Midge Ure

An artist who has recieved Ivor Novello, Grammy, BASCAP awards along with a flotilla of gold and platinum records, really needs very little introduction.

The Ultravox frontman was a major influence on the new romantic and electro-pop movements of the early 1980s and many an open-minded studio and bedroom experimentalist since. Their successful trademark was combining Midge’s powerful guitar riffs with sweeping synthesiser motifs, enigmatic imagery and state-of-the-art visuals. Throughout the first half of the 1980’s, they brilliantly combined the responsibilities of top 10 chartmakers and innovative style-makers.

As interest in the 1980s has risen again to a new peak in 2011, courtesy of reformations of the likes of Duran Duran and most recently Spandau Ballet, Ultravox’s chart catalogue rewards merits new scrutiny. Tracks like ‘Reap the Wild Wind’, ‘Dancing With Tears in My Eyes’, ‘Love’s Great Adventure’ and 1981’s timeless ‘Vienna’ were all massive hits the world over as they charted with awesome regularity, not only on single, but with seven consecutive top ten albums in just six years.

The 25th November 1984 was a historic day for Midge and all of pop music, as 36 artists by the collective name Band Aid gathered at SARM Studios in west London under Ure’s production. They recorded ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ a song he had just written with Bob Geldof as the industry’s heartfelt and eloquent contribution to Ethiopian famine relief. 600,000 copies sold in its first week in the UK alone was only the beginning: 800,000 more were bought in the second week, more than three million world-wide, and the unstoppable emotion engendered by the project led to Live Aid, the summer 1985 global concert that, all exaggeration aside, spoke for a generation.

Within months, a staggering £8 million had been raised for the starving in Africa, and Geldof said that without Ure’s initial enthusiasm for the idea, not to mention his rapidly penned sketch for the single, neither Band Aid nor Live Aid could have happened. Midge is still to this day a Band Aid Trustee.

Midge has also branched out into the world of online downloads with his new music portal called ‘Tunited’ – aimed predominatly at providing up coming artists a platform of communication and contact with the public.

Midge Ure returns to The Sage Gateshead with decades of hits, boundless energy and still full of passion for his craft.