“I was reticent about how people might take this,” says Midge Ure. On his way to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on the midwest leg of his Band in a Box tour, Ure has been revisiting the music of his former bands Visage and Ultravox, along with his solo material, and moved away from his more stripped-back, acoustic shows of recent years. To give the songs a fuller sound he’s been playing alongside long-time keyboardist Charlie Round-Turner, manning programmed drums, samples, and loops—his band in a box.
“It’s only two of us on stage with stands and drum machines, but they’ve loved it,” says Ure, who along with vocals is handling electric guitar, and synthesizer on the tour. “The response has been ridiculously good, because it’s the closest that people are going to get to hear what Ultravox would have sounded like in the day, or if Visage should ever perform live.”
The Band in a Box setlist spans Visage’s 1980 debut hit “Fade to Grey” and more from Ure’s lengthier catalog with Ultravoxx with the band’s 1981 hit “Vienna” and “Dancing With Tears in My Eyes” (1984), along with “Astradyne,” “I Remember (Death in Afternoon),” “Sleepwalk,” “We Stand Alone,” and more from Ure’s extensive solo catalog including “Dear God,” “Fragile,” and “If I Was.”
“I’m kicking myself that I didn’t do it earlier, that I didn’t do it years ago,” says Ure of the tour. “There was some reticence. I thought people would see it as some glorified karaoke because it’s only two of us on stage, but honestly, these days, people don’t care. They don’t care that there’s no drummer, no bass player when they hear something that they thought they would never hear live.”
Ure adds, “Some people saw Ultravox performing across America two or three times when we toured, but for the rest of the people, it’s a dream realized, and that’s the feedback that I’m getting directly. People are loving it. They want to hear more, so we’ll see where it takes us.”
Videos by American Songwriter
The cost of traveling with two performers is also more affordable in these “very pricey days of touring,” says Ure. “[The U.S.] has put a massive hike on the costs of getting a work visa just to bring two guys out on the back of my visa, so the idea of bringing an entire band and a crew—along with technology and people who understand how the technology works—all of a sudden you’ve got eight to 10 people coming over. Ure laughs, “On a purely Scottish level, this [Band in a Box] works very well, and on a musical level, it seems to work even better.”
[RELATED: Midge Ure Revisits Solo, Ultravox Catalog with Backstage Lockdown Club]
On the other side of the ocean, Ure says there are even more challenges for artists wanting to tour since Brexit has cut the UK off from the rest of Europe. “For young up-and-coming artists, to cut the teeth and learn how it all works to build up an audience, they usually pop over to Germany and are the opening act on a Thursday afternoon of a four-day festival, and they get paid a pittance, but they find 100 people that like them,” says Ure. “Then, the next time they go, there’ll be 300 people. And then the next time, 1000 people.”
He adds, “Now, it’s all gone. We’ve shot ourselves in both feet, which is ludicrous. It’s a tough time out there for anyone in the industry on so many levels—even making money from your music and deciding whether you want to put an album out or a single. Is it worth it?”
Mark King from British jazz-funk band Level 42 told Ure that they were the “last generation to do this for a living,” recalled Ure. “I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘To do it full time, to be able to go out there and make a reasonable living from playing music. For most people, it’s a part-time thing,’ and I thought that was pretty horrific. It’s a horrible realization.”
Ure, who is still hosting his Backstage Lockdown Club, a monthly subscription offering fans exclusive access to intimate performances, is also working on three albums including a follow-up to his 2014 release Fragile, an instrumental project, and a sequel to his 2017 release, Orchestrated with composer Ty Unwin, a collection of reimagined Ultravox and solo tracks as orchestral arrangements.
Revisiting Ultravox on the Band in a Box tour is especially poignant for Ure since the band was his turning point as a songwriter, after playing in Rich Kids with former Sex Pistol Glen Matlock in 1977, a short stint in Thin Lizzy, and Visage.
“I joined Ultravox because I was with like-minded people, people who had been doing experimental music for quite a while, and all of a sudden the shackles were off,” shares Ure. “I wasn’t trying to write a formula. We were writing something that we thought was interesting music, and that just takes you to a completely different tangent.”
As for an Ultravox reunion, Ure says the chances are nil of reforming with keyboardist Billy Currie and drummer Warren Cann, following the death of Ultravox bassist Criss Cross in March 2024. Currie is a full-time caretaker for his wife, and Cann has retired, so Ure is left to keep the spirit, and the music, of Ultravox alive.
“I’m the only one still standing,” says Ure. “You have to keep it going, keep the embers glowing.”
___
The Band in a Box tour will continue through September 13 in North America in Fort Lauderdale, Florida before the Midge Ure, Catalogue: The Hits Tour kicks off in Europe from November through March 2025. Get tickets here.
Photo: Nathan Roach
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.