UB40’s Jimmy Brown talks about their upcoming tour and how Birmingham shaped the band

UB40 are set to tour across England and Ireland this December ahead of their upcoming album UB45. Undeniably one of Birmingham’s most iconic bands, BirmnghamWorld gets to sit down to speak with Jimmy Brown about the city, and also what fans have to look forward to on their 45th Anniversary tour.

“Yeah, it’s UB40, what can I say? We’re doing the tour of Britain. Well, it’s going to be England and Ireland, I think that we’re going to. Yeah, we’re, we’re touring that.

“The second half of the tour that we started earlier in the year. And yeah it’s going to be a proper UB40 show, you can hear all the hits, where you’re also going to hear some new material as well. And hopefully, people will have a good time dancing and singing and singing along and just generally having a good time. So that’s the idea.”

So the band’s been together for 45 years - I’m sure such a strong intuitive understanding of each other lends itself to the performance on stage?

“Yeah, I mean, you know, we’ve known each other for so long now. And we understand each other well. And, you know, we are instinctive with each other on stage, and we understand each other implicitly, really, because we’ve been doing it for so long.

“But we don’t want to just like rest on being in a heritage band, you know, we want to be creating new stuff to you know, new material and it’s important to us to, you know, not just sit back on all those heritage hits and still producing new music - we still love making music. And you know, we’ve still got something to say, so we just will carry on until people ignore us, I suppose.”

Now the Commonwealth Games put UB40 front and centre as ambassadors to Birmingham to a global audience, can you tell me how growing up in Birmingham contributed to the band’s development?

“I’m very, very proud to be in Birmingham. I’m not a great believer in role models. I don’t want to be a role model for anybody, you know, personally. But I think when it comes to the city of Birmingham, I’m immensely proud of being a Brummie you know, because of that privileged upbringing that I had.

“I just feel that it’s given me everything really, you know, not just musically, but personally as well, you know - my family you know. My kid’s granddad came over on the Windrush convoy, you know, so, I’m immensely proud of all of that.”

UB40 will be playing at the Utilita Arena on the 18th December.