“Most musicians who are successful in this business would never do what I am doing right now. Their agent would not let them. It’s just me and my keyboardist, Charlie Round Turner on stage with a sound tech, renting an SUV and driving from north to south, border to border in North America. And I am doing this because I am a working, gigging musician and this is what I do for a living.”
James “Midge” Ure may be famous as the lead vocalist/songwriter for a variety of British bands like Ultravox and Visage, and even more famously as the co-producer of the charity single; ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ and subsequent Live Aid and Live 8 concerts (in partnership With Sir Bob Geldof), which raised millions of dollars for Ethiopian famine relief and pushed various world governments to allow debt relief.
That one-day Live Aid concert staged Saturday July 13, 1985, at London’s Wembley Stadium and Philadelphia’s JFK Stadium in Philadelphia reached a global television audience of an estimated 8 billion people and was marvelled at the time as a technical miracle.
And yet, here is Midge Ure today, being interviewed in the dressing of Toronto’s El Mocambo Tavern where he is about to perform a set at Ed Sousa’s Sousapoluzza event to celebrate the local promoter and PR chief of the Mississauga Classic Bowl’s 60th birthday.
“Last October I was performing at London’s historic Albert Hall and today I am at the El Mocambo, but this is what I do,” he remarked in his thick Scottish accent. “People keep asking when am I going to retire? But why would I retire from something that I love doing?”
Ure is aware that a renaissance in the type of music of his bands Ultravox and Visage is going on, which is allowing Ure to tour North America again.
“Initially, people in America just couldn’t get their heads around what we were doing. We released our Vienna album which has a seven-minute opening instrumental track. We were more popular in Canada because we had a Canadian drummer and Canadian radio rulings allowed us to be considered domestic content so we got quite a significant amount of airplay here”.
Ure also credits Japanese video game creator Hideo Kojima for sparking an Ultravox reunion 12 years ago. “He came backstage at one of our concerts at London’s Hammersmith Odeon and said he wanted to create a video game that featured a full episode of David Bowie’s ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ which I had redone for a movie in the late 1980’s. So, all those kids who loved that game and loved that song will be disappointed to learn that it’s not Bowie but some old guy singing that song,” he laughs.
Understanding that the music industry has changed drastically in the past few decades, Ure doubts whether an anniversary Live Aid concert will be staged next year, the 40th Anniversary of that original, historic event. “There’s going to be a documentary about the event but no live concert as far as I know. Music has changed drastically since that event. There are people now walking around with these toys in their pockets that not only allow you to make phone calls but also play music, watch television and Netflix and be on top of the news. Back then, music was everything. But now with social media and sync rights, which means all sorts of classic music is being re-discovered. It’s a whole different situation. I had a couple who were in their early 20’s, at one of my concerts just because they had heard me on that video game and that allowed them to access music they did not even know existed before.”
So looking back, what are Ure’s most vivid memories of that historic Live Aid concert? “Well. As a musician, I got an hour to watch other bands on stage and my initial thought was “I don’t fancy these guys”. But I was wrong, everyone I watched just blew me away. Everyone was amazing.”
Ure agrees that raising funds for famine relief in Ethiopia was a Band-aid solution, “but somebody had to do something at that time and Bob and I made sure the famine relief went to the right people.” He also thinks that the event changed the perception of young people towards fundraising.
“At one point, it was just old people who raised money for charity but now Live Aid is in the history books and there’s a new perception on younger people getting involved.”
And one final question. If John Lennon had been alive in 1985, would Live Aid had staged a Beatles Reunion? “John would definitely have been there, his whole message was ‘Give Peace A Chance’,” Ure remarked. “And, of course Paul McCartney closed out the show when he sang ‘Let It Be’, but in a way I am glad The Beatles did not perform at Live Aid. People have a habit of looking at things through rose-coloured glasses, but what would have happened had they not been very good together? The Beatles legacy was in their music so in my mind, it should stay there.”
