To pay tribute to him, fans will be able to hum the hits Red red wine and Kingston town. Astro, former singer and founding member of British reggae group UB40, has died at the age of 64.
Terence Wilson, real name, played with UB40 until 2013 before forming another group. “We are totally devastated to have to tell you that our beloved Astro passed away today after a brief illness,” his current group, which bears the name of “UB40 featuring Ali Campbell & Astro”, posted on Twitter late Saturday. “The world will never be the same without him”. His former group also confirmed the information, also specifying that he had died from a “brief illness”.
A supervised group
The 1983 cover by UB40 of the song Red red wine by Neil Diamond has propelled the group to the top with more than 100 million records sold. The name of the group, founded in 1978 in Birmingham, refers to the UK Unemployment Benefits Form 40.
Drummer Jimmy Brown further explained to The Guardian this year that the group has been under surveillance by UK Home Intelligence. “MI5 had bugged our phones and was monitoring our homes,” he said. “We are not planning a revolution, but if a revolution were to take place, we knew which side we were on.”