Midge Ure - Ultravox, Live Aid and other stories

BELFAST – Midge Ure was the frontman of Ultravox, one of the leading bands of British electronic rock in the '80s. After a series of solo albums, he made headlines again thanks to the success of Breathe, launched by a well-known TV commercial. We met him in Belfast, during the Falls music festival. It's inevitable to think back to Live Aid, the huge 1985 concert for world hunger, which Midge Ure organized together with fellow musician Bob Geldof, bringing together U2, Sting, Paul Weller, Queen, David Bowie, Paul McCartney and many others. But does rock still have the drive that made that project possible? "Yes, even right after Live Aid we kept telling ourselves we could put on another one. I can't see any reason why it couldn't happen again. There are still enough reasons in the world. Africa, with all its problems, is still there. World hunger is still an unsolved issue. And there are talented new bands out there. But people would need the same kind of idealistic drive as back then. There was something magical about it, and that will be hard to recreate."

The humanitarian cause was decisive in that case. But the fact that the whole world of rock was represented also mattered. Do you think rock still has that same power in the new millennium?

Of course the "cause" mattered, but it's also true that rock has changed. Today there's dance music, you don't have to sing politically engaged songs, it's all about rhythm, about electronic sounds. At Live Aid there were songs. People wanted to hear Queen's "We Will Rock You" or Sting singing "Message in a Bottle". Today it's different. With dance-oriented music you have to know the band. You have to be inside the music of the Chemical Brothers, or Propellerheads, or Prodigy. Otherwise it means nothing to you.

You mentioned the Chemical Brothers – do you think they owe something to Ultravox's music in some way?

I don't know. It's undeniable that many people picked up a synthesizer because of Ultravox's music from 15 years ago. I myself can't deny that I got a synthesizer because I was fascinated by Kraftwerk (the German band who were the forerunners of electro-dance). I wanted to make electronic music, those wonderful noises and sounds. As in every genre, there's always someone who provides the spark and the good ideas, like Fatboy Slim or the Chemical Brothers. But then there's also a lot of terrible European pop. It was more or less the same with punk: you had the Sex Pistols and the Clash, but then a bunch of bands popped up that just copied them. Same story with dance music: you've got great bands of the caliber of Massive Attack, but also a lot of trash.

What happened with "Breathe", your '96 song launched by a Swatch commercial – could that be a sign that advertising has now become a new communication channel for music too?

What the music industry is doing now is: take an artist's album, make a video out of it to show on MTV or Diva or whatever. To launch your album you then have to advertise, which means spending hundreds of millions. Going on TV to advertise costs a fortune. Only artists who know they can sell five million copies can afford it. Then there are agencies that handle advertising for Levi's, Swatch, and so on. These are companies that bank on positive feelings and a good image, and so they want to use a specific kind of music. They came to me and said: "Swatch wants to use your music". If radio refuses to play the track, if MTV won't show the video, why on earth would you say no? So they made a video out of it, with fantastic visuals, perfectly suited to my music. Up until then there was a record that was already two years old. And nobody had had the chance to hear it, because radio wouldn't play it, TV wouldn't show it, shops wouldn't stock it. A new path had to be found. I noticed that after the "Breathe" episode, the phenomenon spread. In Italy, last year, kids of 15 or 16 came to see me live just for "Breathe". And they had no idea I could sing an Ultravox song. They didn't know what I looked like, or how old I was, all those things that matter so much in the music marketing business. They bought the record just for the music…

Have you left the band for good, or do you see your solo career as just a phase?

I left Ultravox because I wasn't happy anymore, even though we were still pretty popular. It was hard. I couldn't just go out and reproduce the Ultravox sound, I had to figure out what I wanted to say based on my own feelings. It took me a while. I worked on an album where I used various Celtic instruments, pipes, flute, whistle, mandolins. Now I'm working on something new: writing lyrics, going back into the studio, starting to use the synthesizer again. In short, I'm having fun. A lot of people called me a fool, but you have to follow your heart, your emotions.

So will the new album be mostly electronic?

It'll be much harder-edged than "Breathe". The lyrics are still very melodic. But the energy behind it is very different, the sound is much richer. There's maybe something of Ultravox in it, in the sense that Ultravox's music is still alive today, because it was a hybrid kind of music, mixing electric guitars and synthesizer together. But I'm also using instruments I didn't use before. The record will come out in spring.

Are you planning any collaborations for your album?

I have some names in mind, but I haven't heard anyone yet. You have to reach out to the artist, see if there's a connection. Going through the record label is sterile. Often it doesn't even lead anywhere. It's typical of Americans to call up big names, strike a deal between labels and then sell millions of copies. I imagine my collaborations in a different way. I don't know, calling my friend Kate Bush and asking her: "Do you feel like singing together on a track?". That's what I mean by collaborating.

You mentioned Kate Bush. Which female voices do you find most interesting at the moment?

There are plenty of singers with beautiful voices, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey. But the way they sing, I'd call it vocal gymnastics. They draw on an American black-soul background. The female voices I have in mind need to spark real interest. I'm thinking of Skin from Skunk Anansie, an incredible voice for such a small girl. There's nothing forced about it, she was born with it. A lot of American singers end up copying each other in their vocal acrobatics. When I talk about singers with real individuality, I think of Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins, an enchanting, wonderful voice.

What do you find interesting on the British music scene?

I listen to Radiohead a lot, but new bands... It's hard to say. Unfortunately the radio stations here won't play anything except bands of kids trying to do pop. Recently I've been busy producing a band for London Records, Counter Mind. They're really interesting.

Which songs written with Ultravox did you love the most?

There were many that had good commercial success, but I prefer the lesser-known ones. I don't know, "Lament" or "All Fall Down", written in '86 with the Chieftains. That song, a purely acoustic one, was a turning point for me. When I made it, I realized I wasn't part of Ultravox anymore. I had become something else.

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