John Foxx Era Ultravox Vs Midge Ure Era Ultravox

A+ post, Ashley

Great post and otm re: real vs faked "genius" ( I'd call it "worldliness" in this case). Much as I love early Simple Minds, much Numan and much Ure Ultravox you can't deny Foxx and Sylvian had/have the advantage in the worldliness and creativity depts.

I am going to see MADGE YR tonight for his acoustic Questions & Answers thing

I bought the ticket before I realized it was a Q&A show

i hate audience Q&As normally, like in a skeleton leaving my body way

can anyone confirm that this will be a fun evening?

ican confirm for myself that it was great!

Hurrah!

Somehow, despite adoring the Island Years comp, I'd never heard Artificial Life until just now. Wow

this song has the best outro of the 70s my god

veg, did you ask him anything?

I didnt get a chance - it was pretty competitive to get Midge’s attention! i was a bit intimidated by everyone leaping out of their seats yelling his name lol

I wanted to ask if he had a favorite story about Phil Lynott

But he gave good lengthy interesting answers to pretty much all the questions. Talked about when Steve Strange rode a camel to a nightclub, and the story behind how he could have joined the Sex Pistols, Band Aid eyc

There was a young kid maybe 10 or so in the front with his Mum, and he got up & asked Midge about the Dancing W Tears In My Eyes video: the kid wanted to know if Midge thought that could ever happen. I almost got a little teary - at the same age I was petrified of nuclear war & could havd done with some reassurance from Midge myself <3

that = nuclear armageddon/end of days etc

What was Midge's reply to that question?

He told the kid that he hoped it wouldnt ever happen. Then he gave a bit of backstory about the song/video, inspired by reading “on the beach” & that they got in a lot of trouble over the video bc parents said it scared their kids. He also said that the future looked more promising to him because it would be in the hands of concerned people like him (the boy)

paraphrasing obv

I wanted to ask if he had a favorite story about Phil Lynott

Would have asked him if he'd ever met John Foxx, and if so, what did they talk about

Remember reading in Smash Hits of all places that Foxx came to one of the early Midge-era (Ure-era?) Ultravox gigs.

"Free Bird!"

Choosing one over the other is pure folly; both iterations of Ultravox were/are pure greatness and some of the very best music ever produced. Also, John Foxx and Midge Ure are two of the prettiest men to have ever existed and I've had big old celebrity crushes on both since I was a young teenager.

hey veg - it was i that asked the sex pistols question at yoshis! (chaki)

This was the Sacramento show at Harlow’s - popular question I guess! But ace that you saw him at Yoshi’s!

I'd go with these. Happy birthday, Midge!

“passing strangers” slams

I'd go with these🕸. Happy birthday, Midge!

New Steven Wilson mix of "Rage In Eden" is pretty juicy.

yeah it's awesome, shame the total album wasn't done though because I guess multitracks were missing but there are a lot of great bonus tracks included in this package. Rage and Systems of Romance are my favorite UV albums; I'd love to hear Wilson do that one as well.

I really like Cathedral Oceans, which I picked up without knowing that John Foxx had any connection to Ultravox.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00oXLPmXTF0

Steven Wilson does it again. His mix of "Quartet" is a joy even though the album itself is pretty ho-hum.