UB40 + MAXI PRIEST + ASWAD – BRIGHTON CENTRE 1.6.26
The legendary UB40 are back, where they have chosen to open up the 13-date UK leg of ‘The Unstoppable World Tour’ here at the Brighton Centre, before heading off to Cardiff, London, Manchester, Nottingham, Hull, Glasgow, Liverpool, Leeds, Swansea, Plymouth, Bournemouth and concluding with a hometown gig in Birmingham on 20th June. Tickets for all remaining UB40 concerts can be located HERE.
UB40 have sold more than 100 million records worldwide and have had more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart. Their hits include ‘King’ and ‘Food For Thought’ from 1980 ‘Signing Off’ album, ‘One In Ten’ from 1981’s ‘Present Arms’ album, ‘Red Red Wine’, ‘Cherry Oh Baby’, ‘Please Don’t Make Me Cry’ and ‘Many Rivers To Cross’ from 1983’s ‘Labour Of Love’ album, ‘I Got You Babe’ (featuring Chrissie Hynde) and ‘Don’t Break My Heart’ from 1985’s ‘Baggariddim’ album, ‘Kingston Town’ from 1989’s ‘Labour Of Love II’ album, and ‘(I Can’t Help) Falling In Love With You’ from 1993’s ‘Promises And Lies’ album. No less than 11 studio albums have followed since then, these being: ‘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). They are also currently working on a new, as yet unnamed, long-player which is hoped to drop soon – details HERE.
Over the course of their career, they have performed sell-out shows worldwide, headlined the Reggae Sunsplash music festival in Jamaica, and introduced reggae to places such as Russia and South America. They have performed twice at the Night of the Proms, in 2000 and 2006. They have been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album four times, and in 1984, they were nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Group. In October 2011, UB40 were honoured with a Heritage Award, a ceremonial plaque from the UK’s PRS for Music. The plaque was placed at the Hare & Hounds Pub in Birmingham, the venue where they played their first gig.
UB40’s line-up remained stable for nearly 29 years, from March 1979 until January 2008, when frontman Ali Campbell left the band, followed shortly thereafter by keyboardist Mickey Virtue. Astro continued with the band until November 2013 until he departed to team up with Campbell and Virtue to form their own band, called “UB40 featuring Ali Campbell”. This evening, however is all about the UB40 lineup that features original founding members Robin Campbell (guitar, vocals, keyboards), Earl Falconer (bass guitar, synth bass, vocals, keyboards), Norman Lamont Hassan (percussion, vocals) and Jimmy Brown (drums), who have been on the case since 1978. These days there are no less than 11 fellas in UB40 with the remaining 7 being Laurence Parry (trumpet, flügel horn, trombone, backing vocals), Martin Meredith (alto saxophone, keyboards, aerophone), Matt Doyle (vocals, guitar), Ian Thompson (tenor saxophone, keyboards, percussion), Gilly G (toasting, backing vocals), Jahred Gordon (keyboards, guitar, bass, saxophone) and Matt Campbell (backing vocals). You can meet them all HERE.
This evening’s Brighton Centre concert has a buoyant Saturday night vibe to it, and clearly a majority of the near 4,500 souls present are in the mood for some reggae sounds, despite it being a Monday night. In some circles, it could almost be considered that tonight is a triple-billing as accompanying UB40 are two former big-hitters in the reggae field, these being none other than Maxi Priest and Aswad.
First up then are three-time Grammy Award nominees Aswad, which incidentally means “black” in Arabic. Amazingly the band formed in West London way back in 1975, and since then have released 21 albums, with their UK hit singles including the UK No.1 ‘Don’t Turn Around’ (1988) and ‘Shine’ (1994). Impressively, Aswad were the backing band of Burning Spear’s 1977 ‘Live’ album.
The original members were Angus “Drummie Zeb” Gaye RIP (drums/vocals), Donald “Dee” Griffiths (guitar/vocals), George “Ras” Oban RIP (bass), Courtney “Khaki” Hemmings (keys), and a certain guitarist/vocalist going by the name of Brinsley “Chaka B” Forde MBE, whom many of a certain age will recognise as ‘Spring’ from the brilliant 1970-71 17 episode children’s television series ‘Here Come the Double Deckers!’ His MBE was awarded in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to the arts. However, none of these appear in the Aswad of today, but Tony “Gad” Robinson who joined the band back in 1976 (bass, keyboards, vocals) is still on the case, and he is joined by a half-dozen chums who quite possibly comprise Sulaiman “Soloman” Gaye-Clarke (lead vocals, son of founding drummer Drummie Zeb) and long-time member Henry “Matic” Tenyue (trombone and backing vocals), along with touring and recording musicians Chris Thompson (drums), Andrew Smith (guitar), Andre Hall and Isaac Agree (keyboards).
