UB40's Robin 'moved' as pupils studying group's music remind him of late member
UB40's Robin Campbell says he was "moved" by school pupils who are studying the group, singing one of their hits penned by his late bandmate Brian Travers.
The band, formed in 1978, visited primary pupils in Birmingham who are studying UB40's music, for a special assembly, with current line-up Robin, Earl Falconer, Norman Hassan, Jimmy Brown, and lead singer Matt Doyle all attending.
The reggae pop group’s tracks are being used to teach youngsters how to express themselves grammatically and with fluency – and involved Year One to Year Six performing renditions of some of the group’s most commercially successful hits during the assembly.
In a question from one of the pupils at St Edward’s Catholic Primary School in Selly Park, about where the band would be in five years, Robin joked “in a nursing home”, before adding: “We’ll carry on until we drop.”
UB40 members visited a primary school in Birmingham where their curriculum is being taught (PA)He told how the line-up was always changing, and how his brother Ali Campbell left the band 15 years ago, while fellow original members saxophonist Brian Travers and Astro had died.
Among the audience of pupils was 11-year-old Olha Tartasiuk, from Kyiv, Ukraine, who only came to the UK 10 months ago, but whose family already knew UB40 songs.
She said: “I am so happy, when I told my Dad I was meeting UB40 he said: ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it.’
“My dad knows their music, my mom knows their music, it’s really good.”
UB40 listened to pupils perform their songs (PA)The reggae pop band played their first gig in the Hare and Hounds, in Kings Heath, Birmingham, going on to enjoy huge commercial with over 50 hit singles in the UK chart – and have just returned from sell-out gigs in the United States and Australia.
After the assembly, founder members, drummer Jimmy Brown and guitarist Robin, said the day had been “phenomenal and emotional”.
Robin said: “The fact that kids are studying our music in a school – I never thought our music could become part of a curriculum at a school.
“When they sang Higher Ground, particularly, it got quite emotional, because it made me think of the guy who wrote the song – Brian Travers, who passed away.
“It would have moved him. It moved me.”
Jimmy said: “We’re the luckiest people in the world.”
Robin added: “We are very much aware we are a product of Birmingham, the fact it is a musical melting pot has created us, it’s why we play the music we do.
“Our particular hybrid of reggae is unique to us – but it only exists because we come from Birmingham.”
Robin Campbell thought of the late Brian Travers (third left) during the assembly (Getty)The band has always been firmly political in its music, with hits like 1981’s One in Ten about unemployment, and the anti-apartheid anthem Sing Our Own Song.
Robin said: “It would be really good if we get into the politics with the kids as well,” then, jokingly, he added: “Get them into the lyrics of those songs that really matter – instead of Can’t Help Falling In Love With You.”
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