UB40UB40 at the Academy, Dublin, 27th March 2014

If your dad was in a band, it’d be UB40.

Unless the Academy starts hosting wedding parties in the near future, it’s unlikely that the same amount of dodgy dancing from middle-aged men will grace that stage for some time to come. After tonight that is, when the band play a second sold out show.

The problem might be the lack of just enough original key members to elevate the performance above that of a glorified tribute act.

When frontman Ali Campbell departed the band in 2008, the Birmingham reggae group drafted in his brother Duncan as a replacement. Unfortunately Duncan Campbell doesn’t seem to share his brother’s vocal abilities, with his slightly mumbled delivery getting drowned out any time the audience rose in sing-along chorus in response to their old favourites.

It also doesn’t help that Ali Campbell has now formed his own splinter faction band, going by the name UB40 Reunited, and has also snapped up original trumpeter Astro and keyboardist Mickey Virtue.

With two rival UB40s now touring and releasing albums, in a feud it seems driven primarily by money, it does somewhat undermine the anti-commercial message of a band who named themselves after an unemployment benefit form.

While the lyrics born out of working class hardship Thatcherite Britain could have had just as much contemporary resonance in our current recessionary times, there doesn’t seem to be too much ambition on the part of this version of UB40 to make the link.

Instead they are content to rock rhythmically, at their own unhurried pace, powered by swaying percussion and a decidedly chilled brass section, through a series of old favourites, relying on the recognition of nostalgia to win their audience over. Early on, Sweet Cherrie grooves melodically along, while the band sway from side to side and bop their heads like men who don’t quite know what tunes is even playing, but are willing to show their appreciation through dance all the same.

The middle section of the show comes as a bit of a lull, as UB40 play an extended selection of tracks from their new album ‘Getting Over the Storm’, which consists primarily of reggae-style cover versions of country songs.

By the third or fourth new number the whole thing had gotten a bit tedious, but suddenly a flash of brilliance emerges in the form of How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?, a depression-era American folk song  (popularised by Ry Cooder).

Suddenly UB40 have found a genuine edge to their sound. Duncan Campbell reaches his vocal peak with the bitter lyrics, reworked for a modern context of banking crashes and a global financial cirsis. For just a moment a real fire burns in UB40, a reminder of a band that once made music for the downtrodden working man, and not just reggae/pop hit singles.

In a way it’s almost a step backward when UB40 return to their hits. Here I Am – Come and Take Me and Red Red Wine bounce along with a satisfying sweetness, but are still lacking any real conviction, as Duncan’s Jones’s voice is once again drowned out by an audience that know all the words. The band sign off with their trademark Elvis cover (I Can’t Help) Falling in Love with You, possibly their most obvious foray into mildly entertaining wedding cover band territory, but it’s a crowd pleaser nonetheless.