The Rainbow Courtyard, Birmingham, UB40

They have had number one singles across the globe and sold millions of albums. But this week, UB40 a band more used to playing to packed stadia, stepped out onto the stage of a much smaller venue, the 350-capacity Rainbow Courtyard.
The Raise the Roof gig at the closure threatened Digbeth concert venue was a bid raise funds to soundproof its roof.
"In effect, we are raising money for the church roof," said UB40 Saxophonist, Brian Travers. "Because this, for many young people is like a church. This is where they come to worship some of their idols," he added.
"They like to build up the tension," said one seasoned UB40 fan and he was proven right as the band walked on stage one-at-a-time before opening with the song Travers said was written about the high rate of unemployment in Birmingham, One in Ten.
The audience was a mix of die hards and their children. Fans, many of whom were seeing the band for the fourth or fifth time, said they had been looking forward to watching their heroes up close.
"I very first saw the band around 35 years ago when they were just starting out and tickets cost 50p," said 56 year old Margaret Delaney. "It was fantastic to see them back playing in such a small, intimate venue in their home town considering they normally play in stadia all over the world," she added.
Her 25 year old daughter, Lisa Delaney, on the other hand, was attending her first UB40 concert. "I grew up with this band on the radio and it is wonderful to get a chance to see them live," she said.
Louise McCarthy, a 52 year old interior designer, said she had been impressed by the band "in the flesh," but added: "What actually made the gig for me was the atmosphere."
Much of the pre gig talk among punters was on whether new singer Duncan Campbell could fill the shoes of his older brother Ali on lead vocals. Band members intimated after the show that they hoped he was not only able to "slot in and imitate Ali for the sake of the fans, but to add something to the role as well."
Most fans agreed after the band had left the stage that it was mission accomplished on that front. The pillar right in the centre of the stage which obscured Campbell from view throughout did not help his cause, but then, this was not the O2 Arena after all (I think that was the point).
All the same, artists including La Roux, The Prodigy and Joss Stone have graced the iconic Rainbow Courtyard stage in recent years. Reason enough, Travers said, to try to save the venue from closure after neighbours' complaints about the late-night noise.
"This is not about celebrity or even promoting UB40, this is about the bands who want to entertain people being able to carry on doing what they always have done," he said.
Contrary to when the band plays arena shows, a lot less "smoke and mirrors" were involved in this week"s gig, where the musicians got much closer to their audience than they normally would. "We could see the whites of their eyes and hear what they were saying between songs," band-members joked.
"They could also see us in detail, I would imagine we were a little older and a little fatter than they might have thought. There was no makeup artist here, this was just us doing what we do - entertaining people," said Travers.
The Rainbow and the adjoining music venue, The Rainbow Courtyard, have been live music stalwarts in Birmingham for years. It started out as one of many pubs in an industrial area which had live music on.
However, as other more central venues closed down one by one, it became more and important to the local music scene.
Now, like many others across the country, it is under threat from a Noise Abatement order. The Digbeth area of Birmingham was mot traditionally a residential one, but a recent influx of people looking for an inner city flat resulted in noise complaints.
Currently, Newcastle Quayside's The Cooperage was closed down after residents in newly built flats complained. The move saddened the band, who said that they had played there during the early days of their musical careers.
In the present though, and closing the show, Guitarist Robin Campbell urged the audience to sing along to the classic Red Red Wine, reminding them: "This is about raising the roof after all" (geddit)?

As UB40 look forward Time's a healer

+-

THE COSY world of multi million selling superstars UB40 was shattered last year with the departure of frontman Ali Campbell.More than a year on, the band are carrying on regardless and bring their radio friendly pop reggae sound to the Midlands in December as part of a UK tour.Mail reporter TIM FLETCHER spoke to long term member Astro about how the band are coping after a bitter split which left metaphorical blood on the carpet of their Birmingham HQ. Or was it just red, red wine?ALI Campbell’s acrimonious departure from UB40 and his replacement as frontman by his brother, Duncan, attracted intense media coverage but still passed some fans by, according to the band’s vocalist, trumpeter and MC, Astro.“We played one gig currently and a guy who’d been standing right in front of Duncan sent a note backstage saying ‘Ali, I thought you were brilliant’,” he says.“He couldn’t tell the difference, even though Duncan is 11 inches taller and about two stone lighter than Ali.“The reaction we’ve had has been nothing but positive and quite a few people have come up to tell us they couldn’t tell any difference. It could have all gone horribly wrong but the crowd have really embraced Duncan and he’s doing an admirable job.” Campbell’s departure, in January last year, brought about a painful schism in the band after 30 years of existence and also saw his fellow long-term member Michael Virtue quit.The version of events Campbell presented to the media prompted his erstwhile colleagues to issue a 1,300-word statement refuting everything from his claim that he was forced out of the band and that ‘bad administrative practices’ were to blame, to his suggestion that he had been responsible for writing all the band’s songs.One thing that particularly rankled was Campbell’s decision to notify his intention to quit the band via a solicitor, according to Astro.“That was the thing that actually stung,” he says. “You’d think that, after 30 years together, he would have been able to stand in front of us and go ‘this is how it is’ rather than getting solicitors involved.” Astro says Campbell, who has not spoken to his former band-mates — even his brothers Duncan and Robin — since the split, had been unhappy for some time before walking out.“It was obvious for a couple of years that he didn’t want to be on stage and even the public started asking why he always had a gloomy face and why he would never hang around to speak to fans,” he says.“It’s sad, but UB40 is like a family and with any family you have your problems and relationships break down. I’m sure time will ease the pain.” Astro says Campbell’s departure was largely down to his desire to pursue a solo career and the fact he had booked a solo tour at a time when he was supposed to be promoting UB40 album TwentyFourSeven.The release of that record brought the band more controversy after their decision to give it away free with copies of the Mail on Sunday brought about a backlash within the industry, with firms refusing to distribute the paid-for, ‘deluxe’ album version.“It’s something our record company suggested to us,” says Astro. “There’s no doubt that it’s a great way to get a large volume of units to the public in one fell swoop and we shifted three million of them, but it backfired on us with the retailers not wanting to have the deluxe version because it had already been released.” The band have returned to a more conventional model with the release of compilation album Love Songs earlier this year and forthcoming release Labour of Love IV, the latest in a series of covers albums inspired by the music the band grew up with in 1970s Brum.“When we started out the most frequently asked question we got was ‘You all come from Birmingham, so why did you choose to do reggae music’?” says Astro.“We thought the best way to explain was to do an album of all the reggae tunes we loved as kids.“When I was growing up you would never hear reggae music on the radio and the only way to hear it was by going to one of the house parties that West Indian families would have every weekend.“They’re all classic tunes which you would hear everywhere at the time. We thought that if we could expose these tunes to the general public, they would fall in love with them in the way we did.” The series would prove a winning formula, earning the band hit singles with covers of songs such as Red, Red Wine; inspired by Jamaican rock steady performer Tony Tribe’s version of a Neil Young tune.That track earned UB40 number ones on both side of the Atlantic, but their smooth, slicky-produced, radio friendly interpretations of classic songs have seen their music dubbed ‘reggae lite’ by the critics.“It’s each to their own really but we don’t ever try to tone things down; you just do what sounds best for the melody you’re playing,” says Astro. “Reggae is not about how much you can stuff in; it’s about how much you leave out; giving it space.“I think albums like TwentyFourSeven and (2005 release) Who You Fighting For are kicking and if you play them with an open mind, I defy you to call them ‘tame’, either lyrically or musically.”