SHORT NAME, quiet man -- big career. And now Glasgow's famous son, Midge Ure, is heading for Blackpool on his latest UK tour.

Inspired by Top of the Pops -- "I imagined doing that for a living" -- a 15-year-old Midge began his career with pop outfit Slik.

"Having a job that started off as a hobby is a fantastic thing to have. I could have ended up driving a van like my dad," he says.

"I was useless at talking to girls and a bit of a geek as a kid. I thought this way I'd get all the girls!"

Naive? Perhaps, but somewhere along the line it must have worked because 49-year-old Midge is proud dad to four girls, and lives a very settled life with his partner and a menagerie of pets in a des res in Wiltshire.

"I have a very strong family based life and that keeps me very well balanced. I don't have nannies or some guy to pick the kids up for me. It's a regular family life," Midge explains.

And when he's not in his own Environment Studios -- overlooking Salisbury Plain -- or on tour, this practical Scot can be found in the kitchen cooking up a treat for the kids.

It's all very un-rock'n'roll for a guitarist and singer whose band credits include Slik, The Rich Kids, Thin Lizzy, Ultravox, Visage -- and hits include Dancing With Tears In My Eyes, Fade to Grey, Vienna and If I Was.

From humble beginnings -- his parents scraped together £2 to buy him a second-hand guitar when he was ten -- Midge now tours, directs videos, produces his own and other artist's records and directs massive rock concerts.

"To survive in this very short lived, short career industry you have to be able to do lots of different things. You have to be a cottage industry," he says.

But he is perhaps best known for co-penning the massive fund-raising hit Do They Know It's Christmas? with Bob Geldof, prompted by Ethiopia's devastating famine.

Midge admits it was a life-changing experience. "I went to Ethiopia with one of the first emergency aid shipments. You see people who have got absolutely nothing. I came back and I just got rid of everything."

Thankfully though, not his guitar. Catch Midge Ure in concert at Blackpool's Grand Theatre tomorrow night (Friday) from 8pm. Tickets costing £15.50 are available form the box office.