Review by Scott Perry – Performance Date: Friday 18 October 2024, Adelaide Entertainment Centre
A night of rock and reggae rhythm.
The night kicked off with support artist Eagle-Eye Cherry bringing great energy to get the party started. Working through a set including “Falling In Love Again” and “One Of Those Days” really got the crowd going. Closing out the 45 minute set with “Save Tonight” had the whole room singing and dancing to the well known tune.
After a short break it was time for the main act of the night. Touring to celebrate their career of 45 years as a band, UB40 hit the stage with “Here I Am (Come And Take Me)” opening up a 2 hour set comprising of songs in their reggae pop style from all of their albums. Featuring many well known songs including “Many Rivers To Cross” “Gimme Some Kind Of Sign” and “Cherry Oh Baby” and of course you couldn’t close out the set without doing “Red Red Wine” especially being the name of the current tour.
Permanent guest MC and backing vocalist (since 2017) Gilly G revved the crowd up going into a 20 minute encore with some good old call and response to build the energy even more. Encore songs “Food For Thought” “Kingston Town” and their well known version of the Elvis classic “Can’t Help Falling In Love” to finish off the night.
A group that has seen a career spanning multiple decades still features founding band members including Robin Campbell(vocals and guitar), Jimmy Brown(drums), Earl Falconer(bass) and Norman Lamont Hassan(percussion and vocals), long standing members Martin Meredith(saxophone and keys) in 1997 and Laurence Parry(trumpet) in 1994and more recently joined by Ian Thompson(saxophone,keys) in 2019, Jahred Gordon(keys) in 2023 and Matt Campbell (backing vocals) who is also the son of Robin Campbell. Lead singer Matt Doyle, who has been with the band for 3 years, really matched the vocal sound that UB40 are known for.
Check out Gallery of the night here!
