MIDGE Ure is undoubtedly a man comfortable in his own skin.

Now nearing 60, the Scottish singer/songwriter played an intimate acoustic set to an appreciative and packed audience at Stockton’s Arc theatre.

Reflecting on a career with the likes of Slik, Visage and Ultravox, he was content to play a mixture of crowd-pleasers, newer, perhaps lesser-known tracks from his solo catalogue and covers of songs which influenced him.

There was plenty of enjoyable banter – Ure joking that some of the audience might have his DNA as a result of a mid-70s appearance on Teesside with his first band Slik.

When a fan shouted out a track she wanted to hear – Ultravox’s ‘Dancing with Tears in My Eyes’ – he replied tongue in cheek that he would play what he wanted. It later got a well received airing.

And when introducing the song ‘Breathe’ it came with the cheeky admission that he now played the tracks with higher notes early on in his set to make life that bit easier on the old vocal chords.

A stripped down version of Visage’s ‘Fade to Grey’, which he co-wrote, was a pleasant surprise and the timeless ‘Vienna’ also featured.

The themes were melancholic, reflections on love and religion uppermost in many of the lyrics.

While an artist accompanied on stage only by his guitar doesn’t make for the greatest spectacle, most in the crowd were rapt at being able to be so close to a bona fide pop legend.

Let’s not forget this is a man who helped write and produce Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ and was also in Thin Lizzy, one of his many shape-shifting incarnations.

Ure’s debut solo single and a No 1 to boot, the atmospheric and reflective ‘If I Was’, provided a fitting way to end the show.

Stuart Arnold