Music

At barely 20 years old, Midge Ure was already successful with his first band Slik. For the first time in his career, he reached the top of the English charts with "Forever and Ever", a song that evokes the Bay City Rollers as much as the Rubettes! With "The Kid's a Punk", another track from their repertoire, the band started to tap into the spirit of the times. They would even end up going punk and opting for a new name, PVC2, a bit out of opportunism...  

The man who had already turned down the offer to become the singer of the Sex Pistols nevertheless formed the short-lived Rich Kids with Glen Matlock, a bassist for the same Pistols for a time. The adventure only lasted for a single album, "Ghosts of Princes in Tower" in 1978. Although he still had a close relationship with the guitar, Midge wanted to explore new shores in the company of Rusty Egan, the soul of what would be called the New Romanticism but also the drummer of the Rich Kids. Still following?  

Together, they discovered the first synths and drum machines and set up Visage, based on the voice (and face) of Steve Strange. By gathering around them, even sporadically, musicians such as John McGeogh (Banshees) or Barry Adamson (Magazine, Bad Seeds), they gave birth to Visage and incidentally to the worldwide hit "Fade to Grey" in 1980.

"Vienna" by Ultravox

But once again, Midge Ure would take on a new challenge by replacing both the singer (John Foxx) and the guitarist (Robin Simon) who had just left Ultravox after three albums together. This gamble turned out to be a masterstroke as the records "Vienna" (1980), "Rage in Eden" (1981), "Quartet" (1982) and "Lament" (1984) each have their share of classics in the genre. These include the ultra-trendy "Vienna", but also "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes", "Hymn", "We Came To Dance", "All Stood Still" and others...  

Author of an equally prolific solo career, linchpin of Band Aid and notably "Do They Know It's Christmas?", Midge Ure still enjoys roaming the stages of Europe and elsewhere. When I gave him the photo that illustrates this article, he not only told me that this guitar still sits prominently in his house but that he knew exactly which notes from the album "Vienna" he was playing when he was immortalized with this grin that looks so much like him.  

(AK - Photo: Etienne Tordoir) Photo: Midge Ure with Ultravox on the stage of the Cirque Royal in Brussels (Belgium) on November 26, 1981 (© Etienne Tordoir)  

Some upcoming concerts:

24 October: Tvonica Culture - Zagreb (Croatia)

31 October: Stadfeestzaal - Aarschot (Belgium) with Lene Lovich and Blaine L. Reininger

All dates in Great Britain, in November and December can be found here.