This month marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Do They Know It’s Christmas? - a song co-written by Midge Ure and Bob Geldof to raise money for famine-stricken Ethiopia. Four decades on, royalties from the now-iconic festive hit are still making a difference - as Midge tells What’s On...  

It’s October when I’m interviewing musician and former Ultravox frontman Midge Ure - and we’re already talking Christmas. Mind you, it’s unavoidable when chatting to the man who, together with Bob Geldof, co-wrote one of the most famous festive songs ever: Do They Know It’s Christmas? 

The record, which brought together a host of 1980s singers in a Christmas chart-topper to raise money for famine-stricken Ethiopia - and which went on to engender the international concert Live Aid - this year celebrates its 40th anniversary. And Midge is at the heart of projects to mark the occasion.

“There’s a megamix that’s been done utilising all three versions of that song,” he says on screen from Portugal, where he’s been touring. “Three different generations of artists, all coming together visually and sonically to perform that song, which is quite incredible. I just saw the video, and it’s a real reminder of how important that was - and still is, because this situation hasn’t changed a great deal; it just spreads. 

“There are radio documentaries being done about that whole thing, and the Live Aid Musical has a run in the West End next year, which is great because it’s telling the story to a new generation and is a way of generating income for the cause.”

But Midge is quick to quash any rumours of another mass live concert.

“Everyone is saying, could we do another Live Aid, but it’s a very different world these days when it comes to using that medium to raise awareness and funds.”  

Midge and Bob signed over the songwriting royalties to the Band Aid Charitable Trust, and for the past four decades, Do They Know It’s Christmas? has been earning money and funding projects in Africa. Both Midge and Bob are closely involved as charity trustees. 

“All the trustees who were there on day one, the ones who are still alive, are still there. A six-month project has turned into 40 years. We are responsible not just for collecting that money but overseeing where that money is spent, and that doesn’t stop.

“One of the realisations we had after the release of the record was that, because it’s a Christmas song, it might get played every Christmas - and every time it’s played, it raises money, whether it’s used in a movie or a soundtrack for something, or there’s a new version of it, or it’s included in a compilation of Christmas songs. 

“So it’s going on and on and on. I’ve been to Ethiopia a few times, but these days the technology allows you to see what’s going on without going there. We just saw a lovely film sent from Ethiopia showing some of the work we fund - so we’re still seeing the results.”

Midge isn’t divulging whether he will be performing the track as part of his new tour, which comes to Birmingham Symphony Hall on the first day of the month. But Catalogue: The Hits Tour will be drawing on decades of writing, producing and performing with groups including Rich Kids, Thin Lizzy, Visage and Ultravox, as well as his solo career.

“The title of the tour says it all. Rather than just choosing Ultravox and Visage stuff, which is what people know, I thought I’d spread out a little and delve into some of the other parts of my career, so the Rich Kids and Thin Lizzy. [It’s a] kind of retrospective, going from the late 70s right up to today, incorporating all the hits, the things people would expect to hear, but throwing in a few oddities that maybe I’ve not performed live before, or certainly not performed live in this format.”

Arguably, Ultravox’s most famous song is the atmospheric Vienna, the film-noir video for which saw a mist-shrouded Midge dressed in a beige raincoat and singing on the streets of the Austrian capital. 

“The first money I ever made I bought that Burberry raincoat. People thought it was crazy spending £300 on a raincoat, but that raincoat became iconic because it was in the Vienna video. When we shot the video, we didn’t know Vienna was going to be the big, huge hit that it was. There are key things in your career and you think ‘I’ll stick that in a cupboard and the kids will think it’s funny one day.’ And that raincoat happens to be one of them.”

And yet the coat is now in a museum in Liverpool!

“There was an exhibition of Scottish music in a museum in Edinburgh. They were doing a display of various iconic Scottish things and asked if they could include that raincoat. It was amazing. They sent down these removal people who deal with antiquities, and they wrapped it all in tissue paper and put it in boxes and sealed it. They told me that when they take it out of the box, they’ve got white gloves on! It was the same people who do things such as Mary Queen of Scots’ dress! And you’re like ‘This is crazy - it was in a Sainsbury’s bag under the stairs in my house for years!’ But they treat these things with absolute reverence. Then the British Music Experience in Liverpool came to me to ask if they could include it, which was lovely.”

Midge, now 71, still finds it hard to believe he’s a part of the music aristocracy whose mementoes are in museums.

“I think of the reverence I had for other people’s music when I was growing up; you know, a David Bowie track, a Roxy Music track or a T-Rex. That was incredibly important to me. And I still find it strange when people tell me what they’ve done along to my music; you know, buried their parents or got married - seismic moments in their lives. I find it hard to think that my music has been the soundtrack to those moments.

“And meeting people and realising that they know who you are is so bizarre! You can walk into a room and someone says hello and they’ve read about you, they know about you, they’ve bought your records. I find that stuff overwhelming.”

But as an avid music fan from as far back as he can remember, Midge also understands the excitement of meeting a singer you love.

“You never stop being a fan of whatever it is you were a fan of, or whoever it was you were a fan of. It never goes away, and thank goodness it doesn’t. I remember doing a show in Birmingham and Roy Wood came  backstage. Roy Wood is one of the greatest pop-song writers ever - he should be up there with Elton John - and I was just absolutely blown away that he came backstage and said that he liked the song If I Was. I was at primary school listening to Fire Brigade and Flowers In The Rain - wonderful stuff - so that was a real Birmingham moment for me.”

And Midge is keen to create plenty more Birmingham moments.

“I love touring, and I’m looking forward to playing Birmingham again. I’ve been doing this a lot longer than I’ve ever been making records, and the idea of not touring is abhorrent. I’ve just come back from America, where I toured with just a keyboard player and one tech guy, and I drove eight-and-a-half thousand miles from venue to venue. No crew, no manager, no tour manager - just doing it all ourselves for the love of doing it. And now, for this UK tour, the bonus is that I get a tour manager and a full crew, and all I have to do is walk onstage and perform! You take the plush with the rough, the edgy with the smooth, and you enjoy every second of it.”

Feature by Diane Parkes

Midge Ure: Catalogue. The Hits Tour stops off at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall on Sunday 1 December