Legendary singer Midge Ure has revealed Band Aid may never have happened if he had asked for another 24 hours recording time.
Former Ultravox and Visage singer Ure co-wrote multi-million selling charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas? with Bob Geldof.
On November 25, 1984 the biggest chart stars in Britain packed into a studio to record a single that would go on to raise £8 million for Ethiopian famine relief.
Chart greats including Duran Duran, Culture Club, U2, Spandau Ballet, Wham and Frankie Goes to Hollywood were involved in the recording.
The song was rushed out just days later.
Such was the tight timeframe Midge revealed they had to get it right on the day.
Or risk it all falling through.
Midge is set to headline The Music Hall in Aberdeen on Saturday.
He said: “We all knew we were on a really tight deadline with Band Aid.
“If I had said I need another 24 hours to finish all the vocals and mix it properly it might not have happened.
“We all knew what the parameters were.
“You don’t think about it now as people can put out music instantly on the Internet.
“But with Band Aid someone was waiting for us to hand over the master tape.
“Then it had to go to a pressing plant.
“Then someone had to label it, someone else had to do the graphics and then it had to go into a physical sleeve.
“On top of that it also had to be boxed up, put in trucks and delivered to shops.
“Everyone got on board so the record label was ready to put things on hold for Band Aid.
“By the time the record came out we knew something special was happening.”
Selfless act by legend George Michael
Midge was backstage at influential rock television show The Tube when he received a call from friend Geldof.
The Boomtown Rats singer had been moved by a hard hitting news report by BBC journalist Michael Buerk on the famine in Ethiopia.
He wanted to do something to help.
Within three weeks they had mobilized the nation’s top pop stars, recorded a single and got it into the shops.
George Michael, then singer with Wham! was at the height of his fame and set for a fourth number one single with Last Christmas.
The singer, who sadly passed away on Christmas Day 2016 at the age of 53, was willing to sacrifice his own chart success.
Midge said: “George told his fans not to buy Last Christmas and to go out and buy Band Aid instead.
“He was quite prepared to leave behind his own success for Band Aid to do its thing.”
Recording in a remote German forest
Now 69, Midge is set to headline Aberdeen with his Band Electronica on the ‘Voice and Visions’ tour.
Midge and the band will celebrate 40 years since the release of Ultravox’s influential Rage In Eden and Quartet albums.
Ultravox were one of the most successful, and influential, bands of the early eighties when single Vienna was a global smash hit.
Despite pressure from the record company to deliver a similar follow up the band recorded the experimental and dark Rage In Eden.
It was recorded with legendary producer Conny Plank in the remote German village of Wolprath.
Plank produced influential kosmische bands such as Neu!, Cluster, Ash Ra Tempel, Kraftwerk, Guru Guru, La Dusseldorf and Harmonia.
Midge explained: “I wanted to work with Conny to learn more about production.
“Up to that point I had never really been let loose in a studio and allowed what I wanted to do.
“You can hear it in the music, the syncopated drum rhythms that Ultravox used a lot.
“That came from Neu!, La Dusseldorf, those influences.
“Conny would sit in the studio surrounded by boxes of electronics that he had built.
“He put vocals through the boxes and distorted them. It was amazing.
“Then for the next album (Quartet) we worked with George Martin and Geoff Emerick who did Sergeant Pepper with The Beatles.
“George would turn to Geoff and say ‘do you have John’s mic by any chance?’
“Then out would come John Lennon’s mic for me to sing into it.
“It was a different way of working but equally brilliant.”
Driving a transit van to Aberdeen
Rock legend Midge has enjoyed chart success with Ultravox, Visage and Slick whilst also racking up a number one solo single with If I Was.
Having formed first band salvation in Glasgow in 1970 it is more than five decades since he first took to the stage as a teenager.
He continues to push boundaries as shown by recent electro single Das Beat, an homage to electro pioneers Kraftwerk.
Midge is relishing playing in the Granite City, although he jokes it wasn’t always that way!
He said: “I remember my youthful days of driving the transit van in Salvation, pre Slick.
“The idea of driving to Aberdeen was abhorrent so it used to get cursed a lot.
“Sitting in a cold transit band knowing you were going to be in it for the seven hours it took to drive up to Aberdeen.
“Knowing you can’t afford to stay overnight and had to drive back home after the show.
“I have loads of great memories of Aberdeen and can’t wait to play there again.”
Midge Ure – The Voice and Visions Tour will be at Aberdeen’s Music Hall on May 20.
For more information and tickets visit aberdeenperformingarts.com.
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