I was a has-been at 23 says Scots singer behind one of 1980s top tunes

The Herald Scotland

01-06-2025

But it all begs the question; at 71 Ure is still young compared to Jagger and Elton and Rod. But what drives the musician to drive around California? 'Well, it's not that I have a proper job,' he says, grinning.
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Ure did attempt a 'proper job' once upon a time, working as an engineering apprenticeship in East Kilbride. But music was too big a pull. Indeed, the teenage James Ure had 'Clapton is god' stencilled on the back of his dust jacket.
'Yet, the chances of strapping a guitar to your back and developing a career in music were extremely remote,' he recalls. 'The music industry was London or Liverpool centric. Meanwhile, my dad [a van driver] wanted something better for my older brother and I. [Than a bottom flat in a close]. He was being sensible.'
Midge Ure took the less sensible route. He joined a band, Salvation, which renamed as Slik, had a No I hit with Forever and Ever, managed by songwriters Bill Martin and Phil Coulter. Ure's experience with the acerbic, egotistical Clydebank-born Martin proved to be a life lesson. Martin once delivered the put-down; 'Midge was good, but not as good as he thought he was.' Bill Martin also decreed that Slik perform his songs. And wouldn't let young Midge play on the record.
'When we talk about Bill Martin, it makes me realise that everything I've done since Slik has been a backlash to Slik,' he reveals. 'I felt I had my 15 minutes [of pop fame] and never got a chance to prove myself. And at 23, I was a has-been. So, I've constantly been trying not to be the pop star, but instead the guy who is interested in record production and new technology - which takes you into weird and wonderful places.'
Midge Ure has described his life as running up a down escalator. 1977, he ran towards punk with the Rich Kids, then formed electronic outfit Visage and enjoyed success with two albums and the hit single, Fade to Grey. Yet meantime, he became the frontman with Ultravox. 'When we first went into a studio and plugged in it was the most exciting thing I'd ever done in my life. We had nothing in our pockets. We had no future. But the music we played was phenomenal.'
However, the cool Ure head measured expectations. 'We went to America in 1979 to try and get a record deal and one guy interviewed us and complimented us on how well we spoke English. Looking back, I think he thought we were Kraftwerk. What chance had we got?'
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Pop chart success didn't matter, yet the anthemic single Vienna did chart, reaching No 2. Was the cool head turned a little? 'Oh god, yeah, it's a heady drug fame, isn't it? At one point you are 'Wee Jim,' and then you're 'Midge.' And suddenly you find yourself attractive to the opposite sex. But equally so, you become the target of someone's next punch because his girlfriend fancied you.'
Midge Ure's life altered dramatically. Married to model Annabel Giles with a daughter, the family lived in a eight-bedroom house in Chiswick, the garage full of beautiful cars. He bought a house in Montserrat. And a volcano destroyed it. It was a metaphor for how life can blow up in your face. After Ultravox moved away from each other, Ure carved out a solo career but found himself being hounded by the tax man for half a million. Then his marriage broke apart and he found himself with two homes to support.'
But one of the cleverest things he had done when the money was coming in was to build a studio in his back garden. 'It was a massive investment, and everyone thought I was crazy, but I knew that record companies drop the moment your last record fails. So, this meant I could keep going.'
Ure developed as a solo artist, with hits such as If I Was. And although he loved being in a band, he was at times reluctant to share his visions. He grins. 'It's a real madness. You end up working four times harder to create something. I once spent 12 years making a new record. It's absolutely crazy.'
The musician however was more than happy to the Princes Trust Rock Gala band, playing with the likes of Elton and Eric, the guitar god whose name he had on his back.' But hang on; Midge Ure has always been the band leader. How did that dynamic work out? 'On the one hand it was intimidating - to say the least - and how could I be musical director with guys who had outsold me a gazillion times.
'But there's a leveller, and that's the realisation that all these musicians started out the same way as you, playing covers in little local bands. And even if you've got Phil Collins on drums and Mark Knopfler on guitar they don't assume they're The Big I Am.' He grins. 'As for the musical direction in rehearsals, it became about diplomacy.' Did he have to correct Elton at any time? He laughs. 'It was more like 'Elton, could you stop disappearing in between songs for a cup of tea.''
There was another commonality. Every one of these performers had had to battle with their own demons. Having re-married to actor Sheridan Forbes, the couple had three daughters, but Ure too had developed a serious drink problem. It began as recreational fun, a post gig relaxant, but became a next day necessity, then a spiral downwards into the void. It was only when one of his daughters caught him secretly swigging from the vodka bottle that he gave up.
Midge Ure in Ultravox (Image: unknown)
Ure acknowledges that the extremes we enjoy/endure in life can sometimes fuel the artist. 'Songs don't come from books,' he maintains. 'They come from life. So, I get up in the morning, go to a computer and twiddle knows, rather than drive a baker's van like my dad. For me, it's all about doing something that's real and honest and totally heartfelt.'
His politics has become more focused over the years. 'I'm disgusted with humanity. We all are. I was born Protestant and after being in London for years, I came back, and someone asked me what religion my pals in London were. I said I had no idea - and it never struck me to ask. And it made me think that in growing up in an environment like that you ask yourself 'What in the world is going on?' And you look around and you see all these conflicts going on because of religion.'
What's apparent is the performer has always been his own, focused, hard grafting man. 'I didn't want to do DJ remixes, for example. Why hand over your work to person who's only knowledge of music is how to put a needle on it? Of course, the result can be the situation where the record label calls and tell you've been dropped can happen. But there's nothing you can do about it. And I didn't take rejections personally.'
What's his biggest regret? Is it getting the tense all wrong in the lyric of If I Was? 'You have to blame my pal Danny Mitchell for that,' he smiles. 'He wrote it.'
Has there ever been a time he hasn't enjoyed a performance? 'Yes, when I was invited to the girls' school, to play and talk about Band Aid,' he says with a dry smile. 'Watching my kids slide down through the floor in sheer embarrassment was hell.'
He's still on the escalator then, ready to play in Glasgow? 'It's not for the money. That's a scarce thing, but it's for the love of it. And if you know how to do it . . .' He laughs. 'And yes, the steps are still there, although like me they move a little slower.'
Midge Ure plays Big Nights Out, the Kelvingrove Bandstand, Glasgow, on June 6.