In a new interview with Guitar World, pop frontman Midge Ure digs deep into his back catalogue to remind readers that, while he’s best known as the vocalist for Vienna immortalizers Ultravox, and as Bob Geldof’s long-suffering, zip-mouthed partner on the Band Aid project, his musical history runs a little deeper than that.
And it seems that despite all of the '80s finest turning up and playing their part on Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas, two world-class contributions never made came to fruition.
“We tried some stuff with Paul Weller at my studio but it just didn’t fit because it was such an electronic track," Ure explains.
In fact, U2's The Edge was also lined up for a crack at it, before pulling out with illness. Not something Ure, it seems, particularly regrets. "The Edge is multiple echoes and jangling guitars," he said, "so he could have possibly done it… I’m not convinced… I don’t want to burst the Edge’s bubble; it would have been welcome had it happened.
"I think that’s maybe one of those stories that’s just going to grow over the years,” says the star.
But record-breaking charity efforts aside, the '80s icon casually slips out a pair of lesser-known career highs that readers may find surprising.
"They asked me if I wanted to join a band…"
Back in the late '70's and pre-Ultravox fame, Ure was a highly-regarded and agile guitarist who had genre-hopped through the 1970’s in pop, punk and new wave outfits always on the hunt for his big break.
And, stunningly, Ure only just dodged being at the eye of the hurricane, having been offered the guitarist spot in the (yet-to-be explosive) Sex Pistols.
“Malcolm McLaren and Bernard Rhodes stopped me coming out of a music shop in Glasgow. I think they presumed I was a musician. They asked me if I wanted to join a band – they didn’t ask if I actually played.
"They were looking for the look, rather than the bones of talent. They found the best people they could find; I would have ruined it somewhat," says the ever-self-deprecating Ure.
But rock greatness lay just around the corner.
Wanted: Guitarist. Urgently
In 1979, Thin Lizzy were a band finally riding high. Their ninth album, the Waiting For An Alibi and Do Anything You Want To Do-toting Black Rose: A Rock Legend had broken big, and the band had their shot at cracking America on tour alongside the mega-band of the day, Journey.
However, by this point, bassist and lead vocalist Phil Lynott and fellow guitarist Scott Gorham’s increasingly wayward rock ‘n’ roll antics (read: heroin) had pushed their more steadfastly professional Gary Moore’s patience beyond its breaking point.
Thus, mid-tour, Moore walked out for a third and final time, leaving the band in the lurch, unable to make good on their commitments and placing mega-stardom once again beyond their reach.
And when Gary Moore walks out, who ya gonna call?
Is that… Midge Ure?…
Lynott had met Ure a number of times, and the connection had resulted in a co-writing credit on Get Out of Here, on Black Rose.
So, in need of a guitarist fast, Lynott called a man he could trust.
By this time Ure was working as the stand-in guitarist for Rich Kids alongside the ex-Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock, when Mick Jones (soon to be of The Clash) departed, and, while busy in the studio, Ure took Lynott’s call.
“He said, ‘Gary Moore is out of the band. We’re doing this tour; could you come over tomorrow?’ My initial reaction was, ‘You’ve got the wrong number. I’m not the guy you should be asking.’
“I went back to my little flat and there was a plane ticket, a bunch of cassettes, a setlist and an itinerary saying, ‘A car will pick you up in the morning and take you to Heathrow,’" Ure explains.
And things were about to go from weird to bizarre…
"They’d put me on Concorde, so I had no time to learn any of the songs!”
“[I had] A ghetto blaster and big headphones,” recalls Ure. “It was pre-Walkman. I sat on Concorde, sipping vintage Dom Perignon – which I’d never had before in my life – trying to get the structures in my head.
But the gig – through all its trials and tribulations – proved to be a smart move.
“It gave me confidence as a guitarist; but it was odd... We all took turns playing cassettes in the limo. They’d be playing ZZ Top and Bob Seger – very American stuff – and I’m saying, ‘Have you heard Kraftwerk?’
“It made me more money than I’d ever seen in my entire life, and that gave me the wherewithal to get Ultravox up and running."
Lizzy at Live Aid?
And – through the Ure connection – Lizzy very nearly made the line-up for Live Aid for what would/could have been a storming come-back.
“A big regret that both Bob Geldof and I have is that we didn’t ask Philip to get Lizzy back together for Live Aid. He wasn’t in a good way at the time, but we should have asked. It could have changed the outcome somewhat. It would have been great to have seen them up there doing it, just to remind people of how important they were.”
Midge Ure is on tour across the UK and Europe through 2025. Get all the dates at MidgeUre.co.uk.
