He’s had hits in a 1970’s pop band (Slik), nearly joined the Sex Pistols, and formed the post-punk power band Rich Kids with Glenn Matlock. He co-wrote, co-produced, and played on the classic Visage hit “Fade to Grey”, fronted Ultravox during their peak success, played guitar with Thin Lizzy, scored a major hit with Phil Lynott and co-created one of the biggest singles of all time with Band Aid. If any other artist had achieved just one of those milestones, they would consider themselves successful—yet Midge Ure has done them all and more! In addition to all these achievements, he has forged a highly successful solo career and is still going strong, creating new music.
As part of his current live tour, he appeared at The Hexagon in Reading on Tuesday the 26th, in support of his excellent new album, A Man of Two Worlds. Andrew Merritt and I recently featured the album’s lead single, “Just Words,” in our RaW Sounds Today playlist feature.
Andrew and I popped along to the show, and it was a brilliant night, with Midge and his impressive live band showcasing songs from throughout his career. However, this was far from just a greatest-hits nostalgia fest; it was a highly creative show, both visually and aurally, and it worked perfectly.
After an enjoyable set from synth duo, Scenius, (it’s always worth getting to a show early to check out the support), Midge’s set commenced beautifully with “A Different View,” an instrumental from the new album, during which the musicians walked onto the stage one by one as they gathered around one of the keyboards. From there, the band took their places and launched into the Visage song “Again We Love”, followed by a fantastic selection of less familiar, but still impressive, tracks from Ultravox and Midge’s solo catalog. They were all segued together into a non stop 45 minutes of music ending in that classic Ultravox hit, “Vienna” which was an emotional moving moment to end this incredible part of the show.
While that felt like it could have been a natural climax to the set, there was still a lot more to come. Midge addressed the crowd and the show reached new heights with a string of Ultravox hits (“Reap the Wild Wind,” “The Voice,” and “Dancing with Tears in My Eyes”) alongside that Visage classic, “Fade to Grey” plus one of Midge’s big solo hits, “If I Was”. The crowd were up and dancing throughout this part of the show and then, to top it all off, we were treated to an encore of “Yellow Pearl” (that aforementioned hit that Midge had with Phil Lynott) and a wonderful closing rendition of “Hymn”.
It certainly was a spectacular evening in the company of an undoubted legend of the music world.
Here’s a Spotify playlist of the songs Midge played at the show – https://bit.ly/MidgeUre2026
