Midge Ure didn’t want to give permission for LadBaby to use his Band Aid song for their fifth record-breaking Christmas No1 – because he thought it was in bad taste.
YouTuber Mark Hoyle and his wife Roxanne beat the Beatles in December when their song Food Aid – a rewritten version of Do They Know It’s Christmas? – made chart history.
But Midge, who co-wrote and produced the 1984 track with Bob Geldof, refused permission at first.
He said: “I was reticent about it. They were singing about sausage rolls and it was originally written about people dying of famine.”
LadBaby were the first act to be allowed to re-write the famous song and their lyrics included: “But say a prayer, pray for a sausage roll, this Christmas time, charity’s really coming home.”
However, Bob and the other members of the Band Aid Trust made 69-year-old Midge think again.
He said: “It was quite rightly pointed out to me that it doesn’t really matter. People can interpret the song however they want and LadBaby generates a massive amount of money for charities.
“Our job, and it was put fairly bluntly and succinctly by the rest of the trustees, is to generate as much money as we can from Live Aid footage, Live Aid itself and the Band Aid record.
“And who are we to turn down LadBaby, who have been at No1 for the last five years at Christmas?
“Whether you like the interpretation or not, it’s not about personal taste.”
LadBaby have their critics and many people feel they have destroyed the festive chart-topper.
But Midge said: “It’s been destroyed for a long time. If it wasn’t them it was Cliff. There’s a lot of people who aim for the Christmas No1 – just like we did. But we only wanted to do it once.”
Since the original Band Aid, with the likes of Bono and Boy George, there have been a further three Band Aid supergroups in 1989, 2004 and 2014.
Next year, it’s the 40th anniversary of the track but Midge doesn’t think he and Bob should do a new version.
But he hopes the current crop of singers such as Lewis Capaldi and Sam Fender could do a 2024 version.
He said: “The song is there to be re-recorded and manipulated however people see fit – as long as it fits the parameters of what we were trying to do in the first place.
“Every generation should do an interpretation of the song. I know some people are a bit squeamish about some of the lyrics and it is a very different world now from when it was written.
“Bob and I gave the song-writing royalties to the Band Aid Trust and, whenever it gets played, it generates income and will continue to do so long after we’re gone. So, I encourage people to do something with it.
“Writing something new wouldn’t work and doing another Live Aid wouldn’t work. I’m not sure music is the powerful connector it was back then. The younger generation seemed to be more in tune with social media.”
Midge also doesn’t have the time. After having to postpone it twice due to the Covid pandemic, he will finally hit the road this year with his The Voice & Visions Tour, celebrating Ultravox’s Rage in Eden and Quartet albums.
They will perform at Edinburgh Usher Hall, Glasgow’s Barrowland, and Aberdeen Music Hall in May. He’ll also be playing Europe and America – not bad for a man who turns 70
in October.
Laughing, he joked: “How’s that happened? Hopefully I make it.
“It’s quite something. We are the generation who grew old but never grew up. We’re the ones still buying the same clothes as 20-year-olds. We still shop in the same shops and we still buy the same hoodies and trainers, which is hideous for young people.
“There’s an essence of that in our music, our attitudes and our lifestyles.If you keep yourself in reasonable condition, you can hit this ripe old age and not feel it – at all.
“That’s how it is with me – forever the 20-year-old inside. Well, until something falls off.”
Midge’s secret is still doing the thing he loves – music – and also giving up drink after beating a 10-year addiction. He said: “I might not have been here if I had carried on.”
Midge is not expecting his second wife, Sheridan Forbes, or his four daughters to be planning anything for his birthday.
He said: “Sometimes it’s easier to let the big birthdays slip by and I’m supposed to be in America up to just before that date.”
Brought up in Cambuslang, near Glasgow, he is one of Scotland’s greatest music business success stories. He had a No1 in 1976 with Slik’s Forever and Ever before forming Rich Kids with ex-Sex Pistol Glen Matlock, then synth pop band Visage.
He toured with Thin Lizzy and co-wrote singer Phil Lynott’s biggest solo hit, Yellow Pearl. After that, he joined Ultravox and steered them to chart success with one of the best No2 hits ever, Vienna, before launching his own solo career, which included another No1, If I Was, in 1985.
Midge said: “I’ve had a proper career – highs and lows, good and bad – over a long period of time in an industry that is notoriously shortlived.”
He has no plans to slow down and still looks like he’s in his 50s. He loves being on the road and is glad he can still play live after wondering if he would ever get back on stage because of the pandemic.
He said: “I was playing live long before I was ever allowed in a recording studio so it’s always been there. Touring was something I’d taken for granted all my life and postponing tours was devastating. It was enforced retirement.”
Midge now lives in Bath but is looking forward to being back in Scotland.
He said: “I miss Scotland terribly so I enjoy coming back. I moved to England as in the late 70s the music industry was London-centric.
“I love going back to Cambuslang but it’s not a nostalgia trip. It reminds me I got everything I ever wanted and dreamed of when I was walking up Busheyhill going to scouts on a Friday night. I was one of the lucky ones.”
● Midge will play Edinburgh Usher Hall on May 17, Glasgow Barrowland on May 18 and Aberdeen Music Hall on May 20. For tickets, go to midgeure.gigantic.com
