MIDGE Ure will turn back the clock to recall the electronic days of Ultravox's Vienna and Visage in his autumn shows with Band Electronica.

The 65-year-old Scottish singer and musician will bring The 1980 Tour to the Grand Opera House, York, on October 21 for the only Yorkshire gig of his 16-date itinerary.

"Autumn 1979 was a pivotal point in my career trajectory," says Ure. "Over the previous two years, I had grown from ‘pop band’ [Slik] to ‘post-punk band’ [The Rich Kids] to being a stand-in guitarist for Thin Lizzy.

"Over the course of autumn into winter 1979, while working on the Visage project with Billy Currie, I was invited to join Ultravox. The work we did that winter on the Vienna album was an exhilarating rush of creativity, the likes of which I had never experienced before."

Ure co-wrote, recorded and produced both albums, against the backdrop of the guitar-driven dominance of rock and punk coming to an end as synthesisers signalled the sound of the future and video transformed the look of the pop charts.

"Forty years later, I want to celebrate this period and, as we pass from 2019 into 2020, play the Vienna album in its entirety, along with highlights from the Visage album," he says. "Join me and my Band Electronica celebrating the year of release for both the Vienna and Visage albums: 1980."

Four decades on, can we face the next decade with the optimism and futuristic brightness that flooded the 1980s, and will there be a new cultural birth that will change music, fashion and society, wonders Ure.

On The 1980 Tour, he and Band Electronica will perform Ultravox's Vienna album in its entirety for the first time in the 40 years since it was made, while many of the songs from the debut Visage album will make their live debut.

The songs will be "performed in a stage setting designed to reflect the atmosphere and ambience the albums deserve". Tickets are on sale on 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york.

Charles Hutchinson