3 days Ago
Ahead of a date at The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, the Scottish musician talks about getting back on the road at the age of 71 and the impact of Band Aid. On November 25 1984, a number of British pop and rock stars gathered to record a charity single in aid of the Ethiopian famine appeal. The list was an impressive one: U2’s Bono, the late George Michael, Phil Collins, Sting, Duran Duran, Bananarama, Boy George and many more.
The group was brought together by fellow musicians Sir Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, who had no idea the impact the song being recorded – Do They Know It’s Christmas? – would go on to have. Now, 40 years later, it has raised charitable millions, become a Christmas staple through generations and has also resonated in popular culture, enjoying a resurgence after a star turn on BBC sitcom Gavin And Stacey, where the character Smithy sang it in his battered Volvo estate. “What was meant to be a six-month project, to see it coming up for 40 years is petrifying.
It’s beyond what anyone could have dreamt back then,” Ure reflects. The song has been recorded on three separate occasions, Band Aid (1984), Band Aid 20 (2004) and Band Aid 30 (2014) and to celebrate the upcoming milestone, a Band Aid 2024 Ultimate Mix has been created by producer Trevor Horn, who has blended the voices of separate generations into one song. “When Bob and I met up and talked about how we could generate some income, a record was the only way, it was the only thing we were reasonably OK at doing.
We’re not skilled at anything else,” Ure says, explaining how the pair thought it would be a six-month project and then be over. “We never for one second thought, ‘Well, it’s a Christmas song. It might get played every Christmas’.
Bob and I gave the songwriting royalties to the Band Aid trust. So every time that record is played 40 years later, and way beyond, that will generate money, songwriting royalties, to the cause. Who saw that? We never saw that happening at the time,” the musician says.
The song “keeps rolling along like the big dinosaur that it is”, and Ure is adamant that “every generation of artists should grab that song and do their interpretation, rip it apart, rewrite the lyrics, do whatever you want to it, because every generation can feed that out again and retell the story”. Away from Band Aid though, James ‘Midge’ Ure’s own musical story has also been paved with success. His early days saw him perform as part of bands such as Slik, Thin Lizzy, Rich Kids and notably as frontman of electronic pop group Ultravox, whose track Vienna (the title track from their studio album of the same name) is among the most well-known songs of the eighties.
Ure joined the band in time to write much of the 1980 album Vienna, steering them in a more New Romantic direction. Ultravox’s first incarnation, Tiger Lily, was formed in 1974, and featured Dennis Leigh (now more famously known as John Foxx), Stevie Shears, Chris Cross, Warren Cann and Billy Currie. They later became Ultravox! – dropping the exclamation mark in 1978, the same year Shears left and they released Systems Of Romance, their last album with John Foxx.
A successful solo career followed for Ure too, and last year he celebrated his 70th birthday with a sold-out show at the Royal Albert Hall. He is currently on his Catalogue: The Hits Tour across November and December, with a last tour performance slated for Glasgow on December 18. “I love touring.
I’ve always toured. I’ve been touring all my life, but doing it at this level is great fun because the Catalogue tour, as I’ve called it, was born from doing the Albert Hall last year in London for my 70th birthday,” he explains. “And it just spurned this idea that, ‘Hold on – I don’t have to just play Ultravox and Visage and solo stuff.
I can spread out a little bit beyond that and celebrate the amount of time I’ve spent creating music , not necessarily the very early years where I didn’t write it or produce it, but from the late 70s right through to now. “And that’s great because it gives me something to get my teeth into, rather than just playing the hits all the time. I mean, obviously the hits are going to be in there, but to have the challenge of playing things I’ve possibly never played before, as well as the hits, that’s good.
That’s what a musician wants to get out and do.” Despite a career that’s spanned some four decades, Ure hasn’t lost his passion for touring. “If you don’t want to do it, don’t do it.
Do something else,” he says matter-of-factly. “So I still get passionate about it. I still get very excited about it, and I get nervous.
I still get a little edgy and a bit butterfly-ish just before you walk on stage. Because although my musicians are fantastic and never get things wrong, I do.” He likens being on stage and touring to a holiday.
“There’s an element of nervousness, an element of excitement, and the joy of going out on tour with your friends, the crew and the lighting guys and the sound guys and the musicians, is my equivalent of when men go off and on golfing holidays for a weekend or go skiing without the wives,” he explains, adding: “I don’t do that. This is it. This is what I do.
This is my holiday.” For young musicians coming up the ranks, it’s a different industry to the one Ure started out in. So when asked what advice he has for the stars of tomorrow, he says it’s about “making it work for you”.
“I’m fortunate enough to have done it and made my mark, which kind of stays with you, I’m glad to say. I made my mark when it was old school. You did play those clubs.
You played everywhere you could. You learned your craft,” he says. “You didn’t go on a reality show or a talent show and then all of a sudden be thrown out there into the big, wide world.
“So, for up and coming talents, never believe anything that’s written or said about you, good or bad, because you know if you’re doing something that’s right, that feels right to you. And follow your own path, if you can, if you’re brave enough. “It’s a wild world out there.
Play for the joy of playing. Don’t play to just keep a roof over your head. Make it work for you.
” Midge Ure ‘Catalogue: The Hits Tour’ will be at The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester on December 9. He will also appear at Brit Fest Cheshire next July. Visit midgeure.
co.uk.
