UB40

UB40 is a reggae and pop group from Birmingham, United Kingdom, formed in December 1978 and active since then. The band’s original line-up includes musicians of English, Welsh, Irish, Jamaican, Scottish and Yemeni parentage, and its first members include Ali Campbell, Jim Brown, Robin Campbell, Earl Falconer, Norman Hassan, Brian Travers, Michael Virtue and Astro. The group is associated with dub, pop, reggae, reggae-pop and roots reggae, and has released music on Shoestring.

Career and chart success

UB40 has more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart and substantial international success. It sells more than 70 million records worldwide and has four Grammy Award nominations for Best Reggae Album, as well as a Brit Award nomination for Best British Group in 1984.

Its best-known singles include its debut track, “Food for Thought”, along with the Billboard Hot 100 number ones “Red Red Wine” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love”. Both of those songs also reach number one in the UK Singles Chart. The band also scores a UK number one with its version of “I Got You Babe”, recorded with Chrissie Hynde.

Albums and later history

UB40’s most successful albums are Labour of Love (1983) and Promises and Lies (1993), both of which top the UK Albums Chart. The group also shares the record for the most weeks spent by a band in the UK singles chart during the 1980s, with 214 weeks, alongside Madness.

The band’s line-up remains stable for nearly 29 years, from March 1979 until January 2008, when Ali Campbell leaves and Mickey Virtue follows shortly after. Astro stays with the group until November 2013, then leaves to join Campbell and Virtue in a separate version of UB40. In 2014, the remaining original band members — Jimmy Brown, Robin Campbell, Earl Falconer, Norman Hassan and Brian Travers — with new vocalist Duncan Campbell, take action over the use of the band name. In 2021, Matt Doyle becomes the band’s new vocalist after Duncan Campbell retires because of ill health.

Studio albums

UB40’s studio albums include 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), For the Many (2019), Bigga Baggariddim (2021) and UB45 (2024).