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Main event: the man behind the glory
Conrad Astley20/ 1/2006
Eighties legend Midge Ure performs in Sale next week. Conrad Astley looks at his long career and discovers there is much more to him than Band Aid and Live 8.
FROM bubblegum pop to punk, new romantic, synth-pop and heavy
rock, there aren't many musical styles Midge Ure hasn't dabbled in
over his long career.
Co-writing and producing the biggest-selling charity hit single of
all time also helped ensure the Scotsman made a name for
himself.
While an awards cabinet crammed with gold and platinum disks, Ivor
Novello, Grammy and BASCAP awards also didn't hurt.
And last year, Ure helped Bob Geldof organise the Live 8 concerts -
just over two decades after his involvement in Band Aid - and was
rewarded for his efforts by being made an officer of the Order of
the British Empire (OBE).
Born in Cambuslang, near Glasgow, the singer began dreaming of
success as he listened to Small Faces records in his bedroom and
started playing in various bands while working as an apprentice
engineer. All this was in the early 70s when he also adopted his
famous moniker by phonetically reversing his real name, Jim.
He eventually kissed engineering goodbye when his group Slik landed
a record contract, enjoying chart success with the single Forever
And Ever, which pushed Abba's Mamma Mia off the number one slot on
Valentine's Day 1976.
But their record company seemed hell-bent on turning them into the
next Bay City Rollers and Midge was unimpressed with the teenybop
direction.
His ticket out came in the unlikely form of former Sex Pistol Glen
Matlock, who snapped the Glaswegian up for his new outfit The Rich
Kids, which even briefly featured Mick Jones from The Clash.
In the midst of punk fever, the band benefited from an avalanche of
hype, but lasted just over a year before disbanding.
Midge had two more brief spells, as a guitarist in Steve Strange's
synth-pop pioneers Visage and as a temporary replacement for Gary
Moore who had walked out midway through a US tour with Irish
rockers Thin Lizzy, before his next big move.
Although Ultravox is rarely mentioned without reference to the
early 80s new romantic movement, the band had been formed in 1973,
had already released singles including a cover of jazz standard
Ain't Misbehaving, and an album co-produced by their hero Brian Eno
before Midge joined.
However, with him as frontman, the band rose from cult icons and
exploded into the mainstream.
The 1981 single Vienna may have been kept from the number spot by
Joe Dolce's novelty tune Shaddap You Face, but the arty sound would
provide inspiration for dozens of electronic acts which
followed.
But despite success with singles such as Reap The Wild Wind and
Dancing With Tears In My Eyes, Midge remained involved in matters
outside the band.
He produced material for Steve Harley, and worked again with Thin
Lizzy leader Phil Lynott, co-writing the singer's biggest solo hit
Yellow Pearl - a later re-recording of which would be used as the
Top of the Pops theme tune.
Then came the event that he would forever be associated with. In
November 1984 dozens of artists gathered at SARM studios under his
production to record the single Do They Know It's Christmas? which
he had just co-written with Bob Geldof.
Three million copies of the single were sold worldwide, and - along
with the following year's Live Aid event - £8m was raised for
victims of the Ethiopian famine.
Bob Geldof later said that without Midge's initial enthusiasm, the
project would never have got off the ground.
Two months after Live Aid, the singer had a solo number one with If
I Was, followed by a chart-topping solo album.
Although the 80s were his big decade - he also directed videos for
Fun Boy Three and Bananarama and wrote the music for Max Headroom -
he continued to work throughout the 90s, producing the Breath album
that went to number one across Europe and was used in a Swatch
advertising campaign.
And in 2004, he was back overseeing the production of the Band Aid
20 single, with Coldplay, Keane and Robbie Williams, before
organising last year's concerts.
Midge Ure plays Sale Waterside Arts Centre on Thursday
(January 26).
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