UB40 returning to Northland for 40th anniversary tour

UB40 including Ali Campbell and Astro wait to be welcomed to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds in 2016. The band will return to Northland next January.

UK reggae superstars UB40, with Ali, Astro and Mickey, love New Zealand, and Northland in particular, and the band will be back in the region next year on its 40th anniversary tour.

In an exclusive interview with the Northern Advocate, second vocalist Astro said the band's visit to Northland in 2016, which included a powhiri at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, was one of their most memorable of the many tours they have done since bursting out of Birmingham in the late 1970s.

Astro said the Māori welcome and treatment the band received will stay with them forever and they are looking forward to returning to the North.

The band, responsible for timeless hits such as Red Red Wine, Cherry Oh Baby, Rat In Mi Kitchen and Kingston Town will headline the Reggae by the River concert, overlooking the Waitangi River, on January 26, next year on its 40th Anniversary Tour – UB40TH.

If the band's last appearance in Northland is anything to go by, tickets for next year's show will be in high demand.

All 5000 tickets were sold to the band's last show in Northland, at Kainui Road Vineyard, Kerikeri, in January 2016.

As founding members of Britain's biggest reggae band UB40, singer Ali Campbell, second vocalist Astro and keyboardist Mickey Virtue topped the UK singles chart on three occasions and sold 70 million records as they took their smooth yet rootsy musical blend to all corners of the globe.

Between 1983 and 1998 UB40 produced three Labour Of Love albums, bringing hits such as Eric Donaldson's Cherry Oh Baby, Lord Creator's Kingston Town and Johnny Osbourne's Come Back Darling to a new, global audience.

They also topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic with their reggae cover of Neil Diamond's Red Red Wine.

UB40 played to a packed house at Kainui Road Winery, Kerikeri, on January 6, with the band returning to Northland next January.

Now with their latest album A Real Labour Of Love they give a fresh take on the legendary series of albums, putting the focus primarily on reggae tracks from the 1980s.

Ticket and venue information for all shows at www.ub40.nz

An interview with Astro will be in Saturday's Northern Advocate.