With Ali part of a ten-piece touring band, UB40 are now ready to add tracks from Unprecedentedto a formidable live set that contains material spanning over four decades.
As well as favourites such as ‘Red Red Wine’, they have reintroduced some older tracks that have taken on a renewed significance.
Among these are 1979’s ‘King’, inspired by the legacy of American Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, and 1997’s ‘Guns In the Ghetto’.“Some of the older songs are still so appropriate,”says Ali.
“We wrote King 42 years ago, but it still says something about America today.
It’s the same with One In Ten for the UK.
With the impact of coronavirus, we could soon be looking at unemployment figures on a par with the early 1980s.”“We’ll be back on tour, even though we’re still reeling from the loss of Astro,”he continues.
“It’s going to be daunting, because there’s no way we can replace Astro onstage, but he would have wanted these shows to go on. The current band are all fantastic musicians, and we’ve climbed back up to the biggest venues.”
