Midge Ure
Band in a Box Tour
Mount Dora Music Hall, Mount Dora, Florida • September 11, 2024
by Michelle Wilson
Eighties New Wave sensation Midge Ure recently brought his duo-driven Band In A Box to Central Florida’s hidden gem, Mount Dora. The cozy vibe of Mount Dora Music Hall offered the perfect intimate setting for the 105-minute show, and it was hard to believe that only two people were performing on stage. “Who knew two people could make so much noise?” Ure joked at the tour’s start, but it was clear that these two offered anything BUT noise, nailing the full band sound seamlessly. Ure, who still sounds amazing, covered vocals, electric guitar and synthesizer while Charlie Round-Turner played loops, samples and programmed drums. Featuring songs from Ure’s expansive career, the 17 tracks included solo material as well as Visage and Ultravox cuts, plus one cover. As the Scottish songsmith recounted the stories behind the songs with sharp wit and self-deprecating charm, it was hard to imagine that this one-time member of Thin Lizzy and cofounder of Band Aid and Live Aid could be so humble. Hearing Ure perform these ’80s alternative songs transported me right back to my teens, growing up on Long Island and listening to WLIR, which was one of few radio stations in the country playing alternative music. Ure himself even gave them a shoutout during the show, and my WOOHOO was the loudest one in the crowd.
Opening strong at 9 pm with two solo selections, “Dear God” and “Answers to Nothing” (both off Answers to Nothing, 1988), Ure explained between the two songs the concept behind Band In A Box while admitting that it was confusing to people. With a wry smile, he quipped that he had not performed some of this material in a long time and that he could never remember the words. When he finished “Answers to Nothing,” he promised that he would learn the lyrics to the songs before the release of the next solo album, which elicited hearty laughter from the crowd.
Ure recalled how sparingly Ultravox had toured the United States and that 12 years ago when they reunited to tour, “the mighty” Ultravox did not initially want to play “I Remember (Death in the Afternoon)” ( Rage In Eden, 1981). But once they came together and played it, then it came flooding back and they loved it again. Ure also mixed in two others from this record, including “We Stand Alone” and “The Voice,” as well as “Hymn” and “Reap The Wild Wind” off 1982’s Quartet, the latter of which featured prominently on MTV and gave the band wider exposure, eliciting a word of thanks to MTV from Ure. Also included were two songs from 1984’s Lament, the title track and the ever-dazzling “Dancing With Tears In My Eyes.” Ure described how a writing trip into the Scottish Highlands inspired the Celtic flavor of the song, “Lament.”
Visage fan fave, “Fade To Grey” ( Fade To Grey, 1980), which Ure cowrote and produced (but did not sing on the studio cut) was a true crowd pleaser. “So this is something that I can tell by just looking at you that you’ve got no idea what it’s going to be because you’re not old enough. I’ll do anything to make you love me.” Ure encouraged fans to get up and dance and clap along. “I’m sure if you’ve had copious amounts of alcohol, you might want to stand up and dance. But not in front of someone.” Clap and dance we did, indeed.
In 1982, Ure recorded a brilliant cover of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World” for a movie soundtrack. The movie bombed, but the cover was iconic. Years later, a Japanese tech developer used it in a video game, and as Ure explained this, you could hear the modest pride in his voice, because now young people know who he is due to that inclusion. Then he followed with the best line of the night: “Do you think there’s a mild possibility that David Bowie is in Heaven covering one of my songs?”
Vienna, the 1980 Ultravox album and Ure’s debut as lead singer/guitarist after leaving Visage, featured such noteworthy songs as “Sleepwalk” (which as Ure explained, was the only track offered to the record label, and it got them signed), “Astradyne” (played on a cassette for record label executives in a car — a seven-minute instrumental that caused looks of abject horror as they waited for the vocals that never came), “All Stood Still,” and of course, the iconic title track, all getting stellar “Band In The Box” treatment. For me, “Vienna” was the single greatest song to emerge from this era, and hearing it live still fills me with chills.
Anyone who attends a concert knows that there is a quick exit and return before the encore. Ure got a good laugh from the crowd as he described this part and asked us to pretend that they did this. On a heavier note, the significance of the date (9-11) was not lost on him, and without actually mentioning it directly, he addressed it. He stressed that we all deal with dark moments in life differently and that he wrote “Fragile” ( Fragile, 2014) for people to see that there is a way towards the light. Ure’s struggles with alcoholism were the inspiration for the song, but the song itself was apropos for this specific day. Ure finished on a lighter note with “If I Was” (The Gift, 1985) from his first solo album, and it was a perfect end to a spectacular show.
Chatting with Ure and a small group of people after the show, one couple mentioned that they had seen him before. His razor-sharp, playful retort was in typical fashion: “And you came back?”
Ure is currently working on three new albums and touring in Portugal, Croatia, and Belgium in October, throughout Europe in November and December, in Dubai February 2025, and in Sweden and Germany March 2025. I look forward to his next visit to the United States and will certainly be at a show! ◼
