Midge Ure - In the Court of the Celtic King - Exclusive Interview

Midge Ure – In the Court of the Celtic King

There is always a certain air of excitement leading to a certain smile on entering this ancient castle in Chepstow – a triumph of medieval engineering that dominates the high cliffs above the River Wye with its stone walls containing one of the oldest castle doors in Europe.

This particular visit involved a certain individual who has also achieved legendary status. A castle of this scale seemed an eminently suitable place to meet Midge Ure – finding him, on the other hand, could prove more challenging. Through the main gatehouse and just off the lower bailey was a small wooden door which showed little response to a brisk knock until it creaked open and a respectable, bespectacled hero of the ages peered through the gap.

Here was a man who had initially developed his craft in Glasgow but had then played rock guitar with the best, had swept through 80s pop videos like a latter day Errol Flynn, and who was key to the biggest music charity project in human history.

“Come in, come in,” he says in that instantly recognisable Scottish accent, with a broad smile and a welcoming gesture.

The court of the Celtic King – King Midge – the man who has seen it, done it and then seen it and done it again countless times. He carries an air of self-confidence but is also utterly relaxed and utterly disarming. This isn’t some precocious, navel-gazing muso, though he would have every right to be. This is a man completely at ease with himself, completely happy in his own skin, completely in sync with his place in the world.

“What a wonderful place this is, what a setting.” He says grinning. “Even though I live in Bath, I haven’t really got over this way but what a part of the country it is.”

We weave some threads together with Scotland.

“I don’t get up to Glasgow much. Once I moved down south for the music industry, I stayed. All I had up there was a four track but if you were going to be in the industry you had to move. At least until bands like Simple Minds came on the scene. But Scotland, as a small country, we have really punched above our weight.”

He briefly pauses and looks around the warm stone room with the light gently flowing through the leaded windows.

“Looking back, I didn’t really acknowledge the traditional Celtic music but it was clearly in there and gradually I recognised the influence it had on me. There is also a cinematic quality to the Scottish landscape which clearly helped give me inspiration.”

He moves on to the piece of fortune that sent him to the US to take the place of the legendary guitarist, Gary Moore, in Thin Lizzy and then his subsequent move into the band, Ultravox.

“It was a great time. Ultravox was a great rock band but people like pigeon holes and so they saw the synths and decided we were electronic. Synthesizers were merely a tool and a way to express ourselves using new technology.”

Anyone who has ever listened to the 1983 live album ‘Monument’ or who saw Ultravox live will know how far off the mark it was to call them an ‘electronic’ band. They had a superb rhythm section and Midge himself was never shy of shredding his guitar when the moment allowed.

“I use a Vintage V100, it’s pretty much off the shelf and simply does everything I want it to do. The pickups give me a range of switchable tones and it’s just a great guitar.”

And what of Midge’s most important instrument – his voice? How is that piece of kit? He laughs.

“The stupid things you do when you’re young – some of those high notes – I don’t know what I was thinking. These days we might occasionally change the set list so that I don’t have all those big notes towards the end of the set. Changing keys and changing the melody and harmony can also be an option but most of it is still pretty much the same. I just have to make sure I manage it properly and look after my voice.”

Certainly the evidence of recent recordings and tours suggests that there is no issue there at all. The conversation moves onto set lists and audience expectations.

“People want to hear the bits they know. If you go to see Mark Knopfler, or Howard Jones or David Bowie, there are songs and hooks you want to hear and that’s fine. You can only change things so far and not so much that it is unrecognisable.”

In 1985, Midge Ure and Ultravox had the ultimate challenge of constructing the perfect set list for the biggest gig in history – Wembley Stadium – Live Aid.

“The most terrifying thing wasn’t the crowd, it was the traffic light system on stage. Green – you go. Amber – you have two minutes to finish. Red – well there is nothing after red, you lose your sound and look stupid in front of billions of people! But it was glorious.”

Inevitably, after a chat about some of the great moments on the day, Midge refers to what many see as an era-defining performance by Queen.

“Freddie had the audience in the palm of his hands. I’ve always loved Queen, right back to their early albums. I mean, what a superb band.”

1985 was quite a year for Midge Ure. If Live Aid wasn’t enough he also released his classic solo album ‘The Gift’ – an album which is seeing a re-released deluxe edition out again this year (2023).

“It was never even supposed to be an album. I had written a few tunes and the record company liked them and suddenly an album started to take shape.”

This is most certainly an understatement as the single ‘If I Was’ dominated the charts in the Autumn of 1985, reaching number 1 and the album was one of the standout records of that year. But as time went on, things weren’t always smooth.

“It’s inevitable that you face ups and downs in a career. Some of my solo albums were a struggle including ‘Breathe’ which I was proud of but which didn’t sell how I would have liked. But then what happens is Swatch comes along a couple of years later, uses the title track in an advert and turns the whole thing around. But that’s the music business. You never know what will happen. Many years ago I had recorded the Bowie song ‘The Man who sold the World’ and one of the team working on the video game ‘Metal Gear Solid 5’ was an Ultravox fan and suddenly my version of the song was in the game and is now one of my most most highly streamed songs on the internet.”

As Midge Ure hits the age of 70 years’ young he seems as popular and as enthusiastic as ever but with the air of a man with nothing to prove. His reinvention of his songs on the 2017 album ‘Orchestrated’ was an epic success and his most recent ‘Voice and Visions Tour’ saw him celebrating two classic Ultravox albums – ‘Rage in Eden’ and ‘Quartet’. There seems to be little danger of him slowing down.

The door creaks open and his young band leap into the room with boundless enthusiasm. It seems a natural end to what was planned as a five minute interview but turned into a fifty minute relaxed retrospective with one of the most charming members of rock royalty you could ever wish to meet.

Long live the King.

(With great thanks to Midge Ure and his team for setting up this exclusive interview. Words and photographs by Nick Langston. Images below taken at Chepstow Castle and featuring Midge Ure and Nick Langston.)