Yow! The “Quartet” ultrabox has barely cooled from shipping [I’ve not started reviewing it yet owing to lack of time] and already the next step in the Midge Ure SDLX reissue program is ready to hit the pavement! In a move that took me by surprise, as I was expecting these to happen in order of release with “Lament” happening next year; the first Midge Ure solo opus will be arriving in a LP/CD box on September 22nd, 2023!

“The Gift” was an album that took me a long time to warm to. In fact, I didn’t buy it until I heard the third single released from it months after it happened! Hard to believe at the time, but such was my antipathy for the number one UK pre-release single from it; “If I Was.” The follow-up wasn’t exactly inspirational either with the worst opening couplet I’ve ever heard in a song I own. To put it mildly, it was not what I was ready to hear from the heretofore spotless canon of music that Ure released following his time in Slik. Synthrock and Krautrock influence were traded in for granny-friendly Pop that had my head spinning. And not in a good way. But I’ve gone deep on this album before. Suffice to say that with the benefit of hindsight, I consider it 38 years later to be the last glimpse of what I’ll call imperial era Midge Ure.

And now it’s coming in a four CD mediabook edition as well as two separate LP packages that contain most of the material in a pleasingly granular fashion. Of first interest here will be the 4xCD pack.

CD BOX

Midge Ure: The Gift SDLX Box – UK – 4xCD [2023]

CD 1: THE GIFT

1. If I Was
2. When The Wind Blows
3. Living In The Past
4. That Certain Smile
5. The Gift
6. Antilles
7. Wastelands
8. Edo
9. The Chieftain
10. She Cried
11. The Gift [Reprise]

CD 2: SINGLES | B-SIDES | EXTENDED:

1. No Regrets
2. Mood Music
3. The Man Who Sold The World
4. After A Fashion
5. Textures
6. If I Was [7” Version]
7. Piano
8. That Certain Smile [7” Version]
9. The Gift [Instrumental]
10. Wastelands [7” Version]
11. Call Of The Wild
12. After A Fashion [Extended Version]
13. If I Was [Extended Mix]
14. That Certain Smile [Extended Mix]
15. Wastelands [Extended Mix]
16. Call Of The Wild [Extended Mix]

CD 3: EARLY VERSIONS | BBC SESSION | REHEARSALS:

1. Wastelands [Early Version One]
2. That Certain Smile [Early Instrumental Version]
3. The Gift [Early Version]
4. If I Was [Early Version]
5. Wastelands [Early Version Two]
6. When The Wind Blows [Early Version]
7. The Chieftain [Early Version]
8. She Cried [Early Instrumental Version]
9. Edo [Early Version]
10. Living In The Past [Early Version]
11. Remember The Day [BBC]
12. After A Fashion [BBC]
13. Textural Piece [BBC]
14. Fade To Grey [Tour Rehearsal 1985]
15. After A Fashion [Tour Rehearsal 1985]
16. No Regrets [Tour Rehearsal 1985]
17. Wastelands [Tour Rehearsal 1985]

CD 4: THE GIFT AT WEMBLEY 1985:

1. Antilles
2. When The Wind Blows
3. Living In The Past
4. That Certain Smile
5. Wastelands
6. No Regrets
7. The Gift
8. After A Fashion
9. The Chieftain/The Dancer
10. Fade To Grey
11. She Cried
12. Sleepwalk
13. Do They Know It’s Christmas?
14. If I Was

The album is on disc one with all of the adjacent single releases on side two. This time with both versions of “After A Fashion” as well as the crucial “No Regrets” single represented. Nice! Then disc three rounds up the early versions of the album material in the fashion we’ve come to know on the Ultravox boxed sets. With Ure’s BBC sessions added as a bonus that I have certainly never heard before. Did I even know of them to want them? I think not. And then disc four is the full live Wembley concert from Christmas of 1985 when Ure was man of the hour following his substantial Band Aid/Live Aid work and with a number one solo single under his belt as well. New material shown in red.

DELUXE RED VINYL 2xLP

Midge Ure: The Gift DLX – UK – 2xLP [2023]

LP 1: THE GIFT

1. If I Was
2. When The Wind Blows
3. Living In The Past
4. That Certain Smile
5. The Gift
6. Antilles
7. Wastelands
8. Edo
9. The Chieftain
10. She Cried
11. The Gift [Reprise]

LP 2: EXTENDED VERSIONS

1. After A Fashion [Extended Version]
2. If I Was [Extended Mix]
3. That Certain Smile [Extended Mix]
4. Wastelands [Extended Mix]
5. Call Of The Wild [Extended Mix]

The redesign of the various packages take pains to flaunt the peerless George Hurrell glamour shot of Ure, which is so well lit, shot, and printed that I’m willing to cut him some slack on the 80s designer stubble. The original LP/CD featured the photo at minimal size as that was just the way that Peter Saville rolled back then. Even using a portrait was beyond the pale for him at that time, though in hindsight, “The Gift’s” cover can possibly be seen as a dry run for the Peter Gabriel “So” album that he would design the next year… with merely a Trevor Key photo in its place! I’ll bet that it was the retro-minded Ure himself who thought of using Hurrell for the shot. A gut who rocked vintage clothing like he did was likely to have knowledge of Hurrell, though his cover the previous year for Queen’s “The Works” may have pegged Ure’s interest.

There is also an LP version with the album on disc one and the five 12″ mixes on disc two. Red vinyl with a gatefold sleeve and obi and that photo as bold as life. The live album is also getting an LP release, but is an exclusive from the Midge Ure webstore and there’s only 500 of them made. The color of the pressings are not known, but the album is being made with that’s being called “eco-jazz” vinyl. Or recycled vinyl that doesn’t use fresh oil. You old timers like me will remember when the oil embargo happened in the early-mid 70s, and that was when the record industry started to recycle unsold pressings to save money and keep the profits where they wanted them. Back then, it was one of the factors that contributed to the poor reputation of late 70s through 80s LP pressings. Recycled vinyl was less pliable the more it was processed, and the impurities of the labels remained in the slurry that formed the vinyl “biscuit,” so the pressings were noisier. Things got to the point where A+M Records started pressing in virgin vinyl to differentiate their product. And soon afterward the CD made such concerns moot. Forty years later, and now the sonic liability of recycled vinyl pellets are now being spun into a form of virtue signaling. At my age nothing shocks me much anymore… and I’m still a few weeks shy of 60!

LIMITED LIVE COLOR VINYL 2xLP

The Midge Ure Townsend Music webstore also has various granular multi-buy packages available with savings granted for the mass buyer. Any multi-buy purchase also comes with a…gift if purchased from the webstore.

OMNI-MEGA-PAK™

I have to say that the prices for these are all appealingly modest. This may be down to the format not following exactly in the footsteps of the Ultravox boxes. For instance, the lack of a Steven Wilson 5.1/2.0 remix is noted with a raised eyebrow. The CD box is $35.99 with either gatefold 2xLP at $38.99. The Official Ure webstore has various discounted combo packs and the omnibus package, with everything is $102.00. This, in an era with $250+ boxes by The Who is appreciated.

I’m uncertain that I will be wanting to immediately trade up from the 2xCD of “The Gift” that I already have. The budget right now is sort of frozen with the European trip coming up in April. Were that not the case, the CD box might have enough new stuff to have tempted me, but right now that’s not likely. It may be that I can pick one up later next year if it’s not skyrocketing in price. If you are hearing the call of the wild, then DJ hit that button!

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