English reggae and pop band, UB40 will be in Gaborone on November 18th 2017 at the National Stadium. The last time the group was here was thirty years ago.
The legendary band will perform alongside Sereetsi and The Natives, Wizards, Charma Gal, former Lucky Dube band and renowned DJ Fresh. The UB40 music event plots the country favourably in the tourism scale, hence the Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO) should be licking its fingers as local promoters continue to do wonders for event tourism.
The group was formed in December 1978 in Birmingham, England the band has had more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart, and has also achieved considerable international success. They have been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album four times, and in 1984 were nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Group. UB40 have sold over 70 million records worldwide. The ethnic make- up of the band’s original line- up was diverse, with musicians of English, Irish, Jamaican, Scottish and Yemeni parentage.
Their hit singles include their debut “Food for Thought” and two Billboard Hot 100 number ones with “Red Red Wine” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love”. Both of these also topped the UK Singles Chart, as did the band’s version of “I Got You Babe”. Their two most successful albums, Labour of Love (1983) and Promises and Lies (1993), reached number one on the UK Albums Chart. Their profile states that the band’s line-up was stable for nearly 29 years, from March 1979 until January 2008, when front man Ali Campbell left the band, followed shortly thereafter by keyboardist Mickey Virtue. Another member, Astro, remained with the band until November 2013, when he departed the original band to team up with Campbell and Virtue in a new version of UB40.
