VIA PRESS RELEASE | UB40 Featuring Ali & Astro have announced a very special online concert available to view from June 16, 2021. The band’s very first online concert will see them performing UB40’s seminal 1980 album Signing Off in its entirety. Filmed at Stabal Studios on the outskirts of London, Ali & Astro will be accompanied by their incredible eight-piece touring band.
“These are the first songs we wrote together as a band,” comments Ali Campbell. “It will be a joy to revisit them 40 years on. Sadly, ‘King’ and ‘Food For Thought’ are still relevant today. We give thanks that Gary Tyler has now been released,” adds Ali, referring to the inspiration behind the album’s opening track ‘Tyler,’ who was finally released from prison in Louisiana in 2016. “After 40 plus years, we can’t wait to play our debut album Signing Off in its entirety to the fans, it’s gonna be a happy trip down memory lane!” comments Astro.
Tickets available now from Stabal.com. The first 100 tickets will cost £4.99, which is the original album price, and the deluxe 30-day ticket will have three extra songs and an interview with Ali and Astro. With any 30-day tickets purchased before May 7 the customer will get their name on the show’s closing credits.
An instant critical success, Signing Off debuted at #2 on the UK album charts and was later certified Platinum by the BPI, with singles “Food For Thought” and “I Think it’s Going To Rain Today” reaching the top ten of the UK singles charts. The album was recently reissued on limited edition double vinyl by UMC. The 2LP (180g) red vinyl reissue features all 10 original tracks, as well as three bonus tracks (“Madam Medusa,” “Strange Fruit,” and “Reefer Madness”).
The cover artwork memorably duplicated an unemployment benefit card (a “UB40”), with the title Signing Off rubber-stamped in red, but it was the music that quickly worked its way into the musical collections of a young audience with its knowing lyrics, upbeat reggae rhythms and dubby, instrumental passages, offset by warm horn solos and Jamaican style scatting.
NME called the album “A courageous debut… Their radical sentiments and trenchant lyrics are given all the more force by the soft-fist of UB40’s measured musical delivery” later placing it at #13 on their Albums Of The Year list. BBC Music stated that Signing Off is still believed by many to be the group’s greatest album, and it remains the clearest window into what the band were all about… [it] has energy and intelligence that made it stand out from so much post-punk pop.” Q magazine would also rank Signing Off at #83 on their “100 Greatest British Albums” list.
As founding members of Britain’s biggest reggae band, singer Ali Campbell and second vocalist Astro topped the UK singles chart on three occasions and sold 70 million records as they took their rootsy sound to all corners of the globe. UB40 Featuring Ali and Astro’s most recent studio album, 2018’s A Real Labour Of Love, debuted at No.2 in the charts and spent a month in the Top 10.
Since reuniting in 2013, UB40 Featuring Ali and Astro have developed into a formidable touring outfit, embarking on multiple UK Arena tours and headlining Festivals all over the globe. Their world tours have included visits to North and South America, Nigeria, South Africa, Dubai, Australia, visited the vineyards of New Zealand for a ‘Red Red Winery Tour,’ and have even performed in Papua New Guinea.
