MeetJoeDolce?
BY RICK FULTON r.fulton@dailyrecord.co.uk Vienna was kept off the No1 spot by John Lennon’s Woman for a week and then by Shaddap You Face for a further three weeks. But despite its month residency at No2, it went on to outsell both the tracks and won single of the year at the 1981 Brits. And we are still talking about it. Midge added: “Who would still be talking about Vienna if it had been a massive No1 for weeks?
“Everyone thinks we were miffed but we weren’t. We had a No2 record which, at the time for a band like us, was unheard of. We never saw it becoming a commercial success but it changed everything for us.”
While Midge had been in Scots glam rock band Silk, who had a No1 in 1975 with Forever and Ever, Rich Kids with ex-Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock and Thin Lizzy, the success of Vienna made him one of the UK’s biggest stars in the 80s with Ultravox, Visage and then as co-writer and producer of Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?
He also went on to have a solo No1 with If I Was in 1985 and continues to release music. In fact, he’s doing not one but two big tours this year.
The first will be a stripped back intimate tour, Songs, Questions and Answers, which kids off in Inverness on March 7. In October, it’s The 1980 Tour playing the Vienna album in its entirety and tracks from the debut self-titled Visage album at the Glasgow Barrowland. He’s also joining the likes of Brian Ferry and Lulu for Rewind Scotland in July.
The father of four daughters, who has been married twice and is settled in Bath, is looking forward to his homecoming.
While he moved from Glasgow to London in 1977 to join Rich Kids, Midge – born James – still sees the city as home.
He lived in a one-bedroom tenement