Interview by SANDRO MONETTI
Singer-songwriter Midge Ure – best known for his string of hits with Ultravox and for co-writing the landmark Band Aid single Do They Know It’s Christmas – will be back in the Southland next month playing The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on January 17.
Touring in support of his new career retrospective album, Soundtrack 1979-2019, featuring smashes like Vienna and Dancing With Tears in My Eyes, the Scottish pop veteran’s show will be called Questions and Answers because he’ll be answering fan questions as well as taking requests.
In advance of the show, Midge agreed to answer these 15 questions from one of his biggest fans, me…
What have the people and places of the Los
Angeles area meant to you over the course of your career?
I have spent quite a bit of time in LA over the years. My first time in 1980 I
thought it hysterical that ’new wave punks’ were turning up to the clubs we
were playing in their muscle cars wearing T shirts with safety pins
through them. It was bizarre. I grew to love the place, especially the
Tropicana Motel with its black swimming pool…what a place!
When you performed in Los Angeles in
2018 you joked on stage about how long it was taking you to come up with
material for a new album. How is that effort going?
I have a wealth of unfinished material which I need to focus on and finish. I
am my own worst critic and have to live with new music for quite a while before
I release it. All in all it’s going well.
What can the audience expect from your
January show at the Coach House?
The entire event is driven by the audience. I will have a handful of songs I
know I want to play but depending on the questions the audience ask that will guide what
is performed and how the evening will unfold. Very scary!
What is the question you are asked most
often by fans?
From the Brits it’s usually about Joe Dolce and the comedy record which kept
Ultravox’s Vienna off the number one slot…or Band Aid/Live Aid.
Why did you turn down the chance to
becomes lead singer of The Sex Pistols?
Malcom McLaren never asked nor seemed to care what I played or if I could
sing….I politely declined!
What are your memories of working with
Beatles producer George Martin on Ultravox album Quartet?
George was a wonderful man, a brilliant musical mind and great raconteur.
He could command respect from everyone he met and could also recount
amazing stories about a variety of incidents from his career. The fact
that he chose Bernard Cribbins to perform ‘Digging a hole’ at his own memorial
sums the man up.
What’s your favorite Christmas song
other than Do They Know Its Christmas, and why?
Too many to list but ‘Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ by Judy Garland
or ‘Little Drummer Boy’ by Bowie and Bing are way up there.
How much truth is there to the rumor
that you wrote Do They Know Its Christmas in 15 minutes? If that’s wrong, how
did you and Bob Geldof write it?
I wrote the theme on a toy synth on my kitchen table in about 15 minutes and
Bob arrived with the lyrics scribbled on a scrap of paper then proceeded to
sing a different melody to different chords with different lyrics every
time he played it for me…there is a moment on the ‘making of video’ where Bob
is trying to teach Paul Weller the song and it bears no resemblance to the
finished tune!
How well do you get along with Bob
Geldof these days?
Extremely well….we always have despite the press rumours.
When you wrote Dancing With Tears in My Eyes did you think the world was going
to be destroyed by nuclear war?
Still do!
Each night you sing Vienna on stage, how
does it make you feel?
I have to keep challenging myself to alter the arrangement of it to stop it
becoming the audio version of ‘painting by numbers’ and that seems to keep it
fresh.
What position do you take on Brexit
and/or Scottish independence?
I am a strict remainer. I have traveled Europe extensively and see the huge
benefits young people will get from doing the same. Problems should be tackled
from inside an institution not from isolating from it. I don’t feel I have
a say in the Scottish situation as I haven’t lived there since 1977.
Of all the honours you have received in
your career, which one means the most to you?
The OBE for services not just to charity but to music. The music bit is really
important to not just me now but the very young me who dreamed of having the
career I got.
What would it surprise people most to
know about you?
I have a slightly higher i.q. than normal….it surprised me!
What are your hopes for 2020?
To continue waking up……
Thank you!
