INTERVIEW: UB40 Reveal What They Miss About The '80s & Talk New Album

Little did Neil Diamond know that in 1967, his song "Red Red Wine" would go on to become a chart-topping hit 16 years later -- thanks to reggae/pop group UB40. The guys included their rendition of the song on their fourth album Labour of Love, and the song topped the charts at the No. 1 position in several countries including the US, UK, Canada, Ireland, Netherlands, and New Zealand. Since then, the band has grown into an international sensation, and are one of the world's best-selling music artists, selling over 70 million records

UB40 featuring Ali, Astro and Mickey is set to bring all the "Red Red Wine" to this year's iHeart80s Party on January 28th 2017 in San Jose, CA at the SAP Center. The guys will take the stage along with New Kids on the Block, Colin Hay of  Men At Work, Rick Astley, Starship, Eddie Money, and Night Ranger.

Since the '80s were a totally awesome decade, we asked UB40 what they miss the most from 30 years ago during an exclusive interview when they stopped by iHeartRadio HQ in New York City. Check it out below.

Three Things UB40 Misses About The '80s

1. CD Sales

"CD sales is the first one. We sold like, getting over a hundred million CDs, and that's what made us carry on because we could afford to. The money from those CD sales made us tour, and put our shows on, and we used to get tour support. So it's a different world now, and we have to adapt."

2. Vinyl Records

"I miss playing vinyl. Vinyl records. Kids don't care about vinyl, or you know. What is good though, is that we just played The Diamond in London, and we filmed it in virtual reality. And I think, that's the next format. That's the next big thing. So that's quite exciting. Or it could completely destroy live music."

3."Their Youth"

"I miss my youth a little bit. Not much, not much, but you know. We're not as springy as we used to be. We're still springy, kind of. [Touring] is what keeps us young. We're always flying."

On Making New Songs and an Album

As the group says, they're "always working on a new album" and tell us they've "got a few projects in the can." But they've been promoting their recent project Silhouette (The Legendary Voice of UB40 - Reunited With Astro & Mickey). When asked how it feels to be all together again, they tell us, "It's been great. Almost like time stood still. We weren't sure whether or not the chemistry was there, but we didn't fight many minutes together. It was just like nothing could happen. Everything's water under the bridge so to speak, and we're just having a great old time now."

[Buy Silhouette on iTunes] 

Fun fact, they named Silhouette after their version of "Silhouette" originally by Jamaican reggae singer Dennis Brown, and they recorded their rendition at RAK studios, which is where Brown originally recorded the original. Talk about a song coming full circle.

"We recorded it at the very famous RAK Studios in St. John's Wood in London. And when we were doing 'Silhouette,' the title track, the woman who runs the studio came running in all dewy eyed going, 'Oh, you're doing 'Silhouette' how lovely.' I said, 'I didn't know you knew Dennis Brown. I didn't know you were a fan of Dennis Brown.' And she said, 'Oh no, it was actually done in this room by Herman's Hermits when Mickie Most used to own the studio in 1969.' So I actually took the track 'Silhouette' back home without knowing it. That was pretty cool. It was serendipitous I thought."