Midge Ure Announces Four New Zealand Shows

Midge Ure, who is arguably best known as the vocalist for British new wave act Ultravox, has announced a string of shows around New Zealand for April. The 61-year-old musician will be heading to Wellington to kick off the four-date tour which follows the release of his latest solo album Fragile that came out back in July. Here's the details for the shows...

Midge Ure

Friday 17th April, Bodega, Wellington
Saturday 18th April, Aurora Centre, Christchurch
Sunday 19th April. SkyCity Theatre, Auckland
Monday 20th April, Theatre Royal, Nelson

Here's the video for 'If I Was' from 1985 album The Gift...

PRESS RELEASE:

The voice of Ultravox, Midge Ure will perform four New Zealand shows in April 2015 – remarkably his first concerts here since electro-pop legends Ultravox visited our shores for the Sweetwaters festival in 1982.

in Auckland, Wellington, Nelson and Christchurch can look forward to intimate solo acoustic performances from Midge Ure (UK), with details as follows:

Bodega, Wellington (April 17) – Tickets from Ticketmaster.co.nz Aurora Centre, Christchurch (April 18) – Ticketek.co.nz SkyCity Theatre, Auckland (April 19) – Ticketmaster.co.nz Theatre Royal, Nelson (April 20) – TicketDirect.co.nz

Tickets for all four concerts are on sale from 9am Thursday December 18. See promoter website Plus1.co.nz for complete details.

Special guest on the tour is Boh Runga performing material from her solo and stellar* albums.

Scottish-born Midge Ure has been fearlessly innovative over the years – through creative production and songs like Fade to Grey (Visage) Vienna and Dancing With Tears in My Eyes (Ultravox) and solo gems including If I Was, and No Regrets.

Ultravox was a major influence on the new romantic and electro-pop movements of the early '80s, and continue to be so today. Their successful trademark was combining Midge's powerful guitar riffs with sweeping synthesiser motifs and state-of-the-art visuals.

Ure’s 1984 songwriting collaboration with Bob Geldof, ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ was a heartfelt contribution to Ethiopian famine relief. Band Aid was produced by Ure and the single sold more than three million copies in the UK, and the song kept returning to the charts in 1989, 2004 and again this Christmas (2014) with a new version and revised lyrics to help fund the fight against the Ebola virus.

MIdge Ure live in New Zealand - with special guest Boh Runga. See Plus1.co.nz for details.

MIDGE URE – PAST TO PRESENT:

His musical career speaks volumes - Slik, The Rich Kids, Thin Lizzy, Visage, Ultravox.

Midge Ure appeared to the wider public in a moment of heady teen success with Slik. Their sway-along single 'Forever And Ever' took over at No.1 in the UK from Abba's 'Mamma Mia' on Valentine's Day 1976.

Soon outgrowing Slik's pop dimensions, Midge was snapped up by ex-Sex Pistol Glen Matlock the following year for his new outfit, the Rich Kids, who charted amid an avalanche of press with a self-titled EMI single early in 1978.

By 1979, Ure had been asked by Billy Currie, Chris Cross and Warren Cann to become the new frontman in Ultravox.

The songs of Ultravox were massive hits the world over, generating seven consecutive top ten albums in just six years. Indeed, Vienna recently was voted the Nation’s favourite number 2 single of the 80’s, finally granting it a coveted Number 1 position!

Even by then, the Midge Ure story had some individual chapters, of course. He wrote and produced “Fade to Grey” for Visage in 1980, then hit the top 10 in the summer of 1982 with his first release under his own name, an atmospheric take on the Tom Rush song made famous half a dozen years earlier by the Walker Brothers, 'No Regrets'.

Then came November 25, 1984, a historic day for Midge and all of pop music, as 36 artists by the collective name Band Aid gathered at SARM Studios in west London under Ure's production. They recorded 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' a song he had just written with Bob Geldof as the industry's heartfelt and eloquent contribution to Ethiopian famine relief. The unstoppable emotion engendered by the project led to Live Aid, the summer 1985 global concert that, all exaggeration aside, spoke for a generation.

Geldof said that without Ure's initial enthusiasm for the idea, not to mention his rapidly penned sketch for the single, neither Band Aid nor Live Aid could have happened.

Just two months after Live Aid, Midge was back at No.1 in Britain, this time under his own name, with 'If I Was', and by the autumn he had a No.2 solo album to accompany it, entitled 'The Gift'. Further solo albums followed with “Answers to Nothing” in 1988 and “Pure” in 1991 on BMG.

Delivered in 1994, the new 'Breathe' album was followed by further extensive touring. The Swatch campaign brought spectacular renewed international activity for the record. The album and eponymous single were subsequently in the top 20 throughout Europe for much of that year, and No.1 in Italy, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. 'Breathe' sold over half a million copies in Europe alone. Respected German composer Eberhard Schoener invited him to perform at the re-opening of the Potzdamer Platz in Berlin, in front of an estimated audience of 500,000.

Ultravox reformed in 2009 with a three-week tour of the UK and Ireland, culminating in their show at London's historical Roundhouse being captured on the live DVD "Return To Eden". They continued to tour, before releasing their first new album in 25 years Brilliant followed by a huge UK arena tour with Simple Minds.

This year Midge Ure released an acclaimed new solo allbum Fragile which returned to his progressive synth roots with soaring melodies and introspective lyrics. The album features collaborations with Schiller and Moby.

Midge Ure is a recipient of Ivor Novello, Grammy, BASCAP awards.