UB40’s Ali Campbell: ‘Skinheads drenched us in phlegm and Sieg Heiled us’

Spending an hour with UB40 singer Ali Campbell is like being lashed to the front of a particularly wild rollercoaster. For every conversational thrill, such as the time he bumped into a half-naked Paul Simon or when his reggae band was attacked by skinheads, there are lofty ascents into topics including the folly of communism, followed by violent loop-the-loops – the biggest of which relates to the Campbell family feud, which makes the disputes of Liam and Noel Gallagher look like a storyline from The Waltons.