About Midge Ure
James "Midge" Ure OBE is a Scottish musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. His stage name, Midge, is a phonetic reversal of Jim, a hypocorism of his given name. Ure enjoyed particular success in the 1970s and 1980s in bands including Slik, Thin Lizzy, Rich Kids and Visage, and as the second frontman of Ultravox. In 1984, he 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. He acts as a trustee for the charity and also serves as an ambassador for Save the Children.
Ure is the producer and writer of several other synth-pop and new wave hit singles of the 1980s, including "Fade to Grey" by Visage and the Ultravox signature songs "Vienna" , "Hymn" and "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes" . He achieved his first UK top 10 solo hit in 1982 with "No Regrets". In 1985, his solo debut studio album The Gift reached number two in the UK Albums Chart and yielded the UK Singles Chart number-one single "If I Was". He also co-wrote Phil Lynott's "Yellow Pearl", which served as the theme of Top of the Pops for much of the 1980s.
Born to a working-class family in Cambuslang , Ure attended Rutherglen Academy until he was 15 years old. For the first 10 years of his life he lived in a one-bedroom tenement flat in Cambuslang with his brother, sister and parents, later moving to a new house in nearby Eastfield.
After leaving school, Ure attended Motherwell Technical College and then began to work as an engineer, training at the National Engineering Laboratory in nearby East Kilbride. He started playing music in a Glasgow band called Stumble : the line-up included lead guitarist Alan Wright, Fraser Spiers on harmonica, Kenny Ireland on bass and Alec Baird on drums.
Ure joined Salvation as a guitarist in 1972. The band had been formed in Glasgow in June 1970 by the brothers Kevin and Jim McGinlay . Jim McGinlay decided to turn Ure's name backwards to "Mij" to avoid any confusion caused by two members of the band having the same first name. Ure has since presented himself in the music scene as Midge Ure. The band performed covers as house band in the Glasgow and Edinburgh Clouds discothèques. The band also comprised Billy McIsaac on keyboards and Kenny Hyslop on drums.
In April 1974, Kevin McGinlay left to pursue a solo career, so Ure assumed vocals in addition to his guitar duties. In November 1974, the band changed its name to Slik, with Bay City Rollers writers Bill Martin and Phil Coulter providing songs. In 1975 Ure turned down an offer to be the lead vocalist of the Sex Pistols, stating that he felt at the time that Malcolm McLaren had "his priorities completely wrong!", a position he later reversed.
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