Midge Ure interview

GlasgowWorld

Midge Ure on his nostalgia for Glasgow, the next generation of Scottish musicians and his musical legacy.

Transcript

00:00He said that when you left Glasgow or when you left South Lanarkshire

00:07and stuff like that, there wasn't necessarily that infrastructure

00:11of bands and that culture of bands and music.

00:16Then all of a sudden you're down in London and then there's a busload

00:21of bands that arrive in the 80s and it just hasn't stopped.

00:26Do you think it's cool to think that there is that,

00:29that part of the identity of Glasgow is essentially rooted in music?

00:33When people think about Glasgow, they think about bands,

00:36including yourself as a musician that's got a connection to Glasgow.

00:41Do you think it's good that that's changed and that if you are a wee guy

00:46with a guitar or a synthesizer in Cambus Lang or Rutherglen or Glasgow

00:51that there's a route, you can make something?

00:55There is. You can't deny it.

00:57It's like if you took the Scots out of the music industry, it would fall apart

01:02because if we're not on stage, we're building it.

01:05We are the technicians. We are the go-getters and kind of always have been.

01:11You cannot travel the world and not hear a Simple Minds tune or a Eurythmics tune

01:17or whoever, you know, Orange Juice. It's everywhere.

01:23And it's always been there. We just never had the vehicle before.

01:27There was a terminology that we used to use back in the day

01:30that when the Bay City rulers became big,

01:33all the record labels in London would send up empty jumbo jets

01:37to fill them up with Scottish artists, you know,

01:40because we had all the artists. We just didn't have the facility.

01:43You know, we didn't have the tools to do it.

01:46And Scottish music history is littered with bands who were big in Scotland

01:51who made the move to London, who came back with a tail between the legs,

01:55you know, six months later because they couldn't hack it.

01:58It was a different world. It was much more competitive.

02:03You know, you could be a big fish in a fairly small tank in Scotland

02:07and then move to London and find out that average bands

02:10were infinitely better than you were.

02:12So it was a real culling process, you know.

02:17So now, I suppose, everyone has, you know, the wherewithal

02:21to have a facility of some sort, you know, a laptop

02:24and a piece of software and a keyboard and a guitar.

02:27And you can make a world-class recording in your bedroom.

02:31It's like the secret's been blowing out the water.

02:34When I started being interested in technology and started trying

02:39to make my first records, I would be standing next to the engineer

02:43watching what he was doing.

02:45But it was almost like at school when you put your hand over your exam paper

02:49so that your mate can't see the answers.

02:52It was like that and they wouldn't let you in.

02:54They wouldn't tell you what they were doing.

02:56So I bought the equipment when I had a chance and I built a studio

03:00and walked into my brand-new studio with a pile of manuals sitting on the desk

03:05thinking I haven't even, I haven't a clue how to turn this on.

03:08And I taught myself how to do it because the recording facility

03:12was as much an instrument as the guitar or the keyboard.

03:17And I had to have that.

03:19And so these days now people can have that.

03:21So you can do it from anywhere on the planet now.

03:24But the core thing that you're asking about is the Scottish talent.

03:27It was always there.

03:29It just needed that little vehicle to get it out.

03:32Yeah.

03:33So when you do a show like you're bringing to the Kelvin Grove Bandstand

03:38and you've got all kinds of eras that you can stride through within the set,

03:43is it quite fun to revisit parts of your life?

03:46Because all these songs would be very much rooted in where you were at the time.

03:51Yeah, it can be a double-edged sword because it meant I had to go back

03:59when I decided to do the catalogue thing.

04:01I had to go back and listen to stuff and I don't do that.

04:04And I'm not being coy about it and I'm not being self-depreciating

04:07or whatever, self-deprecating.

04:11I go back when I have to sift through it to find something new to play.

04:16So the catalogue, I had to go back there and I listened to all this stuff.

04:18And some of it still stands up.

04:21I'm still feeling okay about it.

04:23Some of it I can't think of who I was because, as I say,

04:27it's 45 years ago, some of this stuff.

04:29And you think, I was a different person.

04:31I thought differently and I created differently

04:33and I worked in a different environment.

04:35And I'd feel awkward singing some of these things,

04:39performing some of these songs now.

04:41So I cherry-pick.

04:42So, yeah, it's a catalogue.

04:44So there's lots of hits in there, which is great.

04:46I'm very grateful for.

04:48But I've also delved into some of the songs that I think,

04:50you know, this deserves an airing.

04:52I've maybe never played this live before.

04:55So I've chosen some of that.

04:56So it's a very all-encompassing, you know,

05:00hour and a half to two hours, whatever it happens to be.

05:02You know, so that if you've never heard anything I've done,

05:05which a lot of people haven't, you know,

05:07they're dragged along by their significant other halves

05:10to sit down and go, oh, shit, I only know, you know, if I was.

05:14You know, and then they sit there.

05:15And they're the ones you've got to kind of entertain.

05:17All the other people you've kind of got on your side already.

05:21So it's the ones that would normally be sitting,

05:23looking at the phone halfway through Vienna

05:24that you've got to try and, you know, eek on board.

05:28You're looking at you and spot them and you're like,

05:30I'm going to get, yeah, like, come on, guys.

05:32Well, it's like a challenge these days.

05:34You're standing on stage and you're looking out at a dark audience

05:37and every so often you see them light up from below.

05:40And you think, I've lost another one.

05:42They're checking the Facebook status.

05:47So when you're back up this direction, when you're back home,

05:52is there any places that you can have a stoke about

05:55to reconnect and see where you are?

05:58I am, it's pure nostalgia on my part.

06:03I will go and I'll seek out Acrola's ice cream.

06:08That's food of the gods.

06:10I'll try and get square sausage somewhere.

06:14Although I'm shocked that most hotels in Glasgow don't do square sausage.

06:19Yeah.

06:20Come on, you're missing an opportunity here.

06:22Teach all these foreigners, all these Americans and, you know,

06:27the Germans or whatever, what a good sausage is.

06:30So I tend to do that.

06:32If I have time, I'll go back to Campus Lang

06:34and I'll wander the streets that I used to wander,

06:37dreaming of doing this.

06:39And remind myself that I got what I asked for.

06:41Yeah.

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