Midge Ure at the State Room in Salt Lake City – One Last Night Before the Covid-19 Pandemic
In early March 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic took off in the United States and everyday life has changed dramatically ever since. As I have made adjustments to this situation which at least at this time things are far from over I have often reflected on the last days of everyday life prior to the pandemic.
The last public event I attended was a screening of the classic film Pee Wee’s Big Adventure at Kingsbury Hall on February 22, 2020 where Paul Reuben’s appeared after the screening for Q and A as well as sharing his memories of making Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. I was especially great to enjoy this movie and it is especially cherished as stay at home initiatives for the State of Utah would be recommended not too long after this night.
Through my life I have been going to concerts regularly and consistently my whole life. When I was growing up my mother played cello for the Murray Symphony and from as early as I can remember to about age twelve I attended the orchestra regularly to see my mother perform (she would take a break from the orchestra to earn her bachelor and master degree and resume the orchestra again after she earned her degrees). When I attended LDS Business College I took a class called Music and Culture which I got an ‘A’ in without opening the book or studying and this is 100% because of growing up as part of the orchestra community my mother is part of. There is something very special about orchestral music and I miss seeing the orchestra perform.
My father is an avid concert goer going back to the mid-sixties and still loves going to rock concerts. When I was 11 years old I attended my first rock concert with my father which as AC/DC with White Lion at the Salt Palace on July 26, 1988. From that moment of my life onward I have been attending rock concerts as often as possible and will proudly go out of way to see my favorite bands. This is one of my passions in life and since the outbreak of Covid-19 I greatly miss attending concerts. I miss connecting with the metal community at heavy metal concerts. I miss being around fellow music freaks at all concerts regardless of genre. I miss the energy that an audience brings to live music. I miss the energy and magic of musicians and bands on the live stage performing and interacting with the audience. But most of all I miss the whole concert experience simply because there just is not a substitute for it. I hope that by summer 2021 or by winter 2022 I can attend concerts again but only time will tell.
During this unique time in my life as well as in world history I have often reflected on and look back fondly on the last concert I attended before the outbreak of Covid-19 in the United States. The one and only Midge Ure of the legendary band Ultrovox on January 24, 2020 at The State Room in Salt Lake City. As much as I have attended many concerts and have infinite memories and stories to share but my memories of this show are very near my heart at this time.
Going back almost 10 years ago after watching Sam Dunn’s documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage my older brother Alan started to research several of the bands Rush was influenced by. Rush has always been proud of the influence that progressive rock bands such as Genesis and Yes as well as The Who and Cream had on them. But Rush through their career as I learned in the documentary was also influenced by many of their contemporaries as well such as the band The Police and many others. As my older brother kept researching bands that had influenced Rush the band Ultravox kept coming up. Neil Peart was especially fond of Ultravox’s music and in my opinion the Rush songs “Losing It” and “The Body Electric” Ultravox’s influence can be heard. A few years later my brother Alan and I were at a family party at my cousin David’s home and Alan asked David about Ultravox. David grew up in the San Francisco Bay area in the late 70’s/early 80’s and we come to find out Ultravox is one of his all-time favorite bands and that he had seen them back in the 80’s as well in San Francisco. David could not say enough great things about Ultravox and how much the band’s music means to him. At this point through the rousing endorsement of my cousin David my brother Alan and I’s curiosity was piqued and I started to explore Ultravox.
In the modern age I went to Youtube.com and typed in Ultravox. The first few videos I watched did not do much for me and at that point I moved on. However, August 1, 2016 was the 35th anniversary of MTV’s first day of broadcasting and I read a great article about the foundation of MTV which included a list of all of the videos that were broadcast on MTV’s first day which included the Ultravox songs “Vienna” and “Passing Strangers”. I decided to head back to Youtube and give these songs another listen. I liked “Passing Strangers” but the song “Vienna” captured my attention. I had some very faint memories of the song getting some airplay in Salt Lake City in the early 80’s but this was the first time I had ever sat through “Vienna” from start to finish. “Vienna” took my breath away and I ended up watching the video on Youtube at least an additional five or six times. I have never heard a song like it. I felt like I was walking through the city of Vienna on a dark winter night with the sound of a very faint piano somewhere in the distance. Midge Ure’s voice was especially amazing. Later in the week I figured out a guitar arrangement for “Vienna” and started to play the song on my guitar regularly. At this point I downloaded the album Vienna by Ultravox and started to slowly but surely explore their music.
In October 2019 I got an email announcing that Midge Ure would be performing at The State Room on January 24, 2020. My brother Alan and I were again with our families at a family party at my cousin David’s home and Alan mentioned the show to my cousin David. The show was on my brother Alan’s birthday and my cousin David’s wedding anniversary and with great excitement my cousin David got the tickets for the three of us as well as David’s wife Veronica were very excited to see this show. A few months went by and the big night finally arrived. At this time in my personal life I was working as a senior financial analyst. I had a job that was horribly stressful and I was completely burned out from work. I was working between 60 and 80 hours a week for almost 10 months at that time and my job was draining all of the energy I had. I was in a situation where two of my coworkers had left the company and my original supervisor who was getting ready to retire was working 15 to 20 hours a week. In essence I was the work of three people while I was training my new team members (all of whom are based in Oregon and I was training them remotely as I am based in Salt Lake City). I had been trying to get another job for over a year with no luck and in fact had turned down a few job offers as those jobs were just not going to be a good fit despite the fact I was not in a great situation and was excessively overworked. I had applied and done two interviews for a Business Specialist job within my company and about six weeks into the hiring process on January 24, 2020 I was extended and accepted a job offer to move to a new team and new job within my company in three weeks. From that moment onward I could feel a massive amount of stress move off of my shoulders and my body and mind were starting to decompress after an exceptionally difficult 10 months at my job. Not only was I excited to see Midge Ure but between my new job, Alan’s birthday, and David and Veronica’s anniversary this concert was going to be a true celebration for all of us.
