Review: Midge Ure at Astor Theatre

Midge Ure at Astor Theatre
w/ Cole Stacey
Thursday, October 8, 2026 

Third time this decade was the charm for Scottish legend Midge Ure at The Astor last Thursday, who finally returned to Perth after the cancellations of both his 2020 and 2025 concerts here.  With an extensive career stretching back more than five decades and successful either solo or across multiple groups, Ure expertly entertained the sold-out crowd who had turned up to party as if it were the glory days, circa 1985.

The support act tonight was Cole Stacey, a self-professed ‘strange man from Devon’. Stacey came out onto the stage with minimal fanfare, a mandolin, many self-deprecating jokes, and a plethora of talents. Noting the entire lack of synthesisers considering who was to follow, he assured the audience they were not at the wrong venue before giving a set so folksy and West Country that practically the only thing missing was scrumpy cider.

Stacey sang of the expansive landscapes and the echoes of minor history across his home county. Hard Times (Come Again No More) was an easy highlight, accompanied by grand piano in its recording, but tonight a capella, with the singer’s vocal cadence and delivery akin to that of a medieval minstrel or bard. The original version had been recorded in an old church on an RAF base in the vicinity of Dartmoor, with Stacey sharing the space at that exact time with the local flower-arranging association. It was another quiet detail in a set overflowing with them.

The reasoning of Stacey as tonight’s warm-up became more apparent when he stated he would brush up on his Ultravox during the break, as he would be on backing guitar and synths for his headliner. Departed after only six songs, a short, fun, and eclectic set, Stacey received warm and enthusiastic applause as he left the stage.

Twenty minutes later, Midge Ure took the night’s focus and began his performance with 1988’s Dear God, a forceful prayer of a track accompanied by grinding guitars, before the synths and stylings of Visage’s Again We Love took the crowd into high-level new wave territory, the decades since all but melting away. Interestingly, that song had never been released as a single, meaning Ure was in the process of giving the fans some deep cuts as well as the hits this evening.

The big solo smash, If I Was, was given an early guernsey in the setlist, a fine example of mid-80s studio rock engineering, just as warm and welcoming in a live environment, with the audience happily taking the opportunity for the first group singalong of the night. Ure undertook an extended solo at the end of the track, and the way he focused over his guitar, every note and every movement given with full passion, indicated an artist who still had the utmost drive to create and entertain.

Ure broke from the music to speak to the crowd, stating he owed Perth an apology for the two cancelled concerts. In 2020 he had arrived just as the world was closing, and last year’s planned tour had similar if less global-encompassing ill luck. In his deep Glaswegian brogue, he explained that was why Perth was first on the tour this time around, that he had brought the rain that was currently pelting down outside, and that he had even needed to buy winter clothes since his arrival.

Ure introduced Passing Strangers as going back in time… ancient time—it was all ancient, in his mind, but this first Ultravox track of the evening was especially so. One of the fans in the front row tried to wish Ure a happy birthday, to which the artist, grinning wryly, shut down any conversation on age. He was content where he was but did not need to be reminded of it.

Ure brought forward the instrumental Astradyne, a throbbing seven-minute neon-glazed magnus opus, which voicelessly screamed the eighties in all their grandest splendour. The first track of the very first Ultravox album Ure was involved in, the band’s American label had hated it and, in scenes readily imagined from any music biopic movie, banished this gem to a place far below its actual station, the far end of Side A. Played live this evening, it was an absolute dream and another easy highlight.

Vienna broke from cover in the main set, rather than saved for the encore, the song that even the people that didn’t know any other track tonight would recognise. A lifetime spent hitting the high notes had infused slight grit and gravel into Ure’s vocal delivery, but the connection to audience and underlying heartfelt emotion were each exactly where they needed to be, and the synths were as on point and ethereal as they had always been.

After the big hit, Ure gratefully acknowledged the wives, husbands, friends, and partners of his superfans who could now, finally, say thank you to their significant others for bringing them along to the show. He may have sung a few moments before that it meant nothing to him, but that was merely a decades-old lyrical sleight of hand, and it had actually meant everything, both for himself and the fans.

Ure then asked if this was a venue where seated concerts were strictly policed and, if it were ever so possible, if any such restrictions could be lifted for the crowd to fully engage with his music. Given this permission, the audience arose almost as one, proceeding to dance the rest of the night away both in seats and aisles, through Reap the Wild Wind to Fade to Grey before ending up at main set closer, Dancing with Tears in My Eyes—the majority of those being happy tears, most certainly.

Returning for the encore, Ure reminded everyone in attendance just how embedded he was in British music for those magical years with his version of Phil Lynott’s Yellow Pearl, a callback to his own time with Thin Lizzy itself. The night concluded delightfully with Ultravox’s Hymn before Ure and band made their gracious departure, next headed for the east coast.

This was an evening spent with music royalty, and the fans had made the absolute most of this new wave communion. With the wild winds of the current decade having blown his plans off course time and again—and whilst all hope Ure returns to Australian shores before too long—tonight was appreciated, enjoyed, and inhabited fully in the moment by all those in attendance.

PAUL MEEK

Photos by Pete Gardner