Ahead of his huge 70th birthday concert celebration at London’s Royal Albert Hall, Midge Ure looks back on a lifetime of hits in RETROPOP’s October issue.
The synth star – who first found fame as a member of Slik in 1976 when Forever And Ever topped the charts, before joining Glen Matlock’s The Rich Kids and scoring hits with Visage and Ultravox – has over 45 years of success under his belt.
Decades on from his debut, that early Blitz club legacy shines through, with Ure appearing in various documentaries and making an audio series about it, while several of the styles and fashions of the New Romantic scene remain as cool – if not cooler – as they did back then.
“If you live long enough, anything from the ‘80s will become cool again,” he notes. “I think it was a combination of things. The door policy in the Blitz was funny, stopping rock stars [such as Mick Jagger] from getting in because they weren’t dressed properly. It was fantastic – great headlines, great soundbites. It was fairly cool kids [who frequented] – usually from St Martin’s School of Art or wherever – smart kids not afraid to dress up. There was also the whole thing about gender identity and nobody cared if you were gay or straight, bi or whatever, it just didn’t matter. There was an embracing nature. It was all part of being a peacock; listening to the kind of music that wasn’t really being made in the UK at the time, so a lot of it was imported from Europe.
“All of a sudden, because of its empty pocket exclusivity, it became notorious. Then the fact David Bowie turned up one night added fuel to the fire. Bowie got in but Jagger didn’t! I think the legend grows because we know we’ll never go back there again and the more that’s written about it and the more it’s documented, the legend will carry on going.”
As does the legend of Ure, whose birthday concert will see him “delve into the past” and “cherry pick things that I thought were seismic moments in my life” for a decades-spanning setlist. So what’s the secret to his enduring success? “Luck – it’s as simple as that,” Ure quips on the subject of longevity.
“Anyone setting out on a career in music – especially behind the mic, in front of the camera – can expect a 5-10 year life doing that. When I started, I suppose in every other genre of music it was acceptable to grow old, get better at what you do and refine your ideas – jazz, blues, folk, classical, whatever – but in pop/rock music it was unheard of. You disappeared when you were 25 – you were over the hill by that point. But of course we are now in a situation where we have octogenarian rock stars. People still on-stage, still doing it [in their 70s and 80s], because they are still incredibly good at what they do.
“It’s a very different era in which to have survived the music industry for this long – and ‘survived’ is the best way to describe it – and to still be able to captain my own ship is luck. It’s not just determination, it’s not just a chip on the shoulder, it’s not some amazing power that I’ve got. It’s absolute luck. I could have been washed up and hung out to dry many, many, many times and I’ve managed to eke my way back in again.”
Read the full interview in the October 2023 edition of RETROPOP, out now. Order yours or subscribe via our Online Store, use our Store Finder to locate your nearest stockist, or get Digital Copies delivered direct to your devices.
