Born on October 10: Midge Ure, from Visage to Ultravox via Band Aid

He was born in 1953 in the small town of Cambuslang in Scotland. He's come a long way since then!

Barely 20 years old, he was already enjoying success with his first band, Silk, for which he had just become the lead singer after a name change. For the first time in his career, he reached number one in the UK charts with "Forever And Ever," a song that evokes both the Bay City Rolliers and the Rubettes! With "The Kid's A Punk," another track from their repertoire, the band began to embrace the times and even ended up changing their tune, opting once again for a new name, PVC2, and becoming punk themselves, somewhat out of opportunism.

The man who had already been offered the role of lead singer for the Sex Pistols, however, formed the short-lived Rich Kids with Glen Matlock, who had once played bass for the same Pistols. The adventure lasted only the length of a single album, "Ghosts of Princes in Tower," in 1978. While he had always maintained a close relationship with the guitar, Midge then wanted to explore new shores with Rusty Egan, the driving force behind what would become known as New Romanticism, but also the drummer for the Rich Kids. Are you following?

Together, they discovered the first synths and drum machines and formed Visage, drawing on the voice (and visuals) of Steve Strange. By gathering around them, even sporadically, musicians like John McGeogh (Banshees) and Barry Adamson (Magazine, Bad Seeds), they gave birth to Visage and, incidentally, the global hit "Fade To Grey" in 1980.

But once again, Midge Ure would take on a new major challenge by replacing both the singer (John Foxx) and the guitarist (Robin Simon), who had just left Ultravox after three albums together. This gamble would prove to be a masterstroke, as the albums "Vienna" (1980), "Rage In Eden" (1981), and "Quarter" (1982) each boast their share of classics of the genre: "Vienna," of course, but also "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes," "Hymn," "We Came To Dance," and "All Stood Still."

The author of a prolific solo career, a driving force behind Band Aid and its "Do They Know It's Christmas?" hit, Midge Ure still enjoys touring stages across Europe and beyond, despite some recent health issues that have forced him to take it easy for the time being. When I gave him the photo that illustrates this article, he not only told me that this guitar still had pride of place in his home, but that he knew exactly which notes of the "Vienna" album he was playing when he was immortalized with it.

(MH with Stéphane Soupart - Photo : Etienne Tordoir)

Photo: Midge Ure with Ultravox on stage at the Cirque Royal in Brussels (Belgium) on November 26, 1981