James "Midge" Ure, OBE (born 10 October 1953) is a Scottish musician and singer-songwriter. His stage name, Midge, is a phonetic reversal of Jim, the diminutive form of his given name.Ure enjoyed particular success in the 1970s and 1980s in bands including Slik, Thin Lizzy, Rich Kids, and Visage, and most notably as frontman of Ultravox. In 1984, Ure co-wrote and produced the charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?", which has sold 3.7 million copies in the UK. The song is the second highest selling single in UK chart history. Ure co-organised Band Aid, Live Aid and Live 8 with Bob Geldof. Ure acts as trustee for the charity, and serves as ambassador for Save the Children.In 1985, Ure had a UK number one solo single with the song "If I Was".
[in 2016] The industry doesn't exist to support that type of band, things that aren't straightforward, chart-topping stuff. Our industry was built on the interesting oddities and those interesting oddities aren't being signed.
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[on David Bowie] I can't think of anyone else other than The Beatles who has affected so many people with their music and their thoughts and emotions. He infiltrated every genre of music. He changed everything.
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[on David Bowie] Some things were more commercially successful than others, but you do get the overwhelming impression that commercial success was not his driving force, creativity was.
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[on David Bowie] We looked towards what he did, we are all still walking in his slipstream. We are still many, many yards behind what he was doing because he led the way. He was the leader, he was the guv'nor.
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I can't stand people who lie. I find it offensive on a variety of levels. They think you're an idiot and that you don't know they are lying. What they are saying to you is: I don't respect you.
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On paper, if you look at my career, it just makes me look like a dreadful musical tart. But if you look at it properly, there's a line running all the way through it. There's a reason that all these things kind of happened. Luck has a lot to do with it, but buying a synthesizer in the Rich Kids, which instigated Visage, which led to Ultravox - there's a a path that runs all the way through it, although it just looks like a spider has run across the page with ink on its feet.
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[on "Do They Know It's Christmas?"] You know, I'm still not convinced it's a good song. I think both Bob and I have written much, much better things. But it's probably the thing we'll be remembered for most. A kind of musical epitaph in a way.
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At the height of the 1980s, Band Aid reconnected rock stars with their consciences. It also opened up a floodgate for an entire onslaught of charity records featuring pop stars singing in a chorus of concern. This soon became the industry standard, using celebrity, the very powerful force of celebrity, for good causes.
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[on "Do They Know It's Christmas?"] Phil Collins played drums on the day. I thought that his first take was brilliant but being a perfectionist he asked for another. And that was even better.
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[on Freddie Mercury] As an aspiring musician who came of age in the Seventies and Eighties, I've always admired Freddie's huge talent and his ability to break new ground, and I'd defy any musician of my generation - and probably since - who's not been influenced by what Freddie did because it was just so radical and different and everything he did was infused with melody.
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[on Live Aid (1985)] I'd seen Queen a couple of times but I didn't expect this incredibly finely honed performance.
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[on his influences] Very linear really, starting with Hank Marvin (Hank B. Marvin) and the haunting atmospheres he created on those great Shadows (The Shadows) records. Then I discovered Peter Green, Eric Clapton through the British blues boom, and eventually Mick Ronson and Brian May. I think Mick Ronson was hugely underrated as a guitarist. He could express more in one or two notes than all the 'whizz-kid' guitarists from any era ever could.
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I've managed to work with most of my heroes over the years but one of the standouts was collaborating with Kate Bush on the song "Sister and Brother" from my "Answers to Nothing" album. Pure genius.
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It's always a pleasure to hear "Do They Know It's Christmas?" for a couple of reasons. Every time it's played money goes to the fund, and it also brings back memories of the time. More the good ones than the bad. It's a song which still kind of stands up today. It's become a modern hymn.
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Fact
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Has just finished his new album and is touring. He is now organising a event similiar to Live AId except this time it will be helping the Aids virus. The event will be held in Wales. [August 2001]
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His daughters with Sheridan are Kitty, Ruby and Flossie Ure.
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His daughter with Annabel Giles is the singer Molly Lorenne.
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Awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to music and charity.
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He never topped the UK singles chart with Ultravox, but his solo single "If I Was" became a number one in 1985. It featured the renowned bass player Mark King.
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He has performed with the SAS (Spike Edney's All Stars) Band.
Along with Thin Lizzy vocalist Phil Lynott, helped compose the song 'Yellow Pearl' in 1981 which became the theme for the Top of the Pops (1964) for the next several years.
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was a member of the short-lived new wave band 'Visage' who are best remembered for the 1980 hit 'Fade to Grey'.
$18 Million
