Days after announcing his split from UB40, vocalist Astro (Terence Wilson) has announced he will join the band's former lead vocalist Ali Campbell and keyboardist Mickey Virtue for a live show next Friday, December 6th at London's indigO2. Campbell and Virtue left UB40 in 2008. Its unclear if this is a one-off show or if Astro plans to join Campbell and Virtue's version of UB40 on a full-time basis. Astro stated that his departure was due in part to unhappiness with band management and the new country-flavored album "Getting Over The Storm."
According to a report in Complete Music Update, Astro stated: “It’s going to be great working with Ali again after all this time. We started on a mission to promote reggae music and that mission is still ongoing. Onwards and upwards!” Campbell added: “We originally formed UB40 to promote reggae. It was never about promoting individual band members – it’s about the music and the fans. Nothing else matters. Welcome home Astro!”
UB40 drummer Jim Brown posted comments on the band's message board which provide more insight on the move. According to Brown: "The band had a meeting with astro a couple of weeks ago because we had heard a few rumours that he had been in contact with Ali. Astro completely denied that he had seen Ali, he also gave us his word that he was totally committed to the bands up coming gigs. We also gave him extra money because he was having financial problems. He took the money and we haven't seen him since."
UB40 saxophonist Brian Travers also posted about the move on the band's message board: "The 1st time I heard astro was unhappy was on the radio the day he left…he was 100% behind the project before that, he did loads of interviews enthusing about the album, he didn't contribute anything to it BUT then he was never a prolific writer and never wrote any music…his interview shocked the shit out of us….Anyway...y'gotta laugh…" Travers added: "...what Jimmy didn't tell you was it was all the money we had available, leaving ourselves skint!"
No comments:
Post a Comment