The Brighton Centre is nearly full from the off, which is a great sign for all three bands, especially Aswad, whose company we are in for 43 minutes from 6:45pm to 7:28pm. There’s an interesting selection of repeated live performance photographs of the current Aswad emblazoned across the large backing screen to the rear of the septet. Some of these were taken during the Hastings Reggae Festival in 2024. This evening Aswad set about offloading their bouncy sunshine filled reggae beats and musically they aren’t that far away from the sounds of legendary Bob Marley & The Wailer, such as 1973’s ‘I Shot The Sheriff’. I was extremely fortunate in catching Robert Nesta Marley and band here at the same Brighton Centre on 8th or 9th July 1980, and within 10 months he was sadly taken from us on 11th May 1981.
Aswad were rather keen to keep the momentum flowing this evening and so it was tune after tune in order to keep those fans at the front merrily skanking away. There was some great audience participation via excessive arm waving, which added to the mood. The joint vocalists complimented each other bouncing off one and other’s differing styles. This was especially the case when performing their 1989 single rendition of Stephen Bishop’s ‘On And On’. The double keyboardists, both with two layers of instruments, and trombone bolstered their uplifting sounds. We were served the 1983 Dennis Brown & Aswad slow chugging ‘Promised Land’ single, but without doubt it was their 1988 ‘Don’t Turn Around’ Albert Hammond cover and set closing ‘Shine’ from 1994, which stole the show, with many fans’ mobile phones out to record the memories. Yes indeed, it was an enjoyable set with the punters feeling irie! For the record, irie is pronounced “eye-ree”, meaning feeling great, at peace, and filled with positive vibes in Jamaican Patois and Rastafarian culture.
Aswad possible lineup:
Tony “Gad” Robinson – bass, keyboards, vocals
Sulaiman “Soloman” Gaye-Clarke – lead vocals,
Henry “Matic” Tenyue – trombone and backing vocals
Chris Thompson – drums
Andrew Smith – guitar
Andre Hall – keyboards
Isaac Agree – keyboards
Aswad setlist included:
‘On And On’
‘Promised Land’
‘Don’t Turn Around’
‘Shine’
After a mere 19 minute live music hiatus, the action commenced again with the arrival of Lewisham born Max Alfred Elliott aka Maxi Priest at 7:47pm and we were in his company for 42 minutes until 8:29pm. British reggae vocalist Maxi is of Jamaican descent and his musical career began in 1984 with his major self-titled album dropping in 1988, which opened with his cover of Cat Stevens’ ‘Wild World’ (UK No.5 hit single) and it’s arguably this that established him as one of the top British reggae singers. Interestingly he recorded the tune with Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare who I was fortunate to catch live in action in Brighton back in the day when they were part of the live outfit for Black Uhuru. One of these being at Top Rank Suite on 20th June 1982.
Coincidentially, Maxi is one of only two British reggae acts to have an American Billboard No.1 single, this being 1990’s ‘Close To You’, the other one being UB40 with ‘Red Red Wine’ in 1983. A trio of Maxi’s albums have been nominated as ‘Best Reggae Album’ at the Grammy’s, these being ‘Fe Real’ (1994), ‘Man With The Fun’ (1997), and ‘It All Comes Back To Love’ (2021). Although his highest charting album in the UK was ‘Bonafide’ back in 1990 and this reached No.11, with the ‘Close to You’ single from it peaking at No.7 on the UK Singles Chart. He also cracked the Top 10 back in 1993 with ‘Housecall’ as Shabba Ranks featuring Maxi Priest, which peaked at No.8. Two of Maxi’s sons are also singers; Marvin Priest (born Marvin Cornell Elliott) and Ryan Elliott, who was in Simon Cowell formed 1990’s boy band Ultimate Kaos.
Vocalist Maxi isn’t alone on stage this evening as he’s initially accompanied by a quartet of guys who take care of guitar, bass, drums, and two layers of keyboards with laptop duties. Surprisingly, the opportunity of utilizing the backing screen is not taken up for this performance, but it’s a case of letting the music do all the talking. Despite it being a Monday night, the Saturday night vibe is carried through to Maxi’s set, which is bolstered from the very start by crowd participation of “say ohhhh”. More bouncy reggae rhythms were on offer throughout this set as Maxi, with his dreadlocks just shy of the floor, certainly wasn’t shying away from getting folk in the mood. Earlier on in the set we are delivered the ‘Wild World’ Cat Stevens cover, which sees many fans waving their arms in the air, whilst others hold their mobile phones aloft. After this they performed The Persuaders 1973 tune ‘Some Guys Have All the Luck’, which was also famously recorded by Robert Palmer in 1982, Rod Stewart in 1984, and Maxi in 1987. This has more of a Culture Club vibe than outright reggae, but suffice to say, it went down a storm. After which Maxi informs us they are going to play “something new”, this being ‘Touch By An Angel’ which dropped this April.
