Midge Ure

An artist who received Ivor Novello, Grammy, BASCAP awards along with a flotilla of gold and platinum records, really needs very little introduction. Musical success is seldom measured in time spans of more than a few years, the fact that by the time Midge Ure's single "If I Was" went to #1 in 1985 he had already crammed several musical lifetimes into a ten year professional career speaks volumes. Slik, The Rich Kids, Thin Lizzy, Visage, Ultravox and of course Band Aid with Bob Geldof had by then all had his musical input. Then you have to take account of Midge's musical directorship of a series of rock concerts, record production for Phil Lynott, Steve Harley and countless others, his video direction of memorable hits by Bananarama and others, and TV, theater and film music credits ranging from Max Headroom to stage and big screen.

April 2009 saw the unthinkable happen – Ultravox reformed! Six months of talking between Midge and other Ultravox band members Chris Cross, Billy Currie and Warren Cann led to a three week tour of the UK and Ireland. A second Ultravox tour in 2010 hit Europe and Scandinavia, and following that plans were made to record an original new set of songs together for the first time in 26 years. Work started in September 2010 in Canada. November 2010 also saw Midge return to his role of MD for the Prince's Trust at the Royal Albert Hall with a cast of the usual suspects including Eric Clapton and Phil Collins performing at a rock gala.

In May 2012 the new Ultravox album came out and Midge commented: "The plug-in most used on Brilliant was without doubt Melodyne. Billy Currie, Chris Allan and myself all have a copy in our personal recording computers and put it to great use. I found it particularly useful on the vocal front where I could concentrate on getting the feel and atmosphere of a take rather than trying to get the pitch 100 percent right. That was something I could look at later. Billy found it absolutely amazing on violin and viola parts where you could tweak the take and fine tune the pitch and intonation until you had it exactly how you wanted it. I don’t know how we ever made a recording without it!"

Links

Midge Ure

Ultravox

Brilliant