Profile of Midge Ure on Famous Like Me

Midge Ure OBE (born James Ure on October 10, 1953 in Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, Scotland) is a rock and roll guitarist, singer and songwriter from Scotland, who had particular success in the 1970s and 1980s. His stage name, Midge, is a phonetic reversal of his real name, Jim.

Beginning his career with bubblegum pop-rock band Slik, he would go on to play in The Rich Kids and Thin Lizzy before replacing John Foxx as singer of electronic New Wave band Ultravox in 1979. Shortly afterwards, they had a huge UK hit with "Vienna", and became one of Britain's top bands for several years. Also later that year, Ure also formed the band Visage. The following year, Ure and Thin Lizzy leader Phil Lynott co-wrote Lynott's biggest solo hit, "Yellow Pearl." A re-recording of the song done in 1982 was used as the theme for Top of the Pops.

In 1984, Ure co-wrote, with Bob Geldof, the Band Aid hit, "Do They Know It's Christmas?". He was one of the few featured stars who did not sing solo on the recording. The following year Ure scored his one and only solo UK number one single with "If I Was". This was followed by an album The Gift. With Ure's mind clearly on other matters, Ultravox took second place and soon dissolved.

Ure's solo career continued into the 1990s with sporadic success, although "Breathe" was an international hit single, helped by its inclusion in a TV advertising campaign for Swatch watches.

He recently organized the Live 8 concerts with Bob Geldof with the aim of pressuring G8 leaders into following his recipe for ending world poverty. In 2005 he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to music and charity.

Ure has been married twice: to actress and writer Annabel Giles (with whom he has one daughter, Molly) and to Sheridan Ure (with whom he has three daughters, Kitty, Ruby and Flossie).

His daughter Molly has followed her father into the music industry, as the guitarist and vocalist of all-girl group The Faders.

Singles

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