Midge Ure at Pocklington Arts Centre - Wednesday 13th April 05 By Steve Rudd

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Let me first just say that the Pocklington Arts Centre is a truly fantastic venue, and it's quite amazing that such a quality venue graces a town that is so small. Nestling perfectly to one side of the town's charming Market Square, this venue is a theatre, concert hall and cinema all seamlessly rolled into one - and it truly is an asset to this part of East Yorkshire.

It's even more of an asset when it attracts shows of this caliber. In the past, many big-name performers have played here, such as Curtis Stigers, Barbara Dickson, Steve Harley and John Hegley. This show was Midge's second at the venue, and what a night it proved to be. I was surprised that Midge had a support act, given the fact that he has such a captivating back catalogue of material that would take the best part of an entire evening to get through.

Midge is such an amazing performer that a support act to warm up the crowd really isn't necessary, still - in this instance - it proved to be an awesome opportunity for local York singer-songwriter Dan Webster to showcase a handful of his eloquent and soul-filled acoustic songs. Dan is a young and soft-spoken man, exuding a humble presence on stage. Like Midge, Dan performs with a magnetic integrity and sings with genuine passion: straight from the heart.

Dan is well-known in and around York for his gigs, and tonight aired a fair chunk of fantastic material from his Other Side of Brightness album, including the melodramatic Frank Dalton folk-pop number, Waiting For Rain, the wickedly cool To Minor, Cold Water River and I Say I Love You. In the past, Dan has supported plenty of equally-as-amazing musicians such as Chris T-T and New York genius Hammell On Trial. On the graceful strength of this set I urge you to check out Dan Webster for yourself, and there's no better place to start then at his website ... www.danwebster.co.uk

Midge Ure took to the stage at 9pm and entertained us until all our hearts were content for a wholesome ninety minutes of sheer class. Midge, for those who might not know, shot to fame back in the eighties with the hugely successful Electro-pop band Ultravox ... a band that led the way for synth-based music. These days, long after the Ultravox chapter closed, Midge is a one-man wonder.

Armed with his trusted and sleek black Electro-acoustic guitar, he is constantly darting up and down the country playing intimate gigs of this exhilarating calibre. He says himself that he doesn't tour in the conventional sense anymore. Far from disappearing on the road for a few intense weeks at a time, he tends to do a run of a few dates in a few nights, before having a few nights off, and then doing another few nights on. And so on and so forth.

Still, Midge happily looks back on the eighties. See, you might just be familiar with Midge through his involvement in the mighty Live-Aid and Band-Aid charity events. Midge, of course, co-wrote the classic Do They Know Its Christmas? anthem (and subsequently performed at the world-changing Live-Aid event at Wembley in 1984), but even he couldn't really get away with playing us such a song in April, so we never got to hear it as part of his interestingly structured set.

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