UB40 w/Ali Campbell
w/ The Bamboos, Drax Project, Drea
Kings Park
Sunday, January 18 2026
The story of UB40 in 2026 is the tale of an acrimonious band split almost twenty years ago that created two similarly named groups that tend to cross each other’s travel itineraries more than one might expect. In Kings Park there was the varietal containing original lead singer Ali Campbell, the voice and face from the music videos the public generally remembers.
In this ancient meeting place, surrounded by eucalypt forest on a hazy summer evening, the usual picnic blankets and high-backed chairs of the venue were mixed in with dreadlocks and Rastafarian colours across most everything else—a confluence of disparate elements that combined for a whole greater than the sum of its parts.
To begin, Perth local and WAM 2025 nominee Drea brought to the stage her gospel-tinged blend of hip-hop chill. Having already been on the Kings Park stage three years ago and returned to music from a two-year hiatus, Drea was the very epitome of happy to be here, thankful to everyone who had contributed to her success. She advised she could not talk through her feelings but could certainly sing them, and with bright, crisp vocals alongside a blazing passion for her art, Drea will continue to be one to listen for in the near to medium future.
Then to a group that immediately ramped the funk factor a thousandfold, New Zealand’s Drax Project. Somehow getting fantastic reverb from an open-air venue, lead singer Shaan Singh had taken it upon himself to make saxophone great again, with some very sensual, very smooth jazz stylings. The band subsequently took the audience on a forty-minute musical adventure from their busking days on Wellington’s Courtenay Place, through rapping in te reo Māori, and ended up at their latest single, Summer Rain, written three weeks ago, itself a loving throwback to the Antipodean rock guitar riffs of the nineties.
But wait, there was more support act goodness, this time from Australian soul legends The Bamboos, the band twenty-six years young, if a day. Add one part throbbing bassline, one part husky lead vocals, and one part sunglasses after dark, and that only gave the vaguest inkling of what made The Bamboos so effortlessly cool. Well-oiled, professional, and tight, the ten-piece led by Lance Ferguson and Kylie Auldist exuded clean horns, disco mirrorball, and the perfectly exact amount of cowbell per track.
To collect all these eclectic artists on the same bill seemed the result of a series of very fun decisions by tour management.
UB40 with Ali Campbell graced the stage and immediately raised the roof—or rather, what little roof there was—with One in Ten, one of the high points of UB40’s entire discography and a powerful statement of intent, often left for an encore but tonight starting the entire show.
Rolling through the hits—If It Happens Again, followed by Homely Girl through to The Way You Do the Things You Do—the band performances were tight yet at the same time reggae-relaxed, the horns so languid one could quite happily drown in them. All that was missed from the scene was a cheeky rum and perhaps a spliff. Or perhaps not, at the smoke-free Kings Park. The perfumed scent apparent at times tonight must surely have been mere phantom memories.
Hype man and percussionist Franky B called out to the audience to ask if they wanted some old school. With the answer given firmly in the affirmative, UB40 brought the oldest school they had to offer, Food for Thought and King, the superb double A-side that started it all. The audience got its groove mightily on, with many dancing in the grassed aisles.
The evening continued, poised at a metaphorical midpoint between the Caribbean, all azure skies and white sands, and the grittier Birmingham of the Thatcher years. With all the many, many years stripped back, it was easy to get lost in the romance of it all.
Unsurprisingly, given the ensuing decades, Campbell’s voice was not quite what it was at the peak of the band’s powers. However, it was more tonight’s unevenly balanced setlist that perhaps undercut what was a good show from becoming a great one. Heavily bracketed at the front and back with the anthems, the stretch in-between was far more downtempo. UB40 have always had a deep roster of slower heartbreak songs, but to have as many of them in a row as tonight tended to disrupt the overall pacing of the remaining set.
At the start of the encore, Franky B introduced the group members one by one, and the audience gave their full-throated appreciation in return—the band had provided outstanding backing to Campbell all evening. The show ended with the biggest hits on offer tonight—Red Red Wine, Kingston Town and (I Can’t Help) Falling in Love with You—leaving the fans happily sated.
As the crowd slowly meandered through the gardens on their various ways home, they could contemplate the concert anew. A spectacular setting with a legendary headliner, and every support act a wonderful addition—Kings Park had absolutely delivered again, as perhaps Perth’s most beautiful venue.