Live Review: Midge Ure, Sammy Paul

Synth-pop icon he may be, but Midge Ure is an excellent guitarist. The Ultravox frontman, here for the first time in nearly three decades, performs an unexpectedly rocky solo show.

Warming up for him is lively Melbourne singer Sammy Paul. Somehow Paul (accompanied by a keyboardist) subversively blends retro electro-pop with SAW-style hi-NRG and Tina Cousins' Euro-dance, tapping into both the '80s and '90s revivals. Her single 24 Hours, as gleaming as La Roux' synth-pop, is actually more memorable than a muted cover of Gary Numan's Are 'Friends' Electric? Paul's high street Gimme All Your Money was apparently inspired by reality TV (and Kardashian) fever.

Midge Ure, leading a four-piece band, plays to a modest yet enthusiastic crowd. Dapper in a suit, the sprightly Scot opens with 1991's I See Hope (In The Morning Light) before launching into Dear God. In fact, much of Ure's set highlights his oft-neglected solo catalogue – including the UK chart-topper If I Was and his personal fave Breathe. Ure possibly holds off on several Ultravox classics (Sleepwalk, The Thin Wall, The Voice, Reap The Wild Wind...) because of a proposed full tour. Still, this original New Romantic does revisit Fade To Grey, which he co-wrote for the Steve Strange-fronted Visage. Ure's version is punkier, and more urgent – and his voice is mightier than that of Strange – but, without the cinematic and electronic atmospherics, it lacks mystique. Indeed, tonight Ure buries the epic icy synths that elevated his early '80s output and presaged Detroit techno. However, Ultravox's subsequent hits were Celtic rock anthems rather than New Wave – and One Small Day fits in beautifully at Billboard as Ure's first proper nod to the band's canon. Later he'll stage an authentic – and dramatic – Vienna, a timeless '80s record. Ironically, one of the evening's stand-outs is Brilliant, the title-track from Ultravox's resplendent comeback album of last year (it was better than Muse's). A chatty Ure, so much more dynamic than a 'heritage' act, expresses dismay that Brilliant should be hard to find due to EMI's corporate upheavals.

There are notable covers. Ure's inaugural solo hit was 1982's soulfully synthesised rendition of Tom Rush's No Regrets. Again, tonight Ure's guitar is heavier, but his voice is no less resonant. He surprises, too, by performing Fleetwood Mac's (early) Man Of The World (as on 2008's covers collection, 10). Ure closes with a taste of what is hopefully to come: Ultravox's enduring Dancing With Tears In My Eyes.