UB40 Announce New Album “A Real Labour of Love” and Las Vegas Dates at Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas
UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, Astro & Mickey Virtue, the founding members of the legendary reggae/pop ensemble that blazed a multicultural musical path, give fans a fresh take on reggae tracks from the 70s and 80s with their new album “A Real Labour of Love.”
The band announces a special U.S. tour of limited dates, kicking off in Las Vegas, NV for two nights on July 27th and 28th at The Brooklyn Bowl featuring a Vintage Vegas weekend.
Celebrating their classic version of Elvis’ ‘(I Can’t Help) Falling In Love With You,’ there will be photo booths, special food & drinks and surprises to create a throwback experience for fans. The band will make a few stops in California and wrap up in Denver on August 5th at The Hudson Gardens & Event Center.
‘A Real Labour Of Love,’ scheduled for worldwide release on March 2nd on UMe, sees the group explore the songs that defined reggae in the Eighties. The concept isn’t a rigid one: Stevie Wonder’s ‘A Place In The Sun’ is a Motown classic from 1966, and there are numbers from the late Seventies in Dennis Brown’s sublime ‘How Could I Leave’ and Culture’s ‘International Herb’. But most of the tracks on ‘A Real Labour Of Love’ are from the Eighties, a decade that saw dancehall reggae enter the mainstream.
“The first three albums featured the songs we grew up listening to,” says Ali. “This one is built around the records we were listening to once UB40 were on the road.”
Since reuniting five years ago, lead vocalist Ali Campbell along with percussionist / trumpeter / vocalist Astro and Mickey Virtue on keyboards have developed into a formidable stage outfit with an 11-piece touring ensemble, complete with a three-piece horn section. Their world tours have included visits to North and South America, Australia, Nigeria, South Africa, Dubai and Papua New Guinea.
The group are now looking forward to taking their new album on the road, with UK festival appearances lined up for the summer and a UK arena tour in the pipeline for 2019. Given the massive success of the band’s last ‘Labour Of Love’ outing, a 2016 tour that featured sold-out shows at the O2 Arena in London and the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham, there is bound to be a huge appetite for ‘A Real Labour Of Love.’
“The reaction to that tour was fantastic, and every show was a sell-out,” says Ali. “Now we’re ready to do it all again. We knew most of these songs back to front before we began recording ‘A Real Labour Of Love,’ so the challenge was to make them our own rather than copying the originals.”
Please check local venues for ticket availability and on-sale dates or visit the band’s website http://ub40.org.
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