Midge Ure celebrated his past successes with 2019’s Soundtrack 1978-2019 compilation, the first to encompass the period from The Rich Kids through Visage and Ultravox to his solo years. He’s been touring both the albums he released in 1980 – Visage’s debut and the first record he made with Ultravox. But is all this activity a delaying tactic to stop him having to make new music…?
What made you decide to celebrate your 1980 albums with a tour?
Every time I perform at an 80s festival, people say, “F*** me, I had no idea you could still do that!” I’d lost contact with a lot of my audience, as they don’t go to the smaller, town hall-type venues I play. You sometimes have to remind people what you’ve done, to get them onside for what you’re currently doing. This is me going, “Hello! I’m still here… and I can still do it!” People have a composite image of what you are, and mine is the guy with the ponytail, the moustache and the long raincoat. I’m aware that, to most people, all I ever did was Vienna. There’s a lot more to it, and I wanted to show that by celebrating the year when I broke through the invisible barrier – finding an ability to experiment and reaching somewhere beyond what had been going on.