ALI CAMPBELL, 48, is best known as the lead singer of reggae band UB40.

They have had a number of memorable hits since the 1980s, including Red, Red Wine, a cover version of a Neil Diamond song.

UB40 was named after the unemployment-benefit form. Their first single, King/ Food for Thought, reached No 4 in the UK singles chart and was the first record to reach the British top 10 without major record-label backing.

Their 1983 album of cover songs, Labour of Love, reached No 1 in the UK album chart and No 8 on the Billboard Top 200 in America.

Their most successful single release is the cover of the Elvis Presley ballad I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You, which was a No 1 hit across Europe and in the US.

Campbell is about to launch a new single, Would I Lie to You, later this month, featuring Bitty McLean.

He lives in Bournemouth with his wife, Julie, and children, Jack, 15, Kaya, 13, Louis, seven, and Drew, four. He has four other children with his previous wife: Ali, 26, Max, 20, Kibibi, 19, and Indica, 14.

How much money do you have in your wallet? I don’t carry cash – I’m a bit like the Queen Mother. It’s because I tend to lose any money I carry. I only carry cash when I’m on tour – usually about £500 or so.

Do you have any credit cards? I have a Lloyds TSB Visa card, which sits in a drawer in my kitchen. I only take that out when I’m on tour.

My wife tends to do most of the shopping and deals with the domestic finances. I presume she pays it off every month as we don’t seem to have any debt problems.

Are you a saver or a spender? A spender. My wife and I are awful – we encourage each other to spend more than we should. We can’t leave town without spending a grand.

I had some pension savings back in the day but they took a beating on Black Wednesday in 1992 when Britain came out of the exchange rate mechanism.

I couldn’t say exactly how much got knocked off, or even who the pension was with, but I remember losing tens of thousands of pounds very quickly.

How much did you earn last year? UB40 grosses millions every year, but I net what seems like pennies. After paying off all our costs, overheads and taxes, we probably get less than 30% of what we gross between us.

UB40 has not done as well as it could have done financially because of some poor planning. During the early years, we didn’t sign up to the Performing Rights Society, which collects money for artists every time their material is used. That alone cost us millions in lost revenue.

We did take advantage of some tax rules, though. Back in the 1990s, if you stayed out of the country for more than 44 weeks a year, you were exempt from tax, so we used to go on tour for two years at a time.

We did that three times, but by the third time, in 1998, the law had changed. It was good for a while, but took its toll on us, physically and mentally.

How much was in your first pay packet? I worked as a cashier at a Butlins holiday camp in Barry Island, Wales, when I was 17. It was illegal because you had to be 18, but I lied and said I was adopted. Luckily, they didn’t check. I got £22.50 for the week. I did that for five months.

Have you ever been really hard up? Of course – I was on the dole for three years, on and off, in the late 1970s, receiving £7.90 a week. Most of my friends were also on the dole.

I was living in a flat in Moseley Village, south Birmingham, so I had to feed myself and pay rent from that as well. I couldn’t get a job after leaving school because of the mass unemployment generally. I did try to get work, like the Butlins job, but it was temporary so I struggled.

I lived on corn beef, hash browns and cheese-and-potato pie and stayed indoors half the week listening to the radio. It was pretty depressing, but it gave me time to think and start the band. In the third year of unemployment, I kind of gave up looking for work because I just felt so rejected. I started doing voluntary work instead before starting the band.

What is the most lucrative work you have ever done? Did you use the fee for something special? Producing my first solo album 12 years ago. We were out of the country at the time, but I remember hearing that we sold 10m copies in America alone. Virgin records gave me £1m which was nonrecoupable – it meant that even if they didn’t cover my pay, they couldn’t ask for it back. It was an unheard-of amount at the time and of course, because I was out of the country, I didn’t pay any tax on it either.

I spent the money on what was for me the worst investment I’ve made in life – Jamaica. As a reggae artist, going to Jamaica was the thing to do. With the money from the first album, two other members of the band and I built a hotel at a cost of £1m. However, because of various reasons, it’s still not complete and the whole thing is currently in litigation.

I want to be able to sort it all out, but being 4,000 miles away it’s difficult to know what’s going on. I probably lost a couple of million pounds of investments altogether.

Do you own a property? Apart from the unfinished hotel in Jamaica, I have a house in Christchurch, near Bournemouth. I also have a studio in Birmingham and some development land near the town centre where I’m going to build offices with some investors.

The Bournemouth property is a modest little home by the seaside. It had seven bedrooms originally, but we’ve chopped and changed things a bit so it now has only four bedrooms. It was renovated in 1975 and it used to be a rest home for the elderly. We’ve been here for about three years.

I’m currently doing it up with my wife and, hopefully, by the time it’s all done, it will be worth about twice what we bought it for. I’m thinking of getting a beach hut nearby – they cost around £150,000.

Do you invest in shares? No – never have. Not in my character, really.

What’s better – property or pension? I think I’d go with bricks and mortar. I have a pension, but it’s all a bit confusing. It’s looked after by my accountant in Birmingham so I don’t know much about it. I’m not even sure if I still pay into it.

Are you financially better off than your parents? Without doubt. My father was a folk singer throughout the 1960s. He had a folk club in Birmingham called the Jugger Punch. He toured extensively round northern Europe, but we grew up in a council house in Balsall Heath. My mother was a housewife.

What’s been your best investment in life? On my 17th birthday, I was hit in the face with a beer glass. Though I didn’t do anything about it, my brother, who was a legal executive at the time, filed a claim on my behalf for criminal-injuries compensation. About three years later, when I was starting up the band, I got a cheque for £4,000.

When you’ve been on £7.90 a week that seemed like an absolute fortune. It helped me start up the band, allowing us to buy our instruments.

Do you manage your own financial affairs? UB40 have an office in Birmingham, and a business manager who deals with all that. My tax assistant is my brother-in-law.

What aspect of our taxation system would you change? To bring back tax exemption for artists who tour abroad a lot.

What is your money weakness? My wife. We buy things for each other all the time. The last thing she got me was a beautiful jacket from Beverly Hills. The last thing I bought her was a pair of Asprey shoes.

What is your financial priority? To keep the family safe and warm and eventually to sort out my Jamaican interests.

What is the most extravagant thing you have ever bought? I bought a pair of Gucci jeans for my wife for £2,000 about six years ago. They were stonewashed blue with beads and feathers on the bottom. She doesn’t wear them anymore.

What is the most important lesson you have learnt about money? It doesn’t grow on trees; it runs out and it’s the root of all evil.

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