There’s a reason that Midge Ure uses India Electric Company as his backing band, and the bottom line is that Cole Stacey and Joseph O’Keefe are superb. Joined here by drummer Russell Field (“he signs more autographs as me than I do,” jokes Ure later), their set is full of ambient prog from a really expansive and cinematic place.
They might start with “Statues,” but much of the set comes from the recent—and excellent—record “Pomegranate,” including the guitar on its title track.
They do one cover too (“we want to play you something you know,” reckons Stacey), but it says much for them that they are desperate to put their stamp on the classic, which they do with the violin.
The last one they play, “Glass Houses,” is a wonderful insight into their world as it builds slowly and profoundly, but my goodness, it’s so full of class.
India Electric Company is a fantastic thing in its own right, but given the opportunity to play these venues, they show just how much they belong.
About halfway through their set here, Midge Ure sits on the steps of his stage and says to the audience: “I seem to excel at writing sad songs. That one was sad, but nothing like this next one.”
In fairness, he’d just played Ultravox’s “Lament” and was about to play “The Maker,” so on the one hand, he’s right, but as so often, he’s selling himself short.
He’d begun this show—a celebration of his career—with Rich Kids’ “Marching Men”—and from a band he was in with a Sex Pistol to Ultravox, the band he breathed new life into for “Passing Strangers” and then to “If I Was.” That was a song from my childhood, and here, almost 40 years on, it sounds as fresh as a daisy.
Those also set the tenor for the night, a stroll through Midge’s songbook, including solo stuff like “May Your Good Lord,” but also through music he just enjoyed and found seminal.
To that end, Peter Green Splinter Group’s “The Supernatural” is a chance yet again for Ure to show what a wonderful guitar player he is, another thing that perhaps he never gives enough credit for, while “Your Name (Has Slipped My Mind Again)” broods and “Fragile” moves things into something of a Marillion-type area as the depth and breadth of this are explored.
Of course, there are some mega hits that have to be played, and “Vienna” and “Fade To Grey” couldn’t be much more different in terms of tone, but they are magnificent.
If that gets the packed crowd on their feet, then “Love’s Great Adventure” keeps them there as we are in a kind of ’80s bangers section.
Ure’s varied CV includes a spell in Thin Lizzy, and their “The Boys Are Back In Town” is one of the greatest songs of all time, and Birmingham enjoys it.
If that was—according to Ure—a song that should have been played at Live Aid, then he follows it with one that actually was, “One Small Day.”
Another Ultravox standard, “Dancing With Tears In My Eyes,” finishes the set, but with a cheery “You didn’t think that we weren’t coming back, did you?” the four are back for “The Voice.”But they are back with a difference. This time they’re all stage front, and it culminates with them all playing drums in some dark-suited version of The Blue Man Group.
A superb set, excellently paced and with a stunning light show that truly added to things. But should we have been surprised?
The recent talk of Band Aid having the single remixed has mostly centred on Bob Geldof, and there’s always a feeling with Midge Ure that if he goes somewhat under the radar, it’s through choice.
That said, when he steps into the spotlight here, it’s to showcase a lifetime in music that’s more varied than most and second fiddle to none.
