Philip Lynott - Yellow Pearl (12" Midge Ure Remix)

Philip Lynott - Yellow Pearl (Midge Ure Remix) / 12 Inch Extended Remix (HQ Audio)

As theme tune to Top Of The Pops, Yellow Pearl was one of the most recognisable songs of the early 1980s.

Were it not for guitarist Gary Moore quitting Phil Lynott's Thin Lizzy mid-tour in 1979 it wouldn't even exist.

Thin Lizzy needed a quick replacement for the Japan leg of the tour, and James "Midge" Ure, previously of The Rich Kids, now of Visage, and soon to be of Ultravox, agreed to help out.

3 years earlier, Ure had topped the charts with Forever and Ever, by his first band, Silk.

His stage name "Midge" is a phonetic reversal of his actual shortened first name, Jim.

Ure and Lynott quickly became good friends: Lynott intrigued by Ure's songwriting skill and interest in new technology and Ure fascinated by Lynott's lyrical depth and charisma.

They spoke with great admiration for each other, right up to Lynott's death in 1986, at the age of 36, from pneumonia and heart failure due to septicaemia. Lynott was a heavy drinker, and addicted to heroin, which contributed to his illness.

Whilst on the 1979 tour of Japan, Lynott and Ure were astonished by the new consumer technology they saw.

Miniature televisions, video recorders and the very first Sony Walkman had just come on to the market and Ryuichi Sakamoto's Yellow Magic Orchestra whose use of advanced synthesizers and sequencers must have sounded like something from the future at the time, were popular on radio and TV.

In soundchecks, Ure also played keyboards, and had developed a synthesizer riff he'd developed, which Lynott liked.

Lynott was about to start work on a solo album and suggested the two get together after the tour to develop it into a full track. Midge agreed took along keyboardist Billy Currie from his new band, Ultravox. Together they developed the riff into Yellow Pearl, with Lynott adding dystopian lyrics relating to the rapid rate of technological advance in Japan.

The track appeared on Lynott's 1980 album Solo in Soho, and was released as a single in 1981, reaching #56 in the chart.

Later that year, Top Of The Pops wanted to modernise for the 1980s and asked Ure if he would create a new version of the track for use as the main theme. Ure created a shorter instrumental featuring Visage drummer Rusty Egan.

Ure's new version of Yellow Pearl was the Top Of The Pops theme from 9 July 1981 to 27 March 1986, when Paul Hardcastle's The Wizard replaced it.

"I'm sure we acted casually at the time and went: 'Oh aye, that's nice.'", says Ure.

"But inside, your teenage self is screaming 'Waaaay! We've got Top Of The Pops!' They used a Led Zeppelin soundalike as the theme when I watched it as a kid, and now me and Phil were the new Led Zeppelin. It was a massive moment."

Yellow Pearl was re-released in December 1981, and this time, reached number 14 in the chart.

Featured here is the extended version of Midge Ure's remix.

Year: 1981 Label: Photogram Cat no: SOLO 312