Feedback with Midge Ure

Feedback with Midge Ure

Born in Glasgow in 1953, Midge Ure taught himself to play the guitar at the age of 10, then left an engineering apprenticeship to join his first band, Stumble in 1969.

His musical career spans over 50 years (hard to condense into one small paragraph), joining Rich Kids, Visage, Thin Lizzy and Ultravox in the 70's. As frontman for Ultravox their 1981 album Vienna saw the title track spending four weeks at number 2 in the charts, and in 1985 he co-wrote Do They Know It's Christmas for the Live Aid concert. 

Now at the age of 70, with Ivor Novello, Grammy and BASCAP awards to add to his OBE, his collaborations over the years read like a who's who in the music industry. He still writes, still produces, still tours, and recently announced his Catalogue: The Hits UK Tour in November and December 2024 (you can win two tickets in our competition below). Here he chats with us about his food likes and dislikes, what food he hankers for when he returns to Scotland, why he's partial to an omelette in Portugal and why he eats late night takeaways when he is on tour.

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What food always reminds you of your childhood?
Bearing in mind I was born in 1953 and it wasn't too long after the end of the war, my childhood in Glasgow was poor, so it would've been simple things like minced beef and potatoes. In Scotland we have something called stovies which is diced potatoes and onion and that used to be a fairly standard dish. So those kind of things - basic but done well - we always had because of poverty.

Do you have a current favourite restaurant or type of restaurant?
I'm currently in Portugal and there's a wealth of seafood here and I don't like seafood so it's a bit of a waste!  There’s not one specific restaurant but I do like to go to one here called Mossie; it's like French cuisine but in a Portuguese style so not the standard Portuguese fare, it's really good. Strangely the thing that I love most that they do is a ham and cheese omelette, I don’t know how they do it and they won't tell me, but they do something marvellous, I suspect it's all cooked in butter! But their ham and cheese omelette using great Portuguese cheeses is really good.

What food or ingredient could you not do without?
When I was on Celebrity Masterchef they decided that my speciality was Asian fusion, so ginger would be something we couldn’t live without, we use it in Indian, Chinese, and  Japanese cooking, so ginger would be my go-to thing.

What was the most memorable meal you can remember eating?
I remember back in the 70’s I went to Finland, (and it’s very un-PC now of course), but for the sheer novelty value I tried the Siberian Bear Soup they had on the menu. I don’t really remember what it was like, and I think I chose it so that I could go back to Glasgow and say I’d eaten something that we’d never conceive of consuming - so that was memorable, but for the wrong reasons!

When you are touring do you change your eating habits?
 I do timing wise and it’s not healthy at all. I can’t eat a meal prior to doing a show, you know, you are on stage for an hour and 45 minutes or so shouting your head off, and you can’t do that on a full stomach. So when the crew and technicians go and eat at about 4-5 o’clock in the afternoon, which is what they do when you are on tour I don’t have anything until afterwards, and of course the only thing that’s available by then is takeaways. So it’s not a particularly healthy choice, but I have to eat something, and we’ve never been at the level when your own personal chef travels with you, so I’m afraid it’s a quick phone call and a quick delivery!

You visit Scotland frequently, is there anything in particular you eat when you are there that you can’t buy/or just doesn’t taste the same, in England?
There are certain things, I call it ‘Scottish soul food’  - and again, it’s not particularly healthy but I have this hankering for signs like square sausage, potato scones all the standard fare. Even going to the chip shop and having mutton pie! I dread to think what is in them, but there’s something about them that seems to make you revert to your childhood when you cross the border.
 
Your Instagram page shows you are partial to coffee and cake wherever in the world you may be! Is that only while you are away from home, or a normal daily treat?
Funny thing is I never drank any hot drinks until about 7 or 8 years ago, no tea or coffee. I always liked coffee flavoured things but felt that coffee as a drink let me down somehow. It was only when I did a one-man tour in America where every city seemed to be 300 miles apart and I was driving with a couple of musicians (it was a very low key tour!), and they gave me coffee and said it might keep me awake - and that was it, I was hooked.  I don’t do cake every day, my god I’d be the size of a house if I did, so I have to be very careful about that side of things. I just think the idea of posting your morning coffee is fun, because people like to see where you are. It’s not necessarily about the coffee, it’s about the fact that you are out somewhere else in a different part of the planet but doing the same thing.

Is there something in particular you always keep in the fridge?
I keep sparkling water in the fridge, I like it ice cold. Maybe it’s a singing thing, although most singers wouldn’t dream of going anywhere near sparkling water you don’t want to be out there singing with all this gas in your stomach. But for me it helps clear my throat, it cleans all the gunk in your throat (probably the stuff coffee gives you), so I always have sparkling water in the fridge.

What would be your last supper if literally anything was available to you, where would you eat it and who would you be with?
Well hopefully I won’t get to choose - I’m not planning on having one hopefully it will be a surprise for me!  But if I had to choose I would be with Billy Connolly he’d be a great person to have round for dinner. I’d like funny people like Ricky Gervais - you’d want to die laughing, the food would be secondary. Stephen Fry to give you a bit of intellect. There’s a lovely thing you can do with a hot stone, like a Korean barbecue type thing. So if you’re in a room with a bunch of people you don’t know very well, or you’ve invited people for dinner who don’t really know each other, you marinade fish, meat, vegetables whatever and you sit there and you pick a bit up and cook it yourself on the hot stone. Within minutes everyone is reaching over and passing food to each other and it really breaks the ice so that would be a lovely thing to do.

I’d probably drink iced sparkling water or maybe a non alcoholic beer.

You can see Midge in his 26 venue UK tour, Catalogue: The Hits Tour starting in Bournemouth on November 12th ending in Glasgow in December 18th. For more tour and ticket information visit his website here.

To win two tickets to see Midge at a UK venue of your choice, enter our competition here