jayes_musings | (no subject)

So I'm back from England and my flying trip to see Midge Ure (formerly of Ultravox). Now, Ultracox were my absolute favourite band of the early 80s...forget Duran Duran, forget Spandau Ballet...it was Ultravox.

Well, can I just say that flying over from Germany to just see him was completely worth it. So, on Tuesday I went up to Ottaker's book store in Milton Keynes with my friend, who I managed to talk into going with me.

And then in came Midge, older, greyer, balder than 25 years ago, but still lovely. At first he gave a very short reading from his autobiography (I knew he was from Glasgow, but never that he grew up in the tenements), then spoke for a while about Slick, Ultravox, and Band Aid. Then, the biggest treat, he sang! First was "Do They Know It's Christmas"...the Band Aid song. After that he fielded some questions...and included some wonderful anecdotes about all aspects of his life, and contemporaries (Duran and Spandau were mega-rivals, poked gentle fun at Bob Geldof ~~and he slagged off a certain older "Scottish" singer~~). And then, for me at least, the highlight...Midge sang an acoustic version of Ultravox's biggest hit and still my favourite song of all time "Vienna". It was brilliant, utterly fantastic. My god, that man has a voice on him...took me right back to 1981. He also sung two more songs, a cover of "No Regrets" and his European (but not UK) hit "Breathe", which is a great song.

After all that he did the book signing...so I got his autograph. The only disappointment of the evening, and a major one, was that my frelling camera didn't work...stupid, bloody, cheap-arsed batteries.

So, some pics...that I got from the Net instead of my own ones.

As he was with Ultravox

And older, but still lovely (from http://www.midgeure.com)