged from family, he added: \u201cYeah, it is. But you know, my brother [Robin] is a devious man. So you know, what can you do?\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAsked if there is any chance of a reconciliation, he said: “Absolutely not, no.”<\/p>\n
\nAli still performs under the name UB40, but so do Robin and his bandmates, and the 66-year-old singer insisted he isn’t the one making the situation “confusing” for fans.<\/p>\n
\nHe said: \u201cWell, they deliberately confuse everything. They still promote their shows with videos and stills of me. It\u2019s them that are confusing things.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe Red, Red Wine singer has been sued unsuccessfully for damages and rights infringements by the original UB40 but he doesn’t care.<\/p>\n
\nHe admitted \u201cEvery time I put a show on, [management gets] a letter saying we\u2019re not the real UB40. But I\u2019m long in the tooth now on that stuff, and I don\u2019t give a shit.\u201d Campbell released a statement last year saying no court has ever ordered him to stop using the name.<\/p>\n
\nBoth versions of UB40 are touring this summer but Ali can’t understand why people would opt to see his rivals ahead of him.<\/p>\n
\nHe said: \u201cI sang all the original hits, and wrote all the original melodies for all the hits.<\/p>\n
\n“So, you either want the real deal or you want the tribute.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAt the height of their fame, UB40, along with bands such as the Sex Pistols were under surveillance as a potential threat to national security, MI5 whistleblower David Shayler previously admitted.<\/p>\n
\nAli said: \u201cWe were watched and had our phones tapped and all that. We were considered subversive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe were aware. We could hear clicks on the phone. But we were flabbergasted that they actually admitted it.\u201d <\/p>\n
\nAnd when UB40 became among the first to perform in the Soviet Union in 1986 as part of a culture swap with the Bolshoi Ballet, they also found themselves being monitored in Russia.<\/p>\n
\nAli recalled: “We were staying in the biggest hotel in the world in St Petersburg, and we got off at the wrong floor at one point, and it was a telephone exchange. It was just a floor of operators listening to all the rooms.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"7 July 2025 Ali Campbell has branded his estranged brother and bandmate Robin Campbell “a devious man”. Ali Campbell has hit out at his brother and ex-bandmate Robin Campbell The 65-year-old singer parted ways with UB40 in 2008 and hasn’t spoken to the rest of the group since his departure, which he admitted is “very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":179186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[11844,11845,11843],"class_list":{"0":"post-179185","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-make-up","8":"tag-ali-campbell","9":"tag-robin-cambell","10":"tag-ub40"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}