REVIEW: Midge Ure, Melbourne, April 10, 2015

The mark of a great song is not the size of the production but how that song sounds with just one voice and one instrument. Midge Ure has a lot of “great” songs.

Ure is touring Australia for the first time completely solo. This show is just him and his guitar. Daring to perform theintricate songs he created in Ultravox, Visage and as a solo artist might indeed sound daring but it works. In doing so, Midge Ure is giving fans to hear beneath the songs and how they must have first sounded in his head before each recording.

After the show he told me it works because the audience use their imagination to add the instruments back in. That is an interesting theory but it also works because great songs stand the test of time.

Ultravox did not date like many of the bands of the time. Ultravox surfaced right at another benchmark time in music, when technology was emerging as a vital part of the recording process. However, Ultravox differed from many of their contemporary acts of the time because they actually played as a band.

For this tour not only can Midge perform his songs in their purest form, he is also performing up close and personal for the fans in intimate venues where he can communicate directly to the crowd and they can respond.

The setlist was a 35 year history condensed to a few hours with some of the greatest hits from the 80s including his absolute classic ‘Vienna’, solo hits ‘If I Was’ and his song from Visage ‘Fade To Grey’, dedicated to the late Steve Strange.

In the past year Midge kept his relevance in track with new music from the ‘Fragile’ album. The songs stand up alongside his historic work.

The tour is a rare opportunity to see an artist of Midge’s calibre in venues this size and be witness an historic career by the man who made the music.

Midge Ure, Melbourne, April 10 2015 SETLIST

Dear God (from Answers To Nothing, 1988)
Breathe (from Breathe, 1996)
Call Of The Wild (single, 1986)
Brilliant (from Ultravox, Brilliant, 2012)
Fade To Grey (from Visage, Visage, 1980)
Become (from Fragile, 2014)
No Regrets (single, 1982)
Reap The Wild Wind (from Ultravox, Quartet, 1982)
The Voice (from Ultravox, Rage In Eden, 1981)
Light In Your Eyes (from Pure, 1991)
Cold Cold Heart (from Pure, 1991)
Guns and Arrows (from Breathe, 1996)
Lament (from Ultravox, Lament, 1984)
Vienna (from Ultravox, Vienna, 1980)
Hymn (from Ultravox, Quartet, 1982)
Dancing With Tears In My Eyes (from Ultravox, Lament, 1984)
If I Was (from The Gift, 1985)

Fragile (from Fragile, 2014)
One Small Day (from Ultravox, Lament, 1984)