James Ure (; born 10 October 1953) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and record producer. His stage name, Midge, is a phonetic reversal of Jim. Ure enjoyed particular success in the 1970s and 1980s in bands including Slik, Thin Lizzy, Rich Kids, Visage, and as the second bandleader of Ultravox after John Foxx had left, carrying the band into high chart positions for the six following years before disbanding it. In 1984, he co-wrote and produced the charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" for the supergroup Band Aid, which he organised with Bob Geldof. He acts as a trustee for the charity. The single sold 3.7 million copies in the UK at first release, has become a staple of Christmas songs compilations ever since, and is the second-highest-selling single in UK chart history. He also organised the events Live Aid and Live 8 with Geldof, and serves as an ambassador for Save the Children.
Ure is the producer and writer of several synth-pop and new wave hit singles of the 1980s, including "Fade to Grey" (1980) by Visage and the Ultravox signature songs "Vienna" (1980), "Hymn" (1983) and "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes" (1984). 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 (on the outskirts of Glasgow), 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 (NEL) in nearby East Kilbride. He started playing music in a Glasgow band called Stumble (c.1969 – c.1971).
Ure joined Salvation as a guitarist in 1972. The band had been formed in Glasgow in June 1970 by the brothers Kevin (vocals) and Jim McGinlay (bass guitar). McGinlay decided to turn Ure's name backwards to "Mij" (Midge, as a good-natured mocking hint to Ure's diminutive stature) 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 join the Sex Pistols, stating that he felt at the time that Malcolm McLaren had "his priorities completely wrong!", a position he later reversed.
Slik achieved a number one single on the UK Singles Chart in February 1976 with "Forever and Ever". In early 1977, Jim McGinlay decided to quit the band, being replaced by Russell Webb. Slik terminated their contract with Martin and Coulter, believing that their boy band image was hindering their chances of success during the rising punk rock scene. They changed their name to PVC2 and adopted a more punkish style. Ure's only release with the band under this name was the single "Put You in the Picture".
By October 1977, Ure had left PVC2 to join former Sex Pistol bass guitarist Glen Matlock in Rich Kids. He moved to London and soon found himself immersed in a scene he had previously only read about in the pages of the NME. Musical tensions within the band led to Ure's departure. Having acquired a Yamaha CS50 synthesiser, Ure – alongside bandmate Rusty Egan – wanted to integrate the new instrument into the band's sound. With Glen Matlock and Steve New preferring to remain with the traditional guitars and drums approach, the band broke up.
In January 2010, Rich Kids reformed, for one night only, for a benefit concert for former Rich Kids guitarist Steve New, going then by the name Stella Nova, who was fighting terminal cancer (and who died on 24 May 2010). Although it had been over 30 years since they played together, the press reports praised the gig, which included energetic performances of "Ghosts of Princes in Towers" and "Hung on You". Rich Kids were joined onstage by Mick Jones of the Clash and Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet. Ure also played an acoustic set of Ultravox and Visage songs.
In February 2016, it was announced that Rich Kids would reform for a joint headline show with the Professionals at London's O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire. The show was later rescheduled (due to building work at the Empire) to the O2 Islington Academy on Thu 23 June 2016, and went ahead as rescheduled, with Ure singing and playing guitar.
In 1978, Egan and Ure formed Visage with lead vocalist Steve Strange, and utilised their new synthesiser when they recorded a cover of the Zager and Evans classic "In the Year 2525" for promotional purposes. The line-up was expanded in 1979 with the addition of Magazine members Dave Formula, John McGeoch and Barry Adamson, and Ultravox keyboardist Billy Currie, and the band signed briefly to Radar Records for the release of their first single "Tar" in November 1979. The single failed to chart, but the band managed to secure a deal with Polydor Records, the following year. In November 1980 their second single, "Fade to Grey", became a hit-single (making the top ten in the UK and topping the chart in several other countries), and was quickly followed by the release of their self-titled debut album which was also a chart success.
In 1982 the second album "The Anvil" went silver in the UK and reached number 6 in the album chart, although the album spawned two further hit singles ("The Damned Don't Cry" and "Night Train"), tensions within the band members were beginning to threaten its musical future. Ure left Visage shortly after the second album was released, citing creative differences with frontman Steve Strange.
Ure already knew Thin Lizzy singer Phil Lynott, and in early 1979 Ure received co-writing credit for "Get Out of Here" on Thin Lizzy's ninth studio album Black Rose (1979). In July 1979 Ure stepped in to help Thin Lizzy complete a US tour following guitarist Gary Moore's abrupt departure. Ure also contributed guitar parts to "Things Ain't Working Out" and "Dublin" for the Thin Lizzy remix compilation album The Continuing Saga of the Ageing Orphans (1979). Thin Lizzy then toured America and Japan. In 1980, during the second part of this tour, Ure switched to keyboards, and was replaced by Dave Flett and then Snowy White as guitarist. At the end of the tour Ure left Thin Lizzy and returned to his primary interest at that time, Ultravox. Ure continued to collaborate with Lynott, co-writing Lynott's biggest solo hit, "Yellow Pearl", and produced the track "Together" on The Philip Lynott Album.
In 1979, Ure and Billy Currie formed a close bond playing together in Visage. Rusty Egan persuaded Billy Currie to ask Ure if he was interested in joining a revived Ultravox. Ultravox had been presumed defunct since guitarist Robin Simon quit and lead vocalist John Foxx had left to pursue a solo career. In April 1979 Ure regrouped the band and assumed duties as singer, songwriter, guitarist and second keyboardist. This second incarnation would become the classic line-up, with Currie (keyboards, violin), Chris Cross (bass) and Warren Cann (electronic drums). Although Ure had spent the latter half of 1979 on tour with Thin Lizzy, Ultravox found time late in the year to tour in the US. During this time the band wrote a number of songs which were included on their first studio album with Ure.
The album, Vienna, was released in July 1980. Although it was the band's fourth studio album, it was the first with Ure, and the first one to chart, although it was only a minor success on first release. However, when the title track "Vienna" was released as a single in January 1981 it became a huge hit and spent four weeks at no. 2 in the UK singles chart and was the 5th highest selling single in the UK that year. The album itself re-entered the album chart and peaked at no. 3. Inspired by the film noir The Third Man (1949), the music video for "Vienna" was directed by Russell Mulcahy utilising cinematic techniques, and became quite influential. In an interview Ure recalled the way that "music video changed after that. All these things that became video clichés – cropping the top and bottom off the screen, shooting on film as opposed to videotape, making it look like a movie ... we were quite a groundbreaking act for a while." The same year that Ultravox released the Vienna album, Visage also released their self-titled debut studio album which made the UK Top 20 and featured the hit single "Fade to Grey" (co-written by Ure and Currie with Chris Payne), also influential in the direction of the New Romantic electropop music scene.