Haere mai to the land of red, red wine

HINERANGI VAIMOSO
British reggae group UB40 weren't greeted by thousands of screaming fans wagging work for the day just to get a glimpse of the band as members filed out of the plane at the Hawke's Bay Airport yesterday.
It was more a case of quality, not quantity for a handful of people who would have been happy just being under the same roof as UB40, let alone getting five minutes of conversation with the boys.
"How was your flight, team?" I said trying to act as cool as a duck on a pond.
"Great - better than the bloody flight from Australia," lead singer Ali Campbell replied with the rest of the boys behind him nodding in agreement. Apparently it was hot and yucky and the service wasn't that great either on the transtasman trip.
Brilliant, we had made a good impression already. After getting me quite smitten with photos of them - yes I'm a huge fan and not ashamed to flash the reporter title to get a quick snap - they were off.
Seeing 16-year-old girls queuing alongside 40-year-old men made it hard to make out whether the concert at the Pettigrew-Green Arena last night was John Rowles or Beyonce.
The range of age and race in the crowd showed how far the reach of UB40 had spread over the quarter century since they began.
More than 2500 reggae ravers waited patiently at the door and when they opened there wasn't a desperate stampede to be close enough to taste lead singer Ali Campbell's sweat. The older crowd and families relaxed in the chairs, where I suspect the best sound was, while the young 'uns milled around, picked their spot and sat like they were at a Gatsby Picnic to watch Auckland support band Lucid-3.
The dramatic music boomed, the lights started circling the UB40 backdrop sign, the crowd hit their feet and then the band emerged.
Mixing their old hits with new material, the crowd were loving it.
Fans yelled "I love this song," screaming and singing as if they were in the shower, still in disbelief that UB40 were less than six metres away. One woman was in awe that her eldest daughter was the same age as the band.
They say some bands are just better live but UB40 is always good, consistent and a pleasure to watch. The crowd went wild for the encore but it has to end sometime although not without a warm send-off with a haka.
For those going to the show tonight, enjoy, and to UB40, feel free to come back to the land of red, red wine anytime.