Staving off jetlag with a red, red wine at a city hotel only an hour after landing in Perth yesterday, former UB40 frontman Ali Campbell admitted that he still doesn't travel too well."I'm like a fine wine, me," the 52-year-old reggae-pop legend joked to AAA. "Bit of sediment, you know what I mean, and I get shook up."
The Birmingham-born Campbell is in town to headline tomorrow night's 80s Dance Picnic Party, which also features Billy Ocean, Junior Marvin and Big Mountain.
Ian "Molly" Meldrum was due to host the event, before his pre-Christmas fall and subsequent hospitalisation. Campbell sent his best wishes to Meldrum and recalled playing early hit *One in Ten *on Countdown during UB40's first visit in 1981.
The English outfit also scored hits such as *Red Red Wine *, *(I Can't Help) Falling in Love With You *and *Here I Am (Come and Take Me) *in the 80s and early 90s.
Despite enjoying success well into the past decade - they picked up a Grammy nomination for 2006 album Who You Fighting For - Campbell quit UB40 in 2008 and now tours with a new line-up.
The singer explains that he walked after his bandmates refused to give him time off to tour and promote his solo album Running Free.
According to Campbell, there are long-running financial anomalies and he was "demonised" by the band's management as well as his older brother, singer *Robin Campbell *, and saxophonist *Brian Travers *.
The rest of UB40 have carried on without Campbell, with another brother, *Duncan *, joining the band. The singer has not spoken to either brother since he quit.
"I can't believe what they've done," Campbell said. "What they're busy doing is destroying the legacy of UB40. They are absolutely dire. I don't mind saying . . . it's shocking."
Campbell has released three solo albums but says he is still untangling himself from a "massive web of deceit and skulduggery" with his former bandmates.
"There's no going back," he said. "I'm thoroughly enjoying myself and I'm in control. After having compromised with eight people over 24 albums and being with them for 28 years - I could've killed them."
The singer, who embarked on his mission to promote reggae music after seeing *Bob M * *arley * *and the Wailers *play Birmingham in 1975, is happy to reflect on UB40's success.
The band emerged from the racially diverse area of Balsall Heath, where Campbell and his brothers would attend reggae house parties hosted by members of the local West Indian community. Taking their name from the Unemployment Benefit Form 40, their first proper gig was a fundraiser for the pro-welfare Claimant Union in 1980.
"We were disenfranchised, angry youth in Thatcher's Britain," Campbell says.
That same year, *Chrissie Hynde *approached them at a London gig to tour with the Pretenders, then the UK's hottest band. During the tour, UB40's debut single, *King/Food for Thought *was released and went to No. 4. UB40 rapidly became one of Britain's biggest bands, playing Top of the Pops and gracing the cover of Smash Hits. MTV also made them worldwide stars, airing the video to I Got You Babe, the 1985 duet with Hynde.
Campbell laughed at the memory of going from the dole to Top of the Pops in a few years. "I was voted Most Fancied Male at one point in one of the little girlie mags."
UB40 Star in Perth for 80s Gig
