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Endosurgery in Children Dr. Benno Ure, IPEG 2005 Program Chairman... ipeg.org |
Midge Ure, OBE (born James Ure, 10 October 1953 in Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, Scotland) is a Scottish guitarist, singer, keyboard player, and songwriter. He enjoyed particular success in the 1970s and 1980s in bands including Slik, Thin Lizzy, The Rich Kids, Visage, and most notably as frontman of Ultravox. Ure co-wrote and produced the charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and co-organised Band Aid, Live Aid and Live 8 with Bob Geldof. He twice received an Ivor Novello Award with Geldof for co-writing "Do They Know It's Christmas?" Ure acts as trustee for the charity, and serves as ambassador for Save The Children. His stage name, Midge, is a phonetic reversal of Jim, the diminutive form of his real name.
[edit] Career[edit] Early yearsBorn to a working-class family, he attended Rutherglen Academy, in Glasgow, until he was 15 years old. After leaving school, Ure began to work as engineer and playing music in a Glasgow band called Stumble (c. 1969 - c. 1971), that included a girl singing duet Christine, Agnes, and on lead guitar John McMenemy, Alan Wright on harmonica Fraser Spiers on bass Kenny Ireland on drums Alec Baird on vocals Gordon Appacellie. [edit] Salvation and SlikUre joined Salvation as a guitarist in 1972. The band had been formed in Glasgow in June 1970 by the brothers Kevin (vocals) and Jim McGinlay (bass guitar). Kevin McGinlay decided to turn Ure's name backwards to "Midge" to avoid any confusion caused by two members of the band having the same first name. Ure has since presented himself in the music scene as Midge Ure.[1] The band performed covers as house band in the Glasgow discothèque Clouds, the venue for major bands playing on tour in the city. The band also comprised Billy McIsaac on keyboards and Kenny Hyslop on drums. In April 1974, Kevin McGinlay left to pursue a solo career,[1] so Ure assumed vocals in addition to his guitar duties. In November 1974 the band changed their name to Slik, with Bay City Rollers writers Bill Martin and Phil Coulter providing songs. In 1975 Ure turned down an offer to be the lead singer of the Sex Pistols, stating that he felt at the time that McLaren had "his priorities completely wrong!", a position he later reversed.[2][3] Although Slik were rising in popularity in early 1976, achieving a number one single in February with 'Forever And Ever', the band were soon to be out of step with the rising punk rock scene. In early 1977 Jim McGinlay decided to quit the band, being replaced by Russell Webb. [edit] Punk days: PVC2 and The Rich KidsSlik terminated their contract with Martin and Coulter, realising their boy-band image was hindering their chances of success. They changed their name to PVC2 and adopted a more punkish style. Ure's only release with the band under this name was the "Put You In The Picture" single. By October 1977 he had left the band to join former Sex Pistol Glen Matlock in The Rich Kids. Ure moved to London and soon found himself immersed in a scene he had previously only read about in the pages of the NME.[2] Musical tensions within the band led to Ure's departure. Having acquired a synthesiser, Ure, alongside band-mate Rusty Egan, wanted to integrate the new instrument into the band's sound. With Matlock and Steve New preferring to remain with the traditional guitars and drums approach, the band split. Egan and Ure formed Visage with lead vocalist Steve Strange in 1978 releasing a cover of the Zager & Evans classic "In The Year 2525". The lineup was expanded in 1979 with the inclusion of Magazine members Dave Formula, John McGeoch and Barry Adamson, and Ultravox keyboardist Billy Currie. Egan and Ure would also form the short-lived band The Misfits, whose career was curtailed by an approach from Thin Lizzy. [edit] Thin LizzyIn July 1979 Ure replaced Gary Moore, co-writing "Get Out Of Here" with Phil Lynott for the album Black Rose. He also contributed guitar parts to "Things Ain’t Working Out" and "Dublin" for the 1979 Thin Lizzy compilation The Continuing Saga of the Ageing Orphans. The band then embarked upon a tour of America and Japan. In 1980, during the second part of the tour he switched to keyboards, replaced by Snowy White as guitarist. At the end of the tour Ure decided to leave the band, although he continued to collaborate with Lynnott, providing the chorus to "Chinatown" and co-writing Lynott's biggest solo hit, "Yellow Pearl". Ure felt his energies were better committed to another group: Ultravox. [edit] Ultravox1979 had seen Ure and Billy Currie form a close bond playing together in Visage. The pair decided to resurrect Currie's former group, the synthpop band Ultravox. The group had been presumed defunct since guitarist Robin Simon quit and lead singer John Foxx had left to pursue a solo career. In April Ure joined the band as singer and guitarist to complete the "classic" Ultravox lineup of Currie (keyboards, violin), Chris Cross (bass) and Warren Cann (drums). Although Ure had spent the latter half of 1979 on tour with Thin Lizzy, Ultravox found time late in the year to tour in the USA. During this time the band wrote a number of songs which were included on their first album with Ure. The album, Vienna, was recorded in 1980. Although it was the band's fourth album in all, it was their first album to actually chart and was only a minor success upon first release. However, when the title track of the album was released as a single in early 1981, it became a huge hit and spent four weeks at #2 in the UK singles chart and was the 5th highest selling single in the UK that year. The album itself re-entered the album chart and peaked at #3. Inspired by the 1949 film The Third Man, the promo video for "Vienna" was directed by Russell Mulcahy,[4] and utilised cinematic techniques and became quite influential. In interview, Ure has recalled the way "[music] video changed after that. All these things that became video clichés – cropping the top and bottom off the screen, shooting on film as opposed to videotape, making it look like a movie ... we were quite a groundbreaking act for a while."