Founding member of reggae pop giants UB40 Astro dies after illness

Terence ‘Astro’ Wilson of the British reggae band UB40.

Former vocalist and founding member of British reggae group UB40, who rose to fame in the 1980s with hits like Pink Pink Wine and Are unable to Help Falling In Love has died at the age of 64, his band verified.

Terence Wilson – who went by the phase title Astro, performed with UB40 until finally 2013, when he fashioned a breakaway band.

“We are certainly devastated and totally heartbroken to have to tell you that our beloved Astro has today handed absent just after a very shorter ailment,” his present band, UB40 featuring Ali Campbell and Astro, claimed on Twitter late Saturday. “The world will under no circumstances be the same without having him.”

His previous band verified the information, declaring Wilson had died immediately after “a shorter sickness”.

UB40’s pop reggae address of Neil Diamond’s Pink Red Wine propelled them to fame, with the band going on to market additional than 100 million data.

They also held the report – shared with Insanity – for most weeks spent in the British isles singles chart in the 1980s.

Hailing from the British Midlands’ town of Birmingham, the group rode a wave of youthful discontent from the financial and political position quo, with their identify referring to a kind supplied to persons professing unemployment advantages.

Drummer Jimmy Brown explained to the Guardian this year that the group experienced even been beneath surveillance by British intelligence.

“MI5 were tapping our telephones, watching our houses, all types,” he reported. “We weren’t preparing the revolution, but if the revolution took place, we understood what aspect we have been likely to be on.”