People will let you know when time is up, if the voice is too croaky or I’m forgetting guitar chords
As Live Aid founder M idge Singer hopes to emulate fifth Bea atle Ure reveals he’ll
Midge Ure says he’s part of the generation that never grew up – and that’s why so many wrinkly rock stars are still going strong.
Mick Jagger wasn’t going to let a heart issue slow him down for long and the 75- year- old singer is already back on stage with The Rolling Stones.
A decade younger than Mick, Scottish music legend Midge might now be eligible for a bus pass, but retirement hasn’t crossed his mind.
He plans to carry on performing for as long as possible and says he wants “to be the George Martin of my generation”.
The Beatles producer continued working until he was 80 and Midge would love to keep going for just as long.
“Back in the 80s, we weren’t allowed to grow old in rock music,” the Ultravox star said. “We would look at each other and say ‘you’re still going to be on stage at 35?’
“In every other genre of music it was acceptable and applauded to get up on stage in your 80s, but rock music wasn’t quite like that. It is now.
“Who is out there now, it’s people my age or older. Why would you stop?
“We are the generation that grew old but never grew up. We wear the same clothes as our kids, go to the same festivals. It’s an attitude.
“The generation before us, the kids wore the same clothes as their parents – shirts and ties – and then there was a revolution.
“You see someone like Jagger doing what he loves to do. And I just read a report about a 103-year-old woman winning a race. It’s a different mindset.”
The Glasgow- born singer says recognise if he needs to stop.
“People will let you know when time is up, if the voice is too croaky or I’m forgetting guitar chords. Whatever form it takes, I think I’m smart enough to notice and then I
he’ll will back off into my little studio and d make music no one will ever hear.”
Midge is preparing a massive to ur that will take in the US, Australia, New Ze ealand, Europe and the UK, celebrating the ye ear th made him a household name.
In the previous decade he’d been n in and The Rich Kids, and toured wit th Lizzy, but 1980 saw him come to the forf .
The 1980 Tour will see him perfo orm complete Ultravox Vienna album for thet time, as well as highlights from the Visa album, as both came out in that pivo tal yea at the turn of the decade.
The Band Aid co- founder will be on the road until next summer and says an ninterinterest national tour wasn’t intentional, but i was so strong dates kept being added d.
“If only everyone could have a 19 8 0,” he continued. “That one year changed deveryputting thing for me.
“There was a long build to it – p Visage together, buying a synth hesiser, managing the two styles of roc ck and electronic music, borrowing studi io time between different projects.
“Then Ultravox fell apart and I joined the band, and everything became di ifferent when those two albums went into the e charts.
“I was in a little flat in London at th he time and it didn’t have a phone. Back then n it took three or four months to have one pu ut in, so I would go to the phone box every morningm and night to call the office and find outo how sales were going.
“They would tell me 40,000 album ms were sold and another 20,000 were ordere ed. The next day those had been sold, too.
“I didn’t have two pennies to rub to ogether at the time, so I couldn’t even celebra ate!”
Mi d g e has a number of su ummer appearances in Scotland, includin ng next week’s Rewind Festival at Scone P Palace in Perthshire, but he’s already l lookonic ing forward to returning to the ic Barrowland Ballroom in October.
“It’s been a long time since I was la ast there – probably Stuart Adamson n’s memorial gig, which was a while ago, ,” he added.
“I have outstanding memories of the place, back in the days when the massive stacks of PA equipment would shake and rock back and forth due to the sprung dance floor.
“It’s a place where you can cut the atmosphere with a knife.”
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