Then for the second half of the set Maxi is joined by his “little brother from Kingston, Jamaica”. Now I’m not sure if he meant that the additional lead vocalist was his actual brother, as Maxi is the second youngest of nine children, or whether it was a term of endearment. I note that Maxi had flagged Anthony Bennett aka New Kidz HD on his social media, so it might be him, unless he’s actually Maxi’s agent. Anyhow, with there now a half dozen guys on the stage, the performance became more intent, and for yours truly it had risen several notches. Toasting style vocals had now arrived, akin to Snow’s ‘Informer’ as opposed to Maxi’s melodic deliveries. With the new arrival’s second song, he requested for the stage lights to be turned off and asked the punters to get out their phones and turn on their lights. Many dutifully complied which further added to the party atmosphere. The next number even beatwise reminded me of Eric B & Rakim’s ‘Paid In Full’, and this turned out to be his 1990 dancehall classic ‘Close To You’. I even picked up on a few lines from Stephen Bishop’s ‘On And On’ which Aswad had performed earlier. Together the vocal duo were now bogling large and the set was all the better for it.
Maxi Priest:
Maxi Priest – vocals
Maxi’s brother/Anthony Bennett – vocals
Rass Nick – bass
Paul Kastick – drums
Richard ‘Goofy’ Campbell – keyboards with laptop
Huey – guitar
Maxi Priest setlist included:
‘Wild World’ (Cat Stevens cover)
‘Some Guys Have All the Luck’ (The Persuaders cover)
‘Touch By An Angel’
‘Close To You’
‘On And On’ (Stephen Bishop cover)
After a break of 35 minutes, which was plenty of time to check out the merch on offer, grab some liquid refreshments and relieve the bulging bladders, the soundsystem blasted out the final reggae offering for the evening, this being Dreadzone’s ‘Mountain’ from their ‘Dread Times’ album, which is my favourite of all their albums. The UB40 intro tape was unleashed and it was a corker, but sadly I’m not sure what it was. Concurrently there were initially 6 searchlights beaming out from the stage towards the ceiling, and these increased in number and the electrifying vibe had peaked. On walked the 11 musicians and 16,669 days since my debut encounter with the band forty-five and a half years ago as support to The Pretenders at Brighton Dome on 11th October 1980, they were to entertain me yet again. I’ve seen the band many times down the years, especially in the early 80’s and they’ve never failed to deliver, bar one occasion, this being at Worthing Assembly Hall on 13th November 2014, when they really had the feel of a cruise ship tribute act. This is my first encounter since then, were the posse here to change my mind? All the signs were right, the venue was full, bar the very occasional spare seat, the atmosphere was joyous anticipation, the backing screen was emblazoned with “UB40”, the sound thus far had been crisp and the lighting was good. So here we go….
They launch straight into their 1st February 1980 ‘Food For Thought’ single, which on the vinyl shows as “AA side”. The “A Side” being the better ‘King’ which sadly doesn’t get an outing tonight. “Ivory Madonna dying in the dust…” sings Robin Campbell, it’s still a fabulous way to kick things off. There’s so much happening on stage, that at times it can be difficult to see which of the guys has, say for example, switched from trumpet to second sax, or from bass to keys, but to begin with they start as lead vocals with guitar; guitar and vocals; two saxophones; two layers of keyboards; trumpet; drums; tom toms and tambourine; backing vocals with shaker; backing vocals; and small style box bass guitar. At some stages there’s even an electronic clarinet in the mix.
Selection two is their classic ‘One In Ten’ which was delivered with aplomb, and followed by their take on The Jacksons’ ‘Maybe Tomorrow’, and then The Chi‐Lites’ ‘Homely Girl’ which was immediately greeted with enthusiastic applause after just a few notes. The electronic clarinet makes an appearance on their self-penned ‘Sing Our Own Song’ with its “And we will fight for the right to be free” earworm lyrics. After this, founding member Robin Campbell finally addresses the crown in his Brummy accent for the first time “Brighton! Good evening Brighton!”. He then introduces co-lead vocalist Matt Doyle who signed up in 2021; toasting and backing vocalist Gilly G; Jahred Gordon on keyboards from Jamaica; and his own son Matt Campbell, who takes care of backing vocals on the opposite side of the vast stage to his father.
