Midge Ure

One of the key members of the new wave band <a href="spotify:artist:3iUjRVvYCsMfz7tuAQtBDI">Ultravox</a>, guitarist/vocalist Midge Ure began his professional music career with Salvation, a Glasgow-based group that became the bubblegum band <a href="spotify:artist:3Wk2pHRBKxVbESEXebWxsj">Slik</a> in 1974. Upset in the change of direction, Ure left the band to join <a href="spotify:artist:69d3gmnnSi2WPQ9ISplpia">the Rich Kids</a>, a punk-pop group led by former <a href="spotify:artist:1u7kkVrr14iBvrpYnZILJR">Sex Pistol</a> bassist <a href="spotify:artist:6hLKAj2U3e4vfR6FUNB7Yh">Glen Matlock</a>. <a href="spotify:artist:69d3gmnnSi2WPQ9ISplpia">The Rich Kids</a> only released one album, 1978's Ghosts of Princes in Towers, before breaking up later that year. Ure spent a brief time with <a href="spotify:artist:1cXi8ALPQCBHZbf0EgP4Ey">the Misfits</a> (not the American band) before forming <a href="spotify:artist:0EPf9vAXPdFV5Ezp1sMX8B">Visage</a> with drummer <a href="spotify:artist:6wGFnx19YLhiBtB3Eb67gx">Rusty Egan</a> and vocalist Steve Strange; he left the group to replace <a href="spotify:artist:23wr9RJZg0PmYvVFyNkQ4j">Gary Moore</a> in <a href="spotify:artist:6biWAmrHyiMkX49LkycGqQ">Thin Lizzy</a>, who had left in the middle of an American tour. After the tour was over, Ure fulfilled an agreement to join <a href="spotify:artist:3iUjRVvYCsMfz7tuAQtBDI">Ultravox</a> as the replacement for <a href="spotify:artist:36pk438TUUMdX59j1zbvTu">John Foxx</a>.

Once he joined the band in 1980, Ure helped make <a href="spotify:artist:3iUjRVvYCsMfz7tuAQtBDI">Ultravox</a> a mainstream success; during this time he also worked as a producer, making records with <a href="spotify:artist:3dS8rLINyM7EYuMXryXJym">Steve Harley</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:2prwOs4VSoN3nNvNAhpRI4">Modern Man</a>. In 1982, Ure released a solo single, a cover of <a href="spotify:artist:49WlsIvcUYj7Awo93hDKgf">the Walker Brothers</a>' hit "No Regrets"; it climbed into the U.K. Top Ten. Ure and <a href="spotify:artist:6bvtY9dkfSa5yKuogd2aLU">Bob Geldof</a> formed <a href="spotify:artist:35S20clEkkSNUo23ViaslZ">Band Aid</a>, a special project to aid famine relief efforts in Ethiopia, in 1984. The two wrote the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and assembled an all-star band of British musicians to record the single; it sold millions of copies over the 1984 holiday season and prompted <a href="spotify:artist:6bvtY9dkfSa5yKuogd2aLU">Geldof</a> to organize the benefit concert Live Aid in 1985.

In 1985, <a href="spotify:artist:3iUjRVvYCsMfz7tuAQtBDI">Ultravox</a> was put on hiatus and Ure began to pursue a full-time solo career. Recorded entirely by Ure, his 1985 solo debut, The Gift, launched the number one single "If I Was," as well as the minor hits "That Certain Smile" and "Call of the Wild." The following year, he recorded the final <a href="spotify:artist:3iUjRVvYCsMfz7tuAQtBDI">Ultravox</a> album; in 1987, the band broke up and he began recording his second solo album. The resulting record, 1988's Answers to Nothing, was less successful than The Gift in the U.K., yet it charted in the U.S., which is something Ure's previous album failed to do. Three years later, Ure released his third album, Pure; while it didn't do any business in America, the album featured the Top 20 British hit "Cold, Cold Heart." He attempted a comeback in 1996 with Breathe, which went ignored by both the American and British markets. Four years later, his score for the Jon Cryer drama-comedy Went to Coney Island was issued by the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Evenmore%22">Evenmore</a> label.

Ure's recording activity during the 2000s began with Move Me (2001), which featured some surprisingly hard-rocking material. A few years later, he published an autobiography, If I Was, and then, with <a href="spotify:artist:6bvtY9dkfSa5yKuogd2aLU">Geldof</a>, arranged the Live 8 concerts, after which he was recognized as an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire). Following the release of the covers-oriented 10 (2008), Ure participated in an <a href="spotify:artist:3iUjRVvYCsMfz7tuAQtBDI">Ultravox</a> reunion and continued to record as a solo artist. Fragile was issued in 2014, and featured the <a href="spotify:artist:3OsRAKCvk37zwYcnzRf5XF">Moby</a> collaboration "Dark, Dark Night." In 2017, he collaborated with composer <a href="spotify:artist:2MqDvRrsqt37FTajdNsyXl">Ty Unwin</a> on the album Orchestrated, which featured orchestral reworkings of <a href="spotify:artist:3iUjRVvYCsMfz7tuAQtBDI">Ultravox</a> songs, as well as songs from his solo career. In the following years Ure continued to perform live, playing dates across Europe, the U.K. and the U.S. and in 2019 the collection, Soundtrack 1978-2019, which celebrated four decades of his work, was issued. In 2023 Ure celebrated his 70th birthday with a one-off show at London's Royal Albert Hall. The event, which featured a full live rendition of the seminal <a href="spotify:artist:3iUjRVvYCsMfz7tuAQtBDI">Ultravox</a> album Vienna, was recorded and issued as Live at the Royal Albert Hall in late 2024. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi