Midge Ure • Dear God

I readily admit I am a huge fan of Midge Ure and his music. I first discovered him when he was rocking out with Ultravox, with great guitar work and that amazing voice. I was sad when he left the band, for fear I would not be hearing him any more. But his solo career took off, with great songs like "If I Was" to make me very happy. He also worked side-by-side with Bob Geldof, writing "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and putting together the Live Aid concerts with him. But it was still the music for me, and I followed him closely. I loved 'The Gift', his solo debut, but I think 'Answers To Nothing' might be my favorite. The album was released in 1988, and featured some really great songs, including one of my favorites. I thought hearing "Dear God" seemed just what was in order for a Sunday morning, sung by the handsome Midge Ure.

I hope you are having a great weekend.

Billboard Top Holiday Songs - #8

To continue with the Christmas celebrations, here is Band Aid, an group of some of the biggest musical stars in the UK getting together for a charity single, taking the #8 spot on the chart with Do They Know It's Christmas. They released their version of the song in 1984. The effort was spearheaded by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, who went on to head up the Live Aid concerts.

Then And Now - Midge Ure

I make no bones about it, back in the day, I was all about Midge Ure. I bought all the Ultravox records, and when he went solo, I got them, too. I am unapologetic with my Midge-love, so everyone can just get over it. I ain't giving my Midge up. Now that is firmly established, we can move on to the post. The handsome Scotsman has been making music since the early 70s, first in his native Scotland, including joining the band Salvation in 1972, where he became the second man named James/Jim. To avoid confusion, the band turned the name backwards, and 'Jim' became 'Mij' or Midge Ure. Later, the band became known as Silk, and Midge took over singing lead vocals. It was also reported he was offered the job to sing lead for the Sex Pistols, but turned them down. By 1977 he had moved to London, and in 1979, he was hired to play in Thin Lizzy, where he cowrote and played the tour. By the end of 1980, he moved on, and he joined a fledgling band, Ultravox. I was insane for the band, and still am. He was part of the band until 1986, when he decided to go solo. This is the single Breathe from an album by the same name, released in 1996.



In 2008, Midge released the album 10, a collection of great songs from yesteryear covered by him with his unmistakable flair. He released a clever video for the song To Sir With Love, using his iPhone to great effect. And, he still looks damn good!



For more about Midge Ure, check out his official website here. You can check out his album 10 on iTunes here. One of my favorites, the 1985 release The Gift can be found on iTunes here. Yes, all these years later, I am still a big fan!

Welcome New Follower Gerard

Welcome Gerard Gravallese, a new member of the Soundtrack family. Gerard, who lives in Seattle, made the decision to follow the blog, and I want to take the opportunity to say hello, and hope we learn a bit more about you in the coming posts. Although Gerard doesn't have a blog of his own, I hope he'll stop by and enjoy the fun people we have here.

Also, I wanted to take the chance to thank everyone for for the support. On Friday, January 15, the clicker ticked past 50,000 page views, another amazing milestone for the blog. To celebrate this I searched around for the perfect song to express my appreciation, and came up a bit short. I thought I would go in a different direction, and just surfed for a bit, both my iTunes and YouTube, and came up with a song I thought would be an interesting choice for the world in which we live. So here is Midge Ure singing Dear God.

Christmas Music - Various 80s Stars

Oh, those 80s boys and girls were eager to be politically aware and offer back to the world. British superstars formed a group to sing Do They Know It's Christmas?, a song written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure. This lead to the creation of Live Aid, the monumental concert held on July 13, 1985. Both efforts raised money to help with the Ethiopian famine. But first, there was Band Aid, and some of the biggest names in British music singing Do They Know It's Christmas?



Wikipedia has an interesting description of the recording process:

Respected producer Trevor Horn was approached by Geldof to produce the song, but he was unavailable. Instead, he gave use of his studio, Sarm West in London, free of charge to the project for 24 hours, which Geldof accepted, assigning Ure as the producer instead. So, on 25 November 1984, the song was recorded and mixed.

Geldof and Ure arrived first at dawn so that Ure could put the recorded backing tracks, put together at his home studio, on to the system at SARM. He also had vocals recorded by both Sting and Simon Le Bon of the song which he had acquired from the artists early in order to provide a guide for the other singers.

The world's media were in attendance as artists began arriving from 9am. Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Paul Young, Culture Club (without Boy George, initially), George Michael of Wham!, Kool and the Gang, Sting, Bono and Adam Clayton of U2, Glenn Gregory of Heaven 17 (whom Ure personally ordered down) and his bandmate Martyn Ware, Phil Collins, Paul Weller of the Style Council, Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt of Status Quo, Jody Watley of Shalamar, Bananarama, Marilyn (who was not invited but arrived anyway) and some of Geldof's bandmates from the Boomtown Rats all arrived. Only one of Ure's Ultravox colleagues, Chris Cross, attended. Geldof, noticing Boy George's non-attendance (despite ringing him up in New York the day before demanding he sing on the record), went back to the phone to get the Culture Club frontman out of bed and on to Concorde.

