UB40: The Unstoppable Tour — Mahaffey Theater
UB40 started as a group of unemployed friends in a Birmingham, England welfare line in 1978 — the band’s name is literally the UK government’s unemployment benefit form number, and their first album, Signing Off, was a pun on leaving the dole. Their cover of Neil Diamond’s “Red Red Wine” hit No. 1 in the UK in 1983, then took five more years to top the charts in America in 1988, a slow-burn breakthrough partly credited to a performance on a Nelson Mandela birthday TV special. Four decades and dozens of hits later, the Unstoppable Tour is their current run through North America.
The Mahaffey is right on the waterfront in downtown St. Pete — an indoor, seated show instead of an amphitheater lawn, with the water and the downtown skyline right outside. It’s a reggae-pop show with broad, all-ages appeal; nothing in the material or staging makes it inappropriate for families, though it’s a late-ish 8pm start for younger kids on a school night.
Good to know: 400 1st St. S, St. Petersburg, FL 33701. Saturday, Nov. 14, 8pm. Tickets through Ticketmaster. Outside Pasco County — a worth-the-drive pick.
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