Robin then goes on to inform us that the next track is from their last album ‘UB45’ which celebrated the band’s 45th anniversary and that tune was written by Matt Doyle who sings the lead on it, this being album opener ‘Home’. Despite being a newbie, this still benefits from that distinctive UB40 sound. After this Robin announces that the next track is from the previous album, 2021’s ‘Bigga Baggariddim’, they then roll onto ‘Higher Ground’…“Every hour of every day, I’m learning more”. Robin then says the next one’s an old The Melodians tune, this being ‘Sweet Sensation’, which is a slow chugger and for me personally is the beginning of the mid-set lull in proceedings. ‘Impossible Love’ sees the young Matt Campbell take centre stage as he belts out the lyrics in tandem with his dad. After which, Robin flags up that they are working on a new album and wants to play us a tune from it. He says we might recognise the country tune, which means it’s yet another cover. It is, this time it’s from Shania Twain and it’s ‘You’re Still The One’.
There’s a funky keys intro next as the 11 band members set about playing Jimmy Cliff’s ‘Many Rivers To Cross’, and then the very popular (judging by the crowd response) ‘Cherry Oh Baby’ which is a Eric Donaldson tune. Cover four in a row is announced as a The Slickers number, this being ‘Johnny Too Bad’ and this sees Norman Lamont Hassan taking centre stage for lead vocals. It’s another popular choice with the punters, but in all honesty virtually all of my favourites from the recorded UB40 material are actually written by them and not others. I was starting to lose heart, only to be led back into the room by Robin announcing that they haven’t played the next song for many years. Cue ‘Rat In Mi Kitchen’, one of the set highlights for me, in addition to the opening two tunes. After this Robin told us that the next tune will always be linked with their departed sax player Brian Travers (who sadly died of cancer at the age of 62 in 2021), he is shown on the large backing screen and the opening notes of Lord Creator’s ‘Kingston Town’ ring out, there are many “ahhhs” from the crowd. The sax part is replaced by the electronic clarinet, and it’s a clear fan favourite, as is the singalong Neil Diamond cover ‘Red Red Wine’, which sees the stage lighting turn to red and many phones hoisted into the air.
The band vacate the stage, only to return a short while after with several of them throwing what looks like black t-shirts into the crowd. They then sign off with a trio of covers, the first of which being Al Green’s ‘Here I Am (Come and Take Me)’. After which Robin tells us that they recorded the next tune with Robert Palmer (1949-2003), this is ‘I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight’ which is a Bob Dylan cover. They leave us with the crooning set closer of Elvis Presley’s ‘(I Can’t Help) Falling In Love With You’, which sees many folk with their arms in the air and swaying their bodies. They have entertained us from 9:04pm until 10:55pm with 20 numbers, of which a dozen are cover versions. For me that’s far too many, when they have rock solid tunes of their own that they left out. I dare them to tour next time around for their 50th anniversary with original material that they have lovingly crafted themselves. This would be much more of interest to me, but I’m guessing that I might be in a minority, but it’s a rock solid suggestion! If that’s not possible then why not perform the whole of 1980’s ‘Signing Off’ LP along with the accompanying 3-track 12”. Go on lads make it happen!
UB40:
Robin Campbell – guitar, vocals, keyboards (1978–present)
Jimmy Brown – drums (1978–present)
Earl Falconer – bass guitar, synth bass, vocals, keyboards (1978–present)
Norman Lamont Hassan – percussion, vocals, trombone (1978–present)
Laurence Parry – trumpet, flügel horn, trombone, backing vocals (2016–present; session/touring 1994–2016)
Martin Meredith – alto saxophone, keyboards, WX7 (2016–present; session/touring 1997–2016)
Matt Doyle – vocals, guitar (2021–present)
Ian Thompson – tenor saxophone, keyboards, percussion (2021–present; previously substituted for Brian Travers RIP from 2019)
Gilly G – toasting, backing vocals (2023–present; guest 2018–2023)
Jahred Gordon – keyboards, guitar, bass, saxophone (2023–present)
Matt Campbell – backing vocals (2023–present)
UB40 setlist:
‘Food For Thought’
‘One In Ten’
‘Maybe Tomorrow’ (The Jacksons cover)
‘Homely Girl’ (The Chi‐Lites cover)
‘Sing Our Own Song’
‘Home’
‘Unknown’ (from ‘Bigga Baggariddim’ album)
‘Higher Ground’
‘Sweet Sensation’ (The Melodians cover)
‘Impossible Love’
‘You’re Still The One’ (Shania Twain cover)
‘Many Rivers To Cross’ (Jimmy Cliff cover)
‘Cherry Oh Baby’ (Eric Donaldson cover)
‘Johnny Too Bad’ (The Slickers cover)
‘Rat In Mi Kitchen’
‘Kingston Town’ (Lord Creator cover)
‘Red Red Wine’ (Neil Diamond cover)
(encore)
‘Here I Am (Come and Take Me)’ (Al Green cover)
‘I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight’ (Bob Dylan cover)
‘(I Can’t Help) Falling In Love With You’ (Elvis Presley cover)
