Midge Ure has confessed that fame went to his head and turned him into an “absolute d***”.
The former Ultravox and Visage musician – who co-organised the charity concerts Live Aid, Band Aid and Live 8 with Bob Geldof and co-wrote and produced the charity single ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ with the Boomtown Rats star – has admitted he mistreated his crew at the height of his success and didn’t appreciate their efforts.
Speaking on the ‘How To Be 60’ podcast, Midge, 69, said: “I couldn’t see it at the time of course, but I was notorious with my crew.
“If they got it wrong, I’d pull them in and say, ‘What happened?’
“That should have happened, those lights were still on, that should have gone off’.
“That must have been horrendous for them.
“Those guys worked so hard, and I couldn’t see it.”
He added: “I must have been an absolute d***.
“But then success starts to wane, and you find your humility again.
“You find who you were and revert to that person and you gain an understanding of how to do it, and stamping your foot with a jackboot on sometimes isn’t the way.”
Meanwhile, the ‘Fade to Grey’ singer previously hit out at artists who use multiple co-writers.
He told BANG Showbiz: “I am not a fan of how modern music is manufactured. I am not a fan of 10 writers all in a room all throwing in a couple of words here and there, and lo and behold, they have a song at the end of it. It’s like painting by numbers.”
The songwriter likes music to be “honest” and feels if people are using lyrics from various people it doesn’t make for an authentic song.
He added: “I like the fact that when you hear a song you are hearing one or two people’s feelings and emotions. It’s not manufactured it is an honest thing. So in that respect, I am not a fan of how the music industry has gone.”