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Midge Ure OBE (born James Ure on October 10, 1953 in Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, Scotland) is a rock and roll guitarist, singer, and songwriter from Scotland, who had particular success in the 1970s and 1980s. His stage name, Midge, is a phonemic reversal of his real name, Jim.
Ure began his career with Slik. Before Slik became famous they were known as Salvation and were the house band playing mostly covers in Glasgow disco Clouds above Greens Playhouse where all major bands played when they came to the city. Midge played guitar and was known for wearing a top hat onstage. He turned down an offer to be the lead singer of the Sex Pistols[1]. He would go on to play in The Rich Kids (with then-former Sex Pistol Glen Matlock) and temporarily for Thin Lizzy before replacing John Foxx as singer of electronic New Wave band Ultravox in 1979. Shortly afterwards, they had a huge UK hit with "Vienna", and became one of Britain's top bands for several years. Also later that year, Ure also formed the band Visage with Steve Strange and fellow former Rich Kid Rusty Egan. The following year, Ure and Thin Lizzy leader Phil Lynott co-wrote Lynott's biggest solo hit, "Yellow Pearl". A re-recording of the song done in 1981 was used as the theme for Top of the Pops.
In 1984, Ure co-wrote with Bob Geldof the Band Aid hit, "Do They Know It's Christmas?". He was one of the few stars who did not sing solo on the recording. The following year Ure scored his one and only solo UK number one single with "If I Was". This was followed by the album The Gift. With Ure's mind clearly on other matters, Ultravox took second place and soon dissolved.
Ure's solo career continued into the 1990s with sporadic success, although "Breathe" was an international hit single, helped by its inclusion in a TV advertising campaign for Swatch watches.
He recently organized the Live 8 concerts with Bob Geldof with the aim of pressuring G8 leaders into following his recipe for ending world poverty. In 2005 he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to music and charity.
Midge was a panelist on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, which aired on Wednesday 21st February, 2007. On the show, he desrcibed Bob Geldof as "a death eater from Harry Potter".
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