[2] The same year that Ultravox released the Vienna album, Visage also released their debut album which featured the hit single "Fade to Grey" (co-written by Ure and Currie with Chris Payne), also influential in the direction of the New Romantic electropop music scene.[5]  In 1981, Ultravox recorded their second album with Ure as frontman, Rage in Eden, which was also a top 5 hit in the UK. In 1982, Ure left Visage shortly after the release of their second album The Anvil, citing creative differences with frontman Steve Strange. The same year saw Ultravox record and release their third album with Ure, Quartet, with production by Beatles' producer George Martin. The album becamse their third top 10 hit and featured four top 20 singles. This period also saw Ure work as a producer for other artists, amongst them Steve Harley, The Skids and STRASSE, and release his first solo single, a cover of the 1975 The Walker Brothers hit, "No Regrets", which made the UK top 10. After the live album Monument in 1983, Ultravox released their fourth studio album with Ure, Lament, in 1984. The album was another Top 10 success and contained the Top 3 hit "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes". The band released their first ever "greatest hits" album at the end of the year, featuring all of the singles from 1980 onwards. The album peaked at no.2 in the UK and was later certified triple platinum. After Ure's successful debut solo album in 1985, the fifth and final Ultravox album with Ure, U-Vox, was released in 1986. Although another Top 10 hit, the album (and singles) fared less well than their previous releases. [edit] Band AidIn 1984, Ure co-wrote the Band Aid hit, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" with Bob Geldof. Ure was rehearsing with Ultravox for an episode of the Channel 4 music show The Tube when host Paula Yates handed him the phone. It was her then husband, Geldof, who proceeded, recalls Ure, "to rant on about the Michael Buerk BBC news report on the Ethiopian famine." Geldof provided the initial lyrics, with Ure working the musical theme on a small keyboard in his kitchen. The second half was composed by Ure, with the bridging chorus only assembled in the studio when the artists had gathered. Ure has described the song as one of the worst he has ever written, commenting that "the momentum the artists gave it in the recording studio is what made it".[6] At the studio recording, Ure also took on the production duties for the song. Although Trevor Horn had been approached to fulfill this role, he needed more time to fulfill his obligations than was available.[7] Ure stepped into the breach, with Horn providing his studio, remixing the track and producing the 12" version. He and Geldof jointly set up the Band Aid Trust, and he remains active as a Band Aid Trustee to this day. He also co-organised the Live Aid concert of 1985 along with Geldof and Harvey Goldsmith. Geldof and Ure have been honoured with two Ivor Novello awards for writing the song.[8] [edit] Solo careerAfter working on the Band Aid project and during a hiatus from Ultravox, Ure pursued a solo career in 1985. The single, "If I Was", was a UK number one single, and his debut album, The Gift, reached #2. After returning to Ultravox for what would be their final album together, the band effectively disbanded in 1987 and Ure concentrated solely on his solo career but with less success. The albums Answers to Nothing (1988) and Pure (1991) failed to make the UK top 20. A career retrospective, "If I Was", was released in 1993, while in 1998 the single "Breathe" was a hit in Europe, boosted by its use in a Swatch TV ad campaign. In 2005, Ure organised Live 8 concerts with Bob Geldof with the aim of pressing G8 leaders into taking action to end world poverty. Later that year he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to music and charity. He has also received four honorary degrees in recent years. He was made an Honorary Doctor of Arts in 2005 by the University of Abertay Dundee for his artistic and charity work over the past 30 years.[9] He was made a Doctor of Music by University of Edinburgh in 2006.[10] In 2007, he received from the University of Paisley his third honorary doctorate, for his contribution to Scottish culture and charity work.[11] In 2008, Glasgow Caledonian University awarded him his fourth honorary doctorate, for his musical and humanitarian achievements.[12] Ure is an Ambassador for Save the Children and in recent years he has gone back to Ethiopia and visited Sierra Leone in that capacity. Ure continues to perform his own songs, along with popular Ultravox songs, in concerts both solo, acoustic and with a band. Ultravox briefly reformed in 2009 and undertook a successful tour (as well as appearing at the Isle of Wight 2009 Festival) to celebrate, in their own words, the "anniversary of their classic line-up". There are, however, no plans for new recordings as Ure stated in a BBC interview in April 2009, "we are not trying to get our youth back, nor the hair that's fallen off already".[13][14] [edit] Personal life
Ure resides in a village near Bath. Ure has been married twice: to actress and writer Annabel Giles (with whom he has one daughter, Molly) and to Sheridan Forbes (with whom he has three daughters, Kitty, Ruby and Flossie). Ure's two main passions are music and cooking. He was able to indulge the second of these in the 2007 Celebrity Masterchef series, winning his heat and progressing to the final on 15 June, alongside Nadia Sawalha and Craig Revel Horwood. Although all three competitors greatly impressed the judges, the trophy was won by Sawalha. Ure is a recovering alcoholic, something he openly admits and discusses in his autobiography If I Was. [edit] Solo discography[edit] Albums
[edit] Compilations & live albums
[edit] Singles
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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