Legendary musician, singer-songwriter and producer Midge Ure shows no signs of fading to grey any time soon – still thrilling audiences with his live music after four decades, writes Sue Archer.

Speaking at the Rewind 80s Festival in Henley-on-Thames, he discusses his upcoming show with his Band Electronica, which also features The Christians and special guest Clare Grogan, at the Wycombe Swan.

Midge was famously known for co-writing and producing the 1984 mega-hit charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” - selling 3.7 million copies in the UK – the second highest selling single in UK chart history.

He also co-organised Band Aid, Live Aid and Live 8 with fellow musician Bob Geldof, and acts as a trustee and ambassador for Save the Children.

But aside from his extraordinary humanitarian work, Midge has enjoyed phenomenal chart success as a solo artist and in bands including Thin Lizzy, Visage and Ultravox, enjoying widespread acclaim for hits such as Fade to Grey (1980), Ultravox’s Vienna (1980), Dancing with Tears in my Eyes (1984), No Regrets (1985) and If I Was (1985).

Music News caught up with Midge at the Rewind South 80s Festival in Henley-on-Thames in August to talk about his successful musical career and why he feels the 80s was such a unique decade in music.

Why do you think the 80s were so special?

The 80s were full of great songwriters, and I presume that was because when we were kids growing up, we were listening to another decade of great songwriters; we were listening to songwriters from the 60s, the Beatles, the Stones, The Who and the Small Faces.

That’s who we heard on the radio.

So when it came to the 80s, it was our turn to write the songs so it was the best musical education you could possibly have had.

Maybe that’s why the 80s still resonate with people because yes, there were a lot of different genres and a lot of different types of artists.

The charts were a place where there was enough space for everyone, it wasn’t just one particular genre.

Tell us about your Band Electronica Tour?

It’s starting in October across the UK. It’s myself, the Christians and Altered Images. It starts on my birthday in Glasgow of all places, my hometown.

You’re gonna have lots of drunken Glaswegians singing When I’m Sixty-Four!

You are performing here at the Rewind 80s Festival in Henley-on-Thames. What do you like about Rewind in particular?

Rewind is fantastic. Unfortunately it’s raining just now but that never seems to dampen people’s spirits. I think the site is outstanding. It’s one of the best spots in the UK for something like this; there’s the lovely plateau and the river, it’s absolutely stunning.

But then of course, meeting up with old friends. Because we’re all so stupidly busy, we never get the chance to socialise but we do here.

You come here and you’re hanging out backstage, chatting to your pals, like Glenn Gregory who I’ve been friends with since I moved to London. I haven’t seen Glen Matlock yet but I know he’s on site. Rusty Egan of course – my old Visage and Rich Kids pal.

What would you say has been the highlight of your career, which performance?

I suppose when it comes to performance, nothing tops Live Aid. Live Aid will be the biggest audience that most artists have played in front of, not just the physical audience there, the 80 to 100,000 people, but the millions and maybe billions of people who watched it on television.

I was nervous because there were no sound checks. The thing that makes you secure is going on and doing a sound check and knowing the equipment is going to work.

Ultravox were notorious for using electronics and synthesizers and they can be a little temperamental to say the least, so walking on stage and thinking, if we launch into the Vienna and the drum machine doesn’t work or one of the synthesisers goes down, it’ll be hideous, but everything went incredibly well.

From the moment, we walked on stage it was brilliant.

What was it like to write your autobiography?

I found it a weird thing to do, I have to say. I think ego jumps in when initially someone says “I think you should write a book”.

You think, yeah I should, that’d be great, my life has been so bizarre. Then you realise the moment you start doing it, you’re going to upset people. You have to be very careful.

I didn’t want to do a kiss and tell, I didn’t want to do one of those exploitative things, I wanted to tell it exactly as I remember it.

The opening chapter of my book says if there are a hundred people in a room, and an incident happens, you’re gonna get a hundred interpretations of what happened, this is my interpretation, this is what I remember.

Did it receive a good response?

Yes it did. It was fantastic. It was just interesting, going back and reliving a lot of the stuff and including a lot of the stuff that you didn’t really want to re-live, but if you’re gonna be honest and truthful about it, and if you’re gonna write a book, be truthful about it, tell it all.

I did that as much as I could but without upsetting other people.

What was it like performing with Thin Lizzy during the 70s?

I was just putting the finishing touches to the Visage album which I was co-writing and producing, and I had just joined Ultravox, and I got a phone call asking if I could go and finish a tour in America with Thin Lizzy, so I did it for a couple of weeks and then went straight back to Ultravox.

But what a ball that was! First time ever playing in America, onstage playing to 50,000 people every night, wonderful!

If you could have been another famous person or pop star, who would it be?

Oh that’s impossible to say, I suppose most people would be David Bowie because he transcended so many different genres and so many different decades of music.

Most musicians get a slot, and that is your period. He managed to recreate and reinvent and was still cutting-edge right up to the end.

What do you think of today’s charts?

Back then (in the 70s and 80s), you knew exactly who was in the charts. These days I don’t think it’s that important. I

t’s a different thing altogether, it’s the download charts and it’s all splintered, whereas back then, it was “oh, you’re in the top 40!, or in the top 20”; you knew exactly who else was around at the time.

Top of the Pops was the big thing. Everyone used to sit around the television, not just to hear the music but also to check out the fashions.

If you didn’t live in London, like I didn’t at the time, back in the 70s, I was in Glasgow, so watching Top of the Pops on a Thursday night was a big thing to check the styles of the bands.

You could check the clothes, the hairstyles, as well as hear what was in the charts.

I did do the Theme music, not intentionally, but I ended up doing a tune that they used for the theme music for three or four years.

Midge Ure will be playing at the Wycombe Swan on Wednesday, October 18. For more information, visit wycombeswan.co.uk.