Ure played the backing track and guide vocals to the artists together, then decided, in a way of getting all involved straightaway, to record the crescendo first, which also allowed the 'team shot' of the day to be photographed. The artists were put in a huge group and sang the 'Feed the world, let them know it's Christmas time' refrain over and over again until it was completed.

Then Ure sought a volunteer to be first into the studio to sing the main body of the song. Eventually Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet took the plunge, with plenty of rival artists watching him, and sang the song straight through. The other assigned singers then did likewise, with Ure taping their efforts and then making notes as to which bits would be cut into the final recording. Le Bon, despite having already done his bit at Ure's house, re-recorded his so he could be part of the moment. Sting also recorded the words again, this time to provide harmony.

Phil Collins arrived with his entire drum kit and waited until Ure was ready to record him over an electronic drum track that had already been put in place. The song ended up as a mixture of Collins' drums and an African rhythm that opens the song, taken from a sample of The Hurting by Tears for Fears.

Not all went smoothly. Ure stated in his autobiography that he was constantly battling with Geldof, the song's lyricist but not renowned for his melody skills, and telling him to leave when he would come into the production booth and wrongly tell the artist behind the mic what to sing. Ure also had to shelve an attempt by the two members of Status Quo to record the "here's to you" harmonies because Parfitt couldn't hit the note. Rossi afterwards told Ure that Parfitt never sang in the studio, only onstage, and he should have kept him away from the mic. This section was eventually taken on by Weller, Sting and Gregory. However, Quo were able to contribute in other ways, according to the journalist Robin Eggar.[3]:

"Once Status Quo produced their bag of cocaine and the booze started to flow – I brought six bottles of wine from my flat, which disappeared in a minute – it became a party."

Boy George arrived at 6 pm and went straight into the recording booth to deliver his lines. Boy George was rather vocal in his dislike of fellow singer George Michael, some of which is caught on video during the filming of the Band Aid collaboration. While recording harmonies, Boy George openly confused Michael's recorded vocals with the voice of "Alf" (British singer-songwriter Alison Moyet, who did not participate in the charity single). When the engineer correctly identified the voice as that of Michael, Boy George replied, "God, he sounded camp. But then he is." Once Boy George had finished his tracks, Ure had all the vocals he needed and, as the artists began to party and then drifted away, began working on the mix. A B-side, featuring messages from artists who had and hadn't made the recording (including David Bowie, Paul McCartney, all members of Big Country and Holly Johnson from Frankie Goes to Hollywood) was also recorded over the same backing track. Trevor Horn arrived back to his own studio to put this together.

Despite being singers themselves, neither Geldof nor Ure had a solo line on the song, though both took part in the 'Feed the world' crescendo.

Ure worked on the mix through the night and finally completed the task at 8am on the Monday morning. Prior to departing SARM, Geldof recorded a statement: "This record was recorded on the 25th of November 1984. It's now 8am on the 26th. We've been here 24 hours and I think it's time we went home."

The song was quickly dispatched to the pressing plants who had promised to have the single pressed and ready by the Tuesday. A spell of publicity and final legal details followed, then it hit the shops on Thursday 29 November in a sleeve designed by Peter Blake. It went straight to #1.

Worth Another Listen - Midge Ure

Now, back in the 80s, I was madly in love with Midge Ure, yet another Scotsman. He was the lead singer of one of my favorite bands, Ultravox. He had an amazing voice, and was very hot. Then he worked with Bob Geldof, and together they wrote Do They Know It's Christmas?, the huge single to raise money for African Famine Relief. Ultravox also performed at Wembley Stadium for Live Aid. So, Midge was also good-hearted and had cool friends. Aside from the wife and being str8, I thought he would be a perfect boyfriend for me.

In 1986, Midge ventured out on a solo career, and I was loving it. He released The Gift, and I was all over it. It was followed by Answers To Nothing, Breathe, and Pure. His first solo single was If I Was, and I still love that damn song, and think the video just makes me happy.

Like so many of us, Midge has aged a bit. But dammit to Hades, I still think he is hot. He still performs in the UK, so there is little chance I will get the chance to see him.

Midge Ure with Bob Geldof in 2004, Midge Ure aging beautifully.

Ultravox had that dense rock sound I was [and still am] so very fond of. I could, of often would, listen to Ultravox all day long. Songs like Vienna, Lament, All Stood Still, We Came To Dance, Love's Great Adventure, and Hymn, I was a very happy camper. Here is a clip of Ultravox playing Dancing With Tears In My Eyes, followed by Vienna from their set at Live Aid. Great stuff!

You can find out more about Midge on his website.