UB40 - Featuring Ali Campbell - AMP Pompano Beach, Florida · April 17th, 2026

UB40 - Featuring Ali Campbell - AMP · Pompano Beach, Florida · April 17, 2026

Review by Shemme Lee

★★★★★ 5 / 5 — UNMISSABLE

Opening act: The Ries Brothers

SETTING THE SCENE

Pompano Beach had just finished rinsing itself clean. The rain was gone, leaving behind that particular South Florida humidity that wraps around you like a warm towel, thick but forgiving.

Under the covered AMP, strategically placed fans pushed the air around just enough to keep things comfortable, and the crowd that had gathered was the kind you don’t see at every show: mostly 50-plus, unhurried, settled in their skin. These weren’t casual passersby.

They were people who had grown up with this music, who had let it mark moments in their lives, and who had shown up tonight to revisit every one of them.

The Ries Brothers opened the evening with a concentrated blast of reggae-rock and blues energy, their 30-something-minute set landing like a well-aimed warm-up pitch, loose and confident.

By the time UB40 were ready to take the stage, the crowd was already right where they needed to be.

HIGHLIGHTS

Here’s the thing about a UB40 show: everyone walks in waiting for “Red Red Wine,” and UB40 delivered it, because of course they did. The crowd welcomed it like an old friend at a reunion, warm and familiar and right on cue.

But here’s what’s interesting: it wasn’t the night’s most electric moment.

That honor belonged to the songs people weren’t quite as ready for. “Kingston Town” arrived like a slow tide, warm and unhurried, and the crowd swayed into it with the ease of people who know every word without having to think.

“The Way You Do the Things You Do” brought a buoyancy to the room that felt almost physical. “I Got You Babe” was tender and playful.

“Here I Am” landed with quiet authority.

And then, without a word of warning, Eddie Chacon simply appeared. Mid-song, mid-groove, as though he’d just been waiting in the wings for exactly the right moment. He had. His performance on “Would I Lie to You Baby” stopped the room cold before melting it all over again.

The crowd, who’d been told at the very start of the show that he might show up, had still not quite prepared themselves for how good it would actually feel.

“They didn’t give you what you expected. They gave you something better.”

STAGE & PRODUCTION

The production kept things focused and honest. Lighting stayed trained on the band with no elaborate theatrics, no pyrotechnics, no visual distractions competing for attention.

Just a well-lit stage and musicians who didn’t need anything else to hold a crowd.

At an outdoor covered venue like the AMP, that kind of restraint is exactly right.

You could see every face, every movement, every exchange between players.

Nothing was hidden. Nothing needed to be.

THE PERFORMANCE

Ali Campbell is not a young man. You can see it. And somehow that only makes watching him more compelling.

He moved across that stage with an energy that had no business belonging to someone his age, full-throated, present, alive in every song.

There’s a particular kind of joy that comes from watching a veteran performer who still genuinely means it, and Campbell had it in abundance all night.

The band around him was equally locked in, the reggae grooves sitting deep and unhurried the way only a group of musicians who’ve been playing this music for decades can manage.

ARTIST & AUDIENCE

The connection between UB40 and this particular crowd was something close to elemental.

These were their people, grown alongside the same records, shaped by the same era.

When Campbell sang, he wasn’t performing at the audience so much as performing with them, the music passing back and forth between stage and seats like something shared rather than delivered.

The Eddie Chacon cameo crystallised it perfectly: an unannounced guest, a beloved song, a room full of people who felt, just for a moment, like they were all in on something together.

ONE SMALL NOTE

None worth dwelling on. The show was generous, well-paced, and delivered with genuine care. If you came for “Red Red Wine” you got it.

If you came for more than that, you got that too.

VERDICT

If you lived through the era that made UB40 what they are, this show will feel like running into an old friend who looks exactly as good as you remembered and maybe a little better.

If you’re coming in fresh, prepare to understand immediately why this band has outlasted decades of trends and fashions.

Warm, soulful, generous, and full of life.

See them while you can.