That evening when I arrived at The State Room David, Veronica, Alan, and I were way cold waiting on State Street to get into the show. Once we were seated within 10 minutes I felt a hand on my shoulder and it was my old friend Steve L. Steve and I had known each other since 3rd grade and had recently reconnected after catching up with each other at a Gary Numan concert. With him was another old friend of mine Tim D. and his wife. I had also known Tim since I was in 3rd grade and he grew up a few houses down the street from my friend Steve. Tim and his wife had just relocated back to Utah after living in Hawaii for many years. It was the first time I had seen Tim since 2000. We all laughed it up and had a great time together like the old days exchanging concert stories and fun memories of growing up together. This night was already becoming an exceptional night and the show hadn’t even started yet.
The opener was Salt Lake City’s DJ/VJ Birdman. He played a fun variety of 80’s modern rock which the audience just loved. My favorite part of his set was when he played the song “Never Let Me Down Again” by Depeche Mode. True to the nature of Depeche Mode fans toward the end of the song as if David Gahan was on the stage many people in the audience started to wave their hands in the air as if we were at a Depeche Mode concert. It was just pure fun enjoying these 80’s modern rock songs and remembering the days Salt Lake City radio stations KJQ and the early days of X96. Forgiving the fact that it was 2020 the atmosphere of the show at this point I was already feeling like a kid again.
Then finally Midge Ure took the stage. For this particular show/tour it was just Midge Ure and his acoustic guitar and he was doing open Q and A with the audience for the concert. He began his show with the song “Dear God”. I was deeply touched by this song as it is a plea to God for “peace in a restless world”. This was the first time I had heard this song and as the events of the Covid-19 pandemic have taken hold since this concert I have reflected on this song's message often ever since. After this song Midge Ure fully opened up the floor anyone and everyone who had questions for him. The concert from that moment on felt like catching up with an old friend. I could feel Midge’s honesty and his love for all of the songs people asked him about. One of my favorite parts of the show was when someone asked him who some of the bands/artists were that inspired him to be a musician. He spoke fondly of David Bowie and the band The Small Faces. Growing up my father was a fan of the Small Faces and their lead singer/guitarist Stevie Marriott's later band Humble Pie and I was familiar with a lot of their music. Then Midge Ure performed his favorite Small Faces song “In My Minds Eye” which I had never heard his version or the Small Faces version before. Since that show “In My Minds Eye” has become my favorite Small Faces song and I especially enjoyed Midge Ure’s performance of it.
A member of the audience asked Midge Ure about the song “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” which he and Bob Geldof had written together. My favorite part of this story is Midge talked about how the song came together. He talked about how usually a project like that which involves working with a lot of different musicians that under usual circumstances they would have worked with each bands/performers management to get things arranged. Because there was such urgency to get the song recorded and released for the Christmas season Bob Geldof contacted the bands and performers directly and asked them to participate in the recording. Midge than joked that all musicians require adult supervision and although the musicians had promised Bob and Midge they would come they did not have a guarantee that they would. Midge said how on the big day when they were going to record “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” it was a rainy morning in London and he and Bob Geldof were standing on the street in front of West End Studios talking to the press and waiting for the musicians they invited to arrive. Midge said Bob Geldof whispered to him during the waiting “if this song becomes a Boomtown Rats/Ultravox collaboration we are @#$!ed”. But all of the musicians that promised to come did come and “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” was recorded in one day, very quickly mixed by Midge Ure and Trevor Horn, and would shortly become a massive hit that would raise money for the Ethiopian famine and become the seed for the Live Aid concerts. Then Midge said “Christmas was a month ago so I will not perform that one tonight”. Some of my favorite stories he talked about that night were his friendship with Thin Lizzy’s one and only Phil Lynott, working with Konrad Plank at his studio in Cologne, Germany, and all of the ups and downs of his career. My cousin David especially lit up when Midge sang the Ultravox song “Lament” which is his favorite Ultravox song and has since become a favorite of my brother Alan’s as well. My favorite story he hold when someone asked him about the song “Vienna” Midge talked about how recently he had spoken to university’s college of music and a student asked him what advice he would give to new musicians. His advice was “do not write songs that are in impossibly high keys. With any luck you’ll own and perform that song for the next fifty years”. Midge was honest in saying that his voice was not going to be able to pull off “Vienna” that evening but it was awesome to hear his perspective on the song. Midge Ure would then end his set with the Ultravox classic “The Voice” with the audience gladly filling in on the backing vocals. It was one amazing concert. I still remember walking out of The State Room and saying goodbye Steve, Tim, David, Veronica, and Alan and driving back to my home just feeling completely uplifted. I knew that was a very special show and I would never see another show quite like it.
However, when I left that show I had no idea that the world in which I live what going to change very radically because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the need for social/physical distance in helping to prevent the further spread of this terrible virus. It has been a tough road to not be able to physically be with my extended family and close friends during this challenging time. I do not know when the next time will be that I can attend a concert or when the world will win the battle against Covid-19. But I am so glad that this Midge Ure concert was the last show I was able to attend before the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States. It was already an exceptional concert but with everything that has changed in the world recently I often think about this concert and this show is going to be very special to me for a very long time.
