{"id":26299,"date":"2020-02-04T08:50:46","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T13:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=26299"},"modified":"2020-02-04T08:52:30","modified_gmt":"2020-02-04T13:52:30","slug":"on-stage-midge-ure-share-foru-decades-of-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=26299","title":{"rendered":"On Stage: Midge Ure share four decades of history"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Denny Dyroff<\/strong>, Entertainment Editor, The Times<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Midge Ure<\/p><\/div>\n

Back in 1975, the penultimate track on the Kinks\u2019 \u201cSchoolboys in Disgrace\u201d was a song titled \u201cNo More Looking Back.\u201d In the song, Ray Davies sang, \u201cNo more looking back, No more living in the past, Yesterday’s gone and that’s a fact, Now there’s no more looking back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same year, Midge Ure was playing guitar with the Scottish rock band Slik. In the 45 years since, Ure has played a key role in the history of British rock.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s now 2020 and Ure is not paying any attention to what Davies wrote almost a half-century ago.<\/p>\n

The Grammy and Brit Award winning musician is touring North America with his \u201cSongs, Questions and Answers Tour 2020.\u201d The tour visits the Sellersville Theater (24 West Temple Avenue, Sellersville, 215-257-5808,\u00a0www.st94.com<\/a>) on February 4.<\/p>\n

Ure wrapped up his European leg of \u201cThe 1980 Tour\u201d late last year and then kicked off this year with the \u201cSongs, Questions and Answers Tour 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Australian\/New Zealand portion of \u2018The 1980 Tour\u2019 doesn\u2019t pick up again until March,\u201d said Ure, during a phone interview last week from Missouri as he drove from Kansas City a gig in St. Louis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis a month-long run of my \u2018Songs, Questions and Answers Tour\u2019 across North America. It\u2019s an extension of something I did 25 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of you may not recognize Midge Ure\u2019s name but you\u2019ve almost definitely heard his music<\/p>\n

If you know the song \u201cDo They Know It\u2019s Christmas?\u201d \u2014 you\u2019ve heard Ure\u2019s music. That was a song he co-wrote with Bob Geldof and presented to the world as Band Aid. Ure co-organized\u00a0Band Aid, Live Aid\u00a0and\u00a0Live 8\u00a0with\u00a0Geldof. He also serves as ambassador for\u00a0Save the Children.<\/p>\n

Ure\u2019s musical repertoire is long and varied, including the song \u201cBreathe,\u201d which in 1996 became the soundtrack of a massive European \u201cSwatch\u201d campaign. His list of former bands includes Slik, the Rich Kids, Thin Lizzy, Ultravox and Visage.<\/p>\n

Slik had a monster hit with \u201cForever And Ever\u201d, while the Rich Kids was a band put together by ex-Sex Pistol Glen Matlock. Ure became most famous as the front man who replaced John Foxx in Ultravox and was the singer on such Ultravox hits as \u201cReap the Wild Wind\u201d, \u201cDancing With Tears in My Eyes\u201d and the timeless classic \u201cVienna.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the new album, it was the label \u2013 Chrysalis Records \u2013 that wanted me to do it,\u201d said Ure. \u201cThat was one of the earliest labels I was on. They got bought by EMI.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chrysalis went through mergers and assimilations with other record companies. In May 2016, Blue Raincoat Music purchased Chrysalis Records Ltd and most of the British signed artist catalogue from Warner Music Group.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told Chrysalis that I didn\u2019t want to do a \u2018Best Of\u2019 album,\u201d said Ure. \u201cThat had already been done before. I told them I wouldn\u2019t mind doing a retrospective album.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result, Ure released \u201cSoundtrack 1978-2019\u201d on September 20 via Chrysalis Records. The\u00a032-song collection encompasses four decades of Ure\u2019s rich and varied career.<\/p>\n

In addition to many classic Ultravox and Midge Ure solo tracks, this collection also features previously unreleased material. One of these songs is a new remix of 2014\u2019s \u201cDark Dark Night,\u201d which was co-written and performed with Moby.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt started in 1978 with Rich Kids when I bought a synthesizer and goes all the way to 2019,\u201d said Ure. \u201cIf you just arrived from Mars and wanted to hear my music history, this is it. The label first started talking about it 18 months ago. A single album would have been boring.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hand-picked all the tracks. It took a while to find all the footage. It\u2019s a double CD and a DVD with as many videos as I could get my hands on \u2013 and some documentaries. I did voice-over dialogue on top of the videos. It\u2019s a great package.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took me a while. I had to force myself to look at a long list of material \u2013 material from 40 years. It was like coming home form school and doing homework.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took me a bit of time to go through it. I was in no hurry. There was no rush to decide if I wanted that song to represent an era.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look back, you see that your tastes change and your standards get higher \u2013 for example, why were the vocals so quiet on a song\u2026why did I put that chorus on. Tastes change over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecently, I was on tour in Europe playing the entire (Ultravox) \u2018Vienna\u2019 album. Some of those songs could have been written yesterday. With \u2018Soundtrack 1978-2019,\u2019 the label cared about it as much as I did. I\u2019m proud of this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Songs that are on \u201cSoundtrack 1978-2019\u201d along with a lot of other classic Ure gems will find their way onto the set list for his \u201cSongs, Questions and Answers Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI walk on and play the first song,\u201d said Ure. \u201cFrom then on, the entire evening is driven by the audience. I play requests, talk about the songs and answer whatever questions the audience asks. It\u2019s just me and my guitar \u2013 nothing to hide behind. It\u2019s a very open and honest format.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ure isn\u2019t \u201cliving in the past\u201d but he isn\u2019t buying into the \u201cno more looking back\u201d philosophy \u2013 and that\u2019s a good thing for music fans.<\/p>\n

Video link for Midge Ure \u2013 https:\/\/youtu.be\/7DF8rNclM-8<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The show at the Sellersville Theatre, which has Cliff Hillis as the opener, will start at 8 p.m. Ticket prices range from $25 to $39.50.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times Back in 1975, the penultimate track on the Kinks\u2019 \u201cSchoolboys in Disgrace\u201d was a song titled \u201cNo More Looking Back.\u201d In the song, Ray Davies sang, \u201cNo more looking back, No more living in the past, Yesterday’s gone and that’s a fact, Now there’s no more looking back.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5166],"tags":[3912,9525,9527,9526],"class_list":["post-26299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-d-arts-entertainment","tag-featured","tag-midge-ure","tag-questions-and-answers-tour-2020","tag-songs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26299"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26301,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26299\/revisions\/26301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}