Lincs: British reggae legends UB40 have a live date at the Engine Shed

Following their sold-out UK tour of 2014, reggae stars UB40 have announced 19-date UK tour for May and June 2015 due to demand.
British reggae legends UB40 are live at the Engine Shed in Lincoln this monthBritish reggae legends UB40 are live at the Engine Shed in Lincoln this month
British reggae legends UB40 are live at the Engine Shed in Lincoln this month

The Brummie legends are currently in the middle of the second leg of their ‘Getting Over The Storm UK Tour’, which has seen UK’s most successful reggae band play more than 40 UK shows to over 100,000 fans.

And now they are coming to the Engine Shed in Lincoln on 24th May.

Once again, the choice of tour venues continues the band’s preference to avoid arena venues in the UK.

“The success of this year’s tour has confirmed what we already knew – that it’s better to play to 100,000 people across 40 intimate venues across the whole of the country than playing to the same number of people at six enormous domes in the same cities,” said Brian Travers, one of the band’s founding member and principal songwriter.

“It’s a much better experience for both the band and our fans, and we get to play in towns and cities we haven’t visited for many years.”

Fellow UB40 founding member and principal songwriter Jimmy Brown agrees:

“The atmosphere in the venues on our current tour has been amazing,” he said.

“You can feel it from the stage and it lifts the band to a different level.”

“You rarely get that in an arena.”

“We’re never happier than when we are on stage; we are a working band, it’s what we do”

Naming themselves after the unemployment benefit form, UB40 formed in 1978, before releasing their debut album, Signing Off, in August 1980.

The album is still considered by many to be one of the greatest reggae albums ever released by a British band.

It was the start of a career that has since seen the band have more than 40 UK top 40 hit singles and achieve sales of more than 100 million records, making them one of the most successful British groups of all-time.

The success of Signing Off marked the start of dominant decade in the 1980s as a string of top 10 albums followed including Present Arms (1981), UB44 (1982), Labour of Love (1983), Geffery Morgan (1984), Rat in the Kitchen (1986), Labour of Love II (1989), Guns In The Ghetto (1997) and Labour of Love III (1998).

Labour of Love and PromisesAnd Lies both topped the UK album charts.

Their ‘Very Best Of’ compilation in 2000 also made the top 10, as did Love Songs in 2009.

The band’s latest album, Getting Over The Storm, was awarded BBC Radio 2’s Album Of The Week accolade and received five-star reviews from the UK’s music press on its release in September 2013.

As well as their critically-acclaimed albums, the band are known for some of the most iconic singles of the last 30 years, including Red, Red Wine (a number one), Rat In Mi Kitchen, One In Ten, Don’t Break My Heart, Homely Girl, Many Rivers to Cross, and Sing Our Own Song.

They also had two huge hits in collaboration with The Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde, a cover of Sonny & Cher’s I Got You Babe (another number one) and Breakfast in Bed.

As well as Jimmy Brown and Brian Travers, three other original members – Robin Campbell, Earl Falconer and Norman Hassan – remain with the band with Duncan Campbell replacing former vocalist Ali Campbell since the latter left the band.

Tickets for their Engine Shed gig are £33 (including booking fee) and are available now from the box office on 0844 8888766 or online at www.engineshed.co.uk

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