'Ash' are an
alternative rock band that formed in
Downpatrick,
Northern Ireland in 1992. The media originally pegged Ash's music as
Britpop when the band first found mainstream success, but the band's musical style in fact spans a number of genres including
punk,
power pop,
grunge and
hard rock.
Lineup
The original band members were
Tim Wheeler (
vocals and
guitar), Mark Hamilton (
bass guitar) and Rick McMurray (
drums).
Initially inspired by
Twisted Sister and
Iron Maiden in the early 1990s, Tim and Mark formed a heavy metal band called Vietnam with a few school friends. After barely two gigs, they were left stranded when their bandmates left. Requiring a drummer, they had a few drinks with Rick who was a year ahead of them in school and had switched from playing the guitar to drums. With Rick on board, they ambitiously set out to develop a new style of music inspired by
grunge bands such as
Nirvana,
Mudhoney and the
Pixies.
Band Members
★
Tim Wheeler — Guitar/Piano/Lead Vocals
★
Mark Hamilton — Bass
★
Rick McMurray — Drums
Former members
★
Charlotte Hatherley — Guitar/Piano/Backing Vocals (1997-2006)
History
Early 1990s
Ash officially formed in 1992. They created three demo tapes this year, ''
Solar Happy'' in June, ''
Shed'' in September, and the ''
Home Demo'' in November. These tapes featured their earliest material and the first recordings of some songs that would later be on their 1995 release, ''
Trailer'', including "Intense Thing", "Get Out", "Obscure Thing," and their future single, "
Jack Names the Planets".
In 1993, Ash made the demo tape,and with new member and explosive guitarist Sharon 'Stone cold' Stapleton launched themselves onto the charts. ''
Garage Girl'', which featured "Jack Names the Planets" and "Intense Thing" taken from Shed, as well as some new tracks including "Petrol". They released their compilation demo tape, ''
Pipe Smokin' Brick'' later this year, which featured an assortment of their best demo songs from the other 4 demo tapes. Downpatrick Musician Ray Valentine recorded Ash's demo's at his studio, Cosmic Rays. Ash's moniker at the time was "Genuine Real Teenagers" due to the fact that they were so young when recording their early material.
The demo tapes had not gained much attention yet and Ash was still playing small shows at local clubs, however, in early 1994,
Stephen Taverner came across the ''Garage Girl'' demo tape. Suitably impressed Stephen put up the money so that they could press 1000
7″ copies of "
Jack Names the Planets" on Stephen's own LaLaLand record label. The band was on its way and Stephen became their full-time manager.
Ash released their mini album, ''Trailer'', in October 1994, which only included seven songs. They received some airplay from
DJ Steve Lamacq on
BBC Radio 1 and so followed up their debut single with "
Petrol", and "
Uncle Pat" on their new label
Infectious Records.
In 1995, Ash left school and released their breakthrough singles "
Kung Fu", "
Girl From Mars" and "
Angel Interceptor".
Late 1990s
1996 saw them release the singles "
Goldfinger" and "
Oh Yeah" either side of their album ''
1977'', which saw considerable success. On 17 February 1997, Ash released ''
Live at the Wireless'', a live album, recorded at the
Triple J Studios in
Australia. The
UK fans could buy a limited edition CD of it on the band's own Deathstar label.
During their time touring with
Weezer, Ash felt the limitation of a three-piece band. As a result they recruited
Charlotte Hatherley who had previously been with the band Nightnurse and she made her gig debut at a few small gigs a week before appearing at the
V festival in
1997. The first single that she appeared on, "
A Life Less Ordinary", featured on the
soundtrack to the
Ewan McGregor /
Cameron Diaz film of the same name.
In September 1998, Ash released "
Jesus Says" the following month the second album proper, ''
Nu-Clear Sounds'', and in
November "
Wildsurf". The stress of near non-stop touring of 1977 and Nu-Clear sounds began to affect the band's mentality.
Early 2000s
Ash in Tempe, Arizona - Mark, Rick, Charlotte, Tim - March 2005
In 2000, Tim Wheeler disappeared for a short while following the commercial and critical failure of ''
Nu-Clear Sounds''. He eventually emerged in New York making the self-deprecating, blood, drug and sex fueled video for ''
Numbskull''. A note for Stephen Taverner attached to the video said, "I've killed Bambi".
