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Midge Ure

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Music Producer

The Resume

    (October 10, 1953- )
    Born in Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, Scotland
    Birth name is James Ure
    Guitarist, lead singer for the pop group, 'Ultravox' (1979-1987)
    Collaborated with Bob Geldof in writing and producing 'Do They Know Its Christmas (Feed the World),' in 1984
    Organized the concerts Live Aid (held at the Wembley Stadium in the UK) and Band Aid (held at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, PA)
    Producer/wrote several synth-pop/new wave hit singles of the 1980s, including 'Fade To Grey' (Visage, 1980) and 'Vienna' (Ultravox, 1980) and 'Dancing with Tears in My Eyes' (Ultravox, 1984)
    Popular singles include 'No Regrets,' 'That Certain Smile,' 'Cold, Cold Heart,' and 'If I Was'
    Released albums 'The Gift' (1985), 'Answers to Nothing' (1988), 'Pure' (1991), ' and 'Breathe' (1996)

Why he might be annoying:

    He struggled to make a name for himself as a soloist after leaving Ultravox.
    He dealt with a drinking problem throughout the 1990s.
    He was a guest on the short-lived British reboot of This Is Your Life.
    His stage name is meant to be his nickname, Jim, pronounced backwards (so technically it should be 'mij').
    He's mainly responsible for one of the most condescending Christmas songs in the English language.
    He and Geldof were accused of promoting a negative image of the African continent as a barren wasteland devoid of any joy or happiness.
    'And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time?' Except maybe on the talles peak on the continent, Mt. Kilimanjaro.
    'Where the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears?' Except maybe the Congo, the Niger, or the freaking longest river the world - the Nile River (do some research for God's sake!)
    Worse still, he and Geldof seem very comfortable insinuating that their listening audience would ever 'thank god' that another group of people is starving to death in another part of the world (or 'the other ones' as they are benevolently dubbed in the song).
    While Band Aid was by and large a huge success, it did receive criticism from anti-establishment rockers like Chumbawamba, who released an EP mocking the event, called 'Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records.'
    Morrissey, in addition to calling Geldof and Ure 'self-righteous' for using their platform in such a way, but went a step further, saying: 'It was an awful record considering the mass of talent involved... One can have a great compassion for the people of Ethiopia without inflicting daily torture on the people of Great Britain.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    His intentions are good and his heart was in the right place.
    He lists his two main passions as 'music and cooking.'
    He has had to put up with Bob Geldof on-and-off for over twenty years.
    He lived in a one-bedroom tenement flat on the outskirts of Glasgow with his entire family, for the first ten years of his life.
    He helped compose the 'Yellow Pearl' song, in 1981, which later became the theme for the Top of the Pops.
    'Do They Know It's Christmas?' initially sold 3.7 million copies in the UK, making it the second highest selling single in UK chart history.
    He greenlighted - and had input on - the lyrics for 'Feed the World' but they were mostly the brainchild of Bob Geldof.
    He has continued to raise millions of dollars for Ethiopia and third-world countries globally, serving as an ambassador to Save the Children.
    He was Knighted as part of the Queen's Birthday Honours List 'for his services to music and charity' (2005).
    He credits his family with helping him to overcome his alcoholism (specifically recalling the look his daughter gave him when he reached for a bottle of alcohol on a holiday as a turning point).

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 82 Votes: 67.07% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 104 Votes: 50.96% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 12 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 87 Votes: 51.72% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 89 Votes: 55.06% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 77 Votes: 63.64% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 57 Votes: 78.95% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying