9/5/2008 Midge Ure Review by Victoria Wilcox

Midge arrived to a rammed Friday night at the Flowerpot. The audience was packed in like smiling sardines for a familiar set from the Scottish Superstar himself. He charmed the crowd with calm chords then ripped through plenty of elbow action on his acoustic guitar, regaling us with his own favourites and testing new material.

My personal favourite was Beneath a Spielberg Sky for his take on how the world will look when it ends eventually. Most of his material in the first half of his list was slow and reflective. His use of reverb to add a depth of eighties echo to his softer melodies was fabulous.

Ure’s poignant songs about times past, relationships and views from his stage struck chords with the faces in the shadowed room. Ladies swayed and men whistled as he finally got to the good stuff. Keeping music live is a great excuse for everyone to sing along and see how long it takes to make the performer smile.

As Midge belted out Vienna, No Regrets, Cold Cold Heart and If I was, we all bellowed along with him. He was no match for us though; it was amazing to feel the depth and range of his voice mixed with the strength of notes in such an intimate venue.

I could say it meant nothing to me but I’d be lying. I was dancing with tears in my eyes.