A less modest character than Midge Ure would have a significantly higher standing in the national consciousness, and thus the recognition that he most certainly deserves. There is little doubt about it, Midge is a British music legend and modest to a fault. A typically understated and delightful chat, with Fenner Pearson.
Season 13, Ep. 3: MIDGE URE ON GETTING BEYOND LINGERING SELF DOUBT, EVEN AFTER 50 YEARS IN THE GAME
In this episode of The Art of Longevity, Midge talks to Fenner Pearson about his long career in music, his bold decision to release an album of instrumental music as part of his new double-album, and his plans for taking it on tour with a full band. Along the way, they discuss changes to the music industry and technology over the last fifty years, and how his Mum made egg and chips for Phil Lynott the first time he and Midge met.
From his early days with proto-punk pop band Slik, through his tenure with ex-Sex Pistol Glen Matlock’s Rich Kids, the creation of Visage, and touring with Thin Lizzy, to his major league success with Ultravox, and then his pivotal musical role in Band Aid and Live Aid, Midge Ure was a constant and significant force in the evolving music scene of the late seventies and eighties.
Ure released an album of orchestral versions of some of his and Ultravox’s best-loved songs in 2017, and he has continued to perform live regularly, playing to sizable, loyal audiences. Indeed, he was planning a tour before he made new album A Man Of Two Worlds.
“The tour kinda came first - the concept was to play some of the older instrumental pieces - peppering the hits and fan favourites. Trying to do a live show in a different way. I wouldn’t dare to go out and preview instrumental tracks or an entire album even of new songs, but if the hits are there too people will recognise what you’re trying to do”.
And so, 2026 sees his first release of new material in twelve years, A Man Of Two Worlds - an simultaneous and cohesive album and tour concept.
For the Top Of The Pops loving public, their first encounter with Ure was via the ground-breaking video for Ultravox’s single ‘Vienna’, which defined the New Romantic movement. Ultravox stood out from the early electronic bands typified by acts such as Depeche Mode, OMD, and The Human League with a mature and sophisticated style in both their image and music. To this day, Vienna, the album, remains a landmark release of the early eighties period, opening the door to bands such as Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet, and bringing electronic music to the foreground of popular culture.
It’s significant that when Bob Geldof launched Band Aid, it was Midge Ure to whom he turned to write the music for ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’, as well as recording and producing the single. And while Geldof was clearly, and rightly, the best person to front Live Aid, Ure worked right alongside him in organising the event. As a legacy of this, he would go on to work as musical director for the Prince’s Trust concert at Wembley and the Nelson Mandela birthday concert.
Alongside Ultravox, Ure had a successful solo career, which continued during the band’s split and subsequent reunion concerts, and that he has sustained to the present day releasing nine albums in his own name. These days he does a lot of the work himself, using modern technology for much of the process and the outcomes. Even creating in a vacuum this way, Ure always seems to produce music that has the power to connect. That process doesn’t get any easier.
“Most people don’t get worse at what they do. But the music industry tends to think the opposite way - you’re done when you’re 35. What some people might see as baggage, you have to see as learning, experience. But rock music has grown up and I’m in a lucky position to still be around to carry on doing it”.