Legendary British reggae band UB40 is preparing to take its Unstoppable World Tour to New Zealand and Australia as it begins celebrations marking nearly 50 years in music — bringing the band back to two countries that together are home to a Tongan population larger than the population living in Tonga itself.
Founding member Robin Campbell and his son Matt Campbell, who performs backing vocals and manages the band, have spoken to ABC Pacific’s Island Music about the upcoming tour and the group’s long musical journey.
UB40 has officially announced six Australia and New Zealand concerts in May 2027, beginning in Perth on May 17 and ending at Auckland’s Spark Arena on May 26, with British group Soul II Soul as special guests.
The tour carries particular interest for Pacific audiences, including Tongans, among whom UB40 and reggae have maintained a strong following across generations.
That connection was dramatically demonstrated in Tonga in March 2006 when UB40 performed at Teufaiva Stadium in Nukuʻalofa before an estimated crowd of between 10,000 and 15,000 people — an extraordinary turnout in a country with a population of about 100,000. Contemporary reporting described it as Nukuʻalofa’s “biggest ever party”.
Twenty years later, UB40 featuring former lead singer Ali Campbell returned to Teufaiva in January this year, drawing thousands of fans and again demonstrating the enduring popularity of the band’s catalogue in the Kingdom. That touring group is separate from the current UB40 led by founding members including Robin Campbell.
The upcoming Australian and New Zealand tour also takes UB40 directly into the two countries containing the largest concentrations of the Tongan diaspora.
New Zealand’s 2023 Census recorded 97,824 people identifying as Tongan, making Tongans the country’s second-largest Pacific ethnic group after Samoans.
Australia’s 2021 Census recorded 43,469 people reporting Tongan ancestry, including both Tonga-born and Australian-born people.
Together, those figures amount to more than 141,000 people, compared with the 100,179 people counted in Tonga’s 2021 Population and Housing Census. The figures are not directly equivalent because New Zealand measures ethnic identification while the Australian figure is based on ancestry, and the censuses were conducted in different years. Nevertheless, they illustrate the scale of the Tongan population now living across the two countries.
UB40’s influence has also extended into Pacific reggae itself. New Zealand reggae musicians have cited the British group as an important influence, with members of Tomorrow People saying much of their early sound was influenced by UB40, whose music they had grown up hearing through their parents.
Formed in Birmingham in 1978, UB40 became one of the world’s most successful reggae bands, producing internationally recognised songs including Red Red Wine, Kingston Town and (I Can’t Help) Falling in Love with You.
Robin Campbell remains a founding member, guitarist, vocalist and lyricist, while Matt Campbell — Robin’s son — joined the band’s management before becoming its manager in 2019 and later joining the touring line-up as a backing vocalist.
The band says the 2027 Australia and New Zealand dates will begin its celebrations of 50 years in music, rather than mark the precise anniversary, which falls in 2028.
The Unstoppable World Tour will visit Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane before finishing at Spark Arena in Auckland on May 26.
