Today we’ll start looking at the career of PPM icon Midge Ure as a producer only. I swore that I’d already posted on this before, but inasmuch as I may have mentioned it, the nuts and bolts of it remained until now to actually post about it. For the height of the ’79-’85 period when he was busy 18 hours a day with Ultravox and Visage for half of that span, he somehow found time to eke out an outside production career as well during those other six hours of the day! He managed to score hits with his production of the Visage singles, of course, and “Yellow Pearl” was a big hit and close to being my favorite thing he ever did, but surprisingly, few others of his production jobs managed to get anywhere near the charts. That’s not to say that he didn’t bring the full value of his considerable chops to some other artists. We’ll look at them as this thread continues sporadically.
PVC2 – Put You in The Picture
UK 7″ | 1977
I can’t find a production credit on the PVC2 single from 1978, but as it was the remnants of Slik – going Punk on a budget, I’ll bet Ure was behind the boards. Three tracks and it’s a high dollar item in America and no, I don’t have one.
Scotland Sons – Hey Argentina!
UK 7″ | 1978
This was presumably a World Cup single form ’78 where he wrote new lyrics and there’s no production credit that I can find. Hmmm. A World Cup single…should probably give this a pass…but…
Kevin Blacklock – I Don’t Want Our Loving To Die
UK 7″ | 1978
An expensive single from London SS member Blacklock. The A-side is a cover, but canny producer Midge made sure he had credit for the B-side!
Snips – Nine O’Clock
UK 7″ | 1980
Phew! I have this one, and the B-side was produced by Ure as well. Great Power Pop from the “La Rocca” album, where that A-side was the only Ure produced track.
The Atrix – Treasure On The Wasteland
UK 7″ | 1980
A/B-sides as produced by Ure. Inexpensive records but with expensive shipping from Europe.
Snips – You’re A Wonderful One
UK 7″ | 1980
Another Snips single I have but only the B-side [“Mr. Dillinger”] was a Ure production.
Snips – Telepathy
UK 7″ | 1980
Another Midge Ure B-side here.
Phil Lynott – Yellow Pearl
UK 7″ | 1980
I have the original clear 7″ and 12″ single of this one but what I need is the actual, hit single mix of the track as heard on Top Of The Pops every week for a few years! The cover to this edition touts that fact.
Peter Godwin – Torch Songs For The Heroine
UK 12″ | 1981
This was a classic I’ve had for ages. Too bad there wasn’t more Godwin material he made with Ure back then! As Midge was producing Visage for Polydor in 1980, that opened a lot of Polydor doors to his production career, as we’ll see.
Fatal Charm – Christine/Paris
UK 7″ | 1980
Another one I have with two Ure-produced tracks. “Paris” was their 1978 debut single, re-recorded with Ure at the boards.
Next: …Still More Ure To Come [just not tomorrow]
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Post-Punk Monk 
hi mr monk,
well, thats quite a lot of early work to look into.
i’ve known about some of these, but not all.
yes, yellow pearl really stands out.
i havent gotten many things this year, but maybe next year i can start trying to hunt some of these down. or maybe he’ll have a 2nd compilation with some of these tracks on it.
late
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ne gative 1
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I second -1’s comment, (does that make me +2?), I’ve never even heard of a lot of these!
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