Midge Ure had his first taste of fame fronting boy band Slik, long before Ultravox, Live Aid and Do They Know It’s Christmas?

I once interviewed Midge Ure, who turned out to be rather dour and earnest and I expended far too much effort trying to get him to mention his biggest hit with Ultravox for my own amusement. But he didn’t.

“The one that was famously kept off the top of the charts by Joe Dolce’s awful Shaddap Your Face in 1981,” I said, desperately. “Ah, Vienna,” Midge replied at last.

“This means nothing to me,” I chortled, as he looked quizzically back at me in silence before explaining, with the utmost sincerity: “That’s the name of the song. That’s what it was called – Vienna.”

Oh how we laughed. (“Not”, as Mark Lawrenson would say). After that icy interlude I don’t think we got around to talking about Slik but this is where Midge Ure made his mark on pop.

It was long before Ultravox and Live Aid, long before the Rich Kids and Visage, and even before PVC2, whose Put You In The Picture nestles in my collection of punk singles. I would say “proudly” but frankly it’s rubbish.

Back in his teens, Jim Ure joined a Glasgow band called Salvation, who eventually changed their name to Slik, while he changed his name to Midge (a phonetic reversal of Jim).

After five years of trying they had a number one hit single with Forever And Ever, writtten by the Bay City Rollers’ songwriting and production team of Bill Martin and Phil Coulter.

It knocked ABBA off the top of the charts in early 1976 – not bad for a song that had been turned down by the Rollers and was first recorded by Kenny, one of the lesser lights of Glam, for their album the year before.

It’s a strange song, with its church organ and tolling bell and spoken word intro, before turning into a hymn-like singalong number. I’m not sure how convincing Slik ever were as a boy band judging by how the audience seem strangely unimpressed at such close proximity to Midge and the boys.