After a career in the music industry spanning four decades, Midge Ure has put down roots in Wiltshire. Dawn Gorman spoke to the man who now feels part of the community.

WHAT is it about Wiltshire that makes it such a honeypot for rock musicians?

Musician's musician Midge Ure moved to his Monkton Farleigh home seven years ago, and now considers himself part of the community.

Ure enjoyed heady teen success with Slik in the 1970s and was the frontman of innovative style-makers Ultravox in the '80s, who gave us, among many other classics, 1981's timeless Vienna. Then in 1984, he and Bob Geldof wrote Do They Know It's Christmas, the music industry's heartfelt contribution to the Ethiopian famine relief fund. The song, which Ure produced, led directly to Live Aid, the 1985 global concert that spoke for a generation.

These days, Ure combines extensive touring with work for TV and radio and, from his studio a converted barn at his Monkton Farleigh home he produces and writes for and with various artists, both established and unsigned.

Eighteen months ago, he produced an album for Corsham band Countermine, an experience which convinced him that Wiltshire was a hotbed for exciting new artists.

"Countermine are an incredibly talented bunch of guys, and this certainly isn't a sleepy backwater," he said. "There's a wealth of raw new talent here, and there are a lot of creative people around video directors, graphics companies, internet specialists it's not what I expected, and it's very exciting.

"I was at the Real World recording studios in Box yesterday, and it really struck me that to have that happening in a small rural community is fantastic. I enjoy being part of that community it's good to be able to put something back in to it. People can say 'he's had 20 years in the music industry, and he's still takes notice of us,' and that's great."

Ure says there is no mystery about the fact that so many established musicians have settled in Wiltshire.

"Lots come from the area anyway Hugh Cornwall and Peter Gabriel, for instance but for the rest of us, it's a great place to be when you are a certain age and you're bringing up children," he said.

"I sometimes think if you dropped a bomb on Box you'd wipe out half the names in the British music industry."

Ure himself has four daughters aged between 14 and two years, and decided to move to the area when he was in Bath for a performance at the Theatre Royal.

"I was living in Notting Hill, which is great when you're young, but not much good when you're bringing up a family. Then I looked around Wiltshire and really loved it.

"My theory on life is that it is a continual process of running away. I've moved twice to escape the violence of inner cities from Glasgow to London, and from there to Monkton Farleigh but I don't detect that sort of problem in Wiltshire."

"Glasgow was a very bigoted city when I was growing up. Take the two football teams: Rangers and Celtic, one Protestant, the other Catholic. If you were the wrong religion, you couldn't play for them. When I went to London, I'd been there a while before I realised I had no idea what religion my friends were... and that it didn't matter. So I began to question the idea of religion."

Ure has been questioning things ever since. His new album, Move Me his first in five years is full of major questions. "I didn't feel in control, and began asking questions on behalf of my children," he said.

Beneath A Spielberg Sky, the first single to be released from the album, is an epic track, asking big, fundamental questions about what the establishment is doing on our behalf.

"When the end of the world happens, we will watch it on TV because we just won't recognise it's happening around us," said Ure. "But we probably won't realise it's real, even then we have become immune to things because of the way they are handled.

"Beneath A Spielberg Sky is about all things in life viewed on a screen like a movie. War, love, past and future."

Many of the tracks on the album reflect this epic theme a small man at the mercy of the elements in a large, inhospitable world. In The Refugee Song, for instance, we are 'Just pawns in a game, cast out to the four winds'.

"Songwriting and the creative process is a great vehicle for venting angst," said Ure.

"The songs are definitely about my life. You go through certain phases in your life, and your music is affected by that. I don't have to sit down and invent things. Life is a very interesting tapestry, and can throw some very interesting things at you."

Move Me and Beneath a Spielberg Sky are both due for release on July 2.