Look To The Stars News: Midge Ure

Terry Wogan To Return To The Lost City For Children In Need

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:00:00 -0000

For the third year running, Sir Terry Wogan is to return to Leicester, the place he once famously dubbed the ‘lost city’, for the annual TOGs’ (Terry’s Old Geezers/Gals) convention.

The convention will be the fifth time the TOGs have returned to Leicester, and the slogan for this year’s meeting is TOGs 2009 AUSTRALIA (‘All Up Standing TOGs Rally AT Leicester In August’).

Sir Terry will attend a champagne reception and lunch at the University of Leicester on Friday 21st August 2009, joining more than 90 TOGs at their three-day convention, held at the University’s Stamford Hall. He will be welcomed by the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Robert Burgess.

During his visit Sir Terry will launch the 2010 BBC Children in Need TOGs’ Celebrity Calendar, which to date has raised more than £800,000. Celebrities featured in the 2010 edition include Sir Roger Moore, Midge Ure, Rob Brydon, Alan Carr, Jane Asher, Robert Lindsay and the Wake up to Wogan Radio team.

Back in the 1980s, Sir Terry caused local uproar when he dubbed Leicester a ‘lost city’, due to all the motorway repairs in traffic bulletins. But after visiting the city he revised his opinion, and since then he has given it a number of major references on his BBC Radio 2 breakfast show, ‘Wake up to Wogan’.

Thanks to Leicester Shire Promotions, Leicester won a Children in Need challenge for UK cities to sell the most Pudsey Paws stickers. The prize was for Sir Terry to broadcast his breakfast show from the city, during which he signed a declaration agreeing never to refer to Leicester as the ‘lost city’ again.

Speaking at last year’s TOGs’ convention, Sir Terry said: "What is memorable about Leicester is the kind of welcome you get from the University of Leicester for the TOGs. That is why they keep coming back. Who else can supply us with the kind of welcome and facilities we get from the University? Everyone here is fantastic.

“I would like to have been a student here – it looks like a really nice campus. I am not being sycophantic, but the University of Leicester has a very good reputation. For students embarking on their careers my advice would be to study something you want to and then go and do whatever you like. But always remember to go to an established university, like Leicester.”

Speaking at the same event, Norman Macintosh, one of the organizers, added: “Terry’s Old Geezers (or Gals) have got together for our tenth convention – this is our fourth one at Leicester. We find the venue the ideal place for our convention and everyone is full of praise for the facilities, the lovely setting within the University grounds and the great service we receive from all the University staff.”

Sir Terry will be joined by other Radio 2 personalities, including producer Alan Boyd, the News and Traffic team, the Lottery ‘Voice of the Balls’ Alan Dedicoat, the ‘Welsh Traffic Totty’ Lynn Bowles, and presenters John Marsh and Charles Nove.

The ‘Pause for Thought’ team from Sir Terry’s program will also be there, including Canon Roger Boyle, Rev Rob Gillian, Rev Ruth Scott, Rabbi Pete Tobias, Lt Col Charles King of The Salvation Army and the Buddhist Dharmachari Nagaraja. BBC Children in Need will be represented by Gareth Hydes, Head of Editorial at BBC Children in Need, and Jodi Saul.

This year’s TOGs’ convention has an antipodean theme and will also include portrait opportunities by artists who are currently taking courses at the University’s Richard Attenborough Centre through its Lifelong Learning program.

Bob Geldof Explains His Turning Points

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:00:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Sir Bob Geldof has revealed some of the turning points in his life that led to his charity work.

In a new book – Turning Points by Julia Ogilvy – Geldof talks candidly about losing his mother to a brain haemorrhage when he was just seven years old.

“It was so out of the blue, you know – there was no warning or lingering illness. Just bang… It’s unbearable to be that small and to have to take care of yourself. At the time, you just get on with it and it becomes routine to shop, to cook and to get the coal from the basement to light the fire. It was c**p coming home alone.

“When I think [about] TV reports of starving children, I realize I may have been more alert than another person simply because of my background.”

Geldof is referring to watching Michael Buerk’s shocking report on the famine in Ethiopia on the BBC in 1984, an event that led to writing Do They Know It’s Christmas with Midge Ure and organizing Live Aid. In recent years he was also behind the Live 8 concerts and persuading world leaders to double aid for Africa’s poor to $50 billion.

“Michael Buerk was shocked by what he saw and you could clearly see that. The brevity of the words hung in the silence and his outrage reverberated around.

“It may as well have had “For the attention of Bob Geldof” on it. It was right for the mood I was in, the time of day, the condition of my life – new family, no future, best part of my life over, evening, October. Here I was with a nine-month-old baby; and here I was seeing all these mothers and fathers and children, absolutely no different to us.’

“It’s important to remember the times we were in, too. In 1984, people were getting outraged by the Common Agricultural Policy – the fact that they were paying tax to grow surplus food. They then paid tax to store it and paid tax to destroy it – while not that many miles south of Europe, 30 million people were dying of starvation.

“The next day, I decided that to die of want in a world of surplus is not only intellectually absurd, it’s morally repulsive.

“Paula [Yates] had cried watching the film and had to leave halfway through as she was too distressed. The next morning, she had to do filming for The Tube. She left a note on the fridge saying that anyone who visited the house had to put five quid in a shoebox on the kitchen table.

“When I saw that, it really alerted my outrage, and that’s what made me decide to write a song. I knew that putting a few quid in the box just wasn’t enough.

“I thought at first I’d write a song and make around 70 grand. And because The Boomtown Rats weren’t having hits, the logic was to use my mates from the ten years I’d spent in rock ‘n’ roll, and rising young bands like [”U2":http://www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/245-u2], to perform it.

“So I called Paula to ask who was on the show that night, and she said Midge Ure. I was a bit shamefaced at suggesting “hip” bands should play my song when I wasn’t doing well, so when I called Midge, I suggested we cover some old standard to raise money. But he said I should write a song."

Turning Points, by Julia Ogilvy, will be published by Lion Books on June 19. For information about Turning Points see www.turning-pointsonline.com. Ogilvy has donated her fee and proceeds from the sale of the book to the charity Project Scotland, which helps young people realise their potential through volunteering.

Band Aid Founder Awarded Honorary Degree

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 12:00:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Midge Ure – the musician who helped Bob Geldof organize Band Aid and co-wrote Do They Know It’s Christmas? – has received an honorary doctorate for his humanitarian work.

The 55-year-old former singer for Ultravox was presented with the degree at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland, an honor that follows similar awards from universities in Edinburgh, Abertay and Paisley.

Ure – who was awarded with an OBE in 2005 – is still a member of the Band Aid Trust and still gives his time to organizing benefit events, such as Geldof’s Live 8 events three years ago.

Ure said he was “overwhelmed and extremely pleased” to receive the award and urged fellow graduates to “make a difference”.

Look To The Stars News: Midge Ure

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Bob Geldof Explains His Turning Points

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