MIDGE URE

Before we raise the tricolour – because that’s simply what’s expected of us when we welcome rock ’n’ roll royalty – let’s talk about age for a moment.  Not that we want to give our age away, but back in 1976 (!) we’d already pinned a poster of MIDGE URE on our bedroom wall, because we were fans of his sensational pop group Slik.  The band that once managed to knock ABBA’s ‘Mama Mia’ off the top spot with their classic ‘Forever and ever’.  Slik turned out to be a springboard that would earn Ure several gold medals. Remember The Rich Kids, with whom, alongside a Sex Pistol, he taught the English youth that you didn’t necessarily have to spit at your audience to rock. The Rich Kids made one of the best records of the late 70s. With The Rich Kids’ drummer, Rusty Egan, Ure later formed Visage, whose ‘Fade to Grey’ is a classic featuring the Great K of Grote Kaai. Incidentally, during that period Ure was also in – excuse us, we’ll just go and fetch a handkerchief, as there’s a bit of drool to wipe away – Thin Lizzy! The white flags that Bono was so fond of waving at the start of his career were actually meant to signal surrender in the all-out battle for the title of best band ever from Dublin.  Hold off on that tricolour for a moment, there’s more. Ure joined the round table known as Ultravox and even became world-famous in countries where people didn’t even have colour television yet. No need for it, after all, as the music video for ‘Vienna’ was in black and white.  Oh yes, it’s also worth mentioning: between the fresh tomato soup and the gratin Dauphinois, he also single-handedly launched both Band and Live Aid. To fight famine in countries where children lose sleep over things other than colour TVs. And do you remember the late summer of 1985, when his solo hit ‘If I Was’ was played more than Madonna and Prince put together?  Right then, bring on the flag, and shall we dust off that red carpet while we’re at it?  Midge Ure is still making music, though his latest album (‘Orchestrated’) dates back to 2017. Be that as it may, his track record is so impressive that those four astronauts took photos of it from a moon suburb. It seems to us like a full-time job, picking a few songs from that long list of classics that he will then play live on our outdoor stage on Sunday 2 August.  Give him a warm round of applause and a subtle bow. Royalty, remember?