The 63-year-old sticksman – who is known to be outspoken about social and political matters – has recalled a period in the 1980s when the security service were keeping a close eye on UB40 and even hacked into their phones in case they were plotting a revolution. ‘Just a bunch of potheads’ – Jimmy Brown Jimmy told The Guardian newspaper: “MI5 were tapping our phones, watching our houses. All sorts. “We thought, ‘Haven’t they got criminals to catch?’ We were just a bunch of potheads, smoking weed and playing music, talking about solving the world’s problems. “We weren’t planning the revolution, but if the revolution happened, we knew what side we were going to be on.”