Ash nearly became bankrupt as they prepared to release possibly their last album. Luckily, this was not to be the case. The band retreated to Wheeler's parents' house, to play and write songs in the same garage where the band began.
The single "
Shining Light" was released in January 2001, followed by the number one album ''
Free All Angels'' in April. Subsequent singles released from ''Free All Angels'' were "
Burn Baby Burn", "
Sometimes", "
Candy", and "
There's a Star" . The single "Shining Light" won the "Best Contemporary Song" award at the 2002 Ivor Novello awards. A new single "
Envy" was released, followed shortly afterwards by the singles collection ''
Intergalactic Sonic 7″s'' with the bonus disk entitled Cosmic Debris.
''Q'' magazine named Ash as #2 of its "50 Bands To See Before You Die".
The Infamous Charlotte Shower Scene from 'Slashed'
In 2003, it was leaked to the music and tabloid press that Ash were working on a horror film described as a 'teen slasher'. The film called '
Slashed' was shot while the band were on tour in America but some scenes were also shot in the UK. The screenplay, written by Jed Shepherd and directed by Alexander Marks included star roles by
Chris Martin (Sherbet Bones) and
Jonny Buckland (Agent Ford) of
Coldplay as a pair of FBI agents hired to track down a supernatural serial killer. Other star performances include that of
Moby,
James Nesbitt,
Dave Grohl and Ash themselves. The film was much hyped due to the celebrity performances but it was never generally released to the public and is now currently being held in storage. Rumours circulated that certain scenes were too gory and would not be suitable for Ash's audience, but it was also said that Chris Martin vetoed its release due to scenes of him running around in his boxer shorts, covered in blood, fighting demons which may have been detrimental to his new celebrity status.
On
29 June 2004, Ash released ''
Meltdown''. It reached number five in the UK. The band teamed up with
Lucasarts for a new
Star Wars game entitled ''. "
Clones", taken from the album ''Meltdown'' is the first licensed music to be used in anything Star Wars-related. "Meltdown" and "
Orpheus" are featured on the popular
British movie, ''
Shaun of the Dead'' as well as appearing on the ingame soundtrack for the video game . Also featured is their cover of the
Buzzcocks song "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" featuring
Chris Martin on backing vocals. "
Starcrossed" and "Renegade Cavalcade" were later released as singles from the album. ''Meltdown'' gets a US release date of
8 March, through
Warner Bros. Records imprint Record Collection. Also in 2005, Tim Wheeler received a companionship (a honorary degree) from
LIPA (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts).
Ash in Tempe, Arizona - March 2005 - Photo by Nancy J Price
During the recording of ''Meltdown'', Charlotte Hatherley also wrote and recorded her solo side project album ''
Grey Will Fade'', which included hit single "
Bastardo".
Mid 2000s
On
20 January 2006,
Charlotte Hatherley left the band after nine years leaving only the original members remaining. An official statement reads: "After 9 years Ash and Charlotte Hatherley have mutually agreed to part company. The decision is completely amicable and they wish each other the very best for the future". In an interview in July 2007, the other band members suggested they asked Hatherley to leave as they "wanted to be a three-piece."
[1] On
6 June 2006,
NME reported that Ash were in a
New York recording studio and had twenty seven "rough" songs. Wheeler hinted that the eventual album is likely to be more
retro sounding than any of their previous material. No shows were planned for the remainder of 2006, but Wheeler says Ash are hoping to test out their new songs "in tiny New York bars" once the album is completed.
Early in 2007, Ash announced a full-length UK tour for February and March 2007. The tour is a warm-up for their album release in June and summer festival appearances, including the
Isle of Wight Festival on 9 June 2007. The tour is of small clubs nationwide and calls at Preston, Newcastle, Glasgow, Norwich, Liverpool, Sheffield and Southampton amongst others. Named "The Higher Education Tour", Ash are to work closely with the National Union of Students (NUS), including student pre-sale, which explains their gigs at universities in Southampton, Keele, Sheffield, Exeter, Warwick and Kings College London amongst others. Support will be the indie-rock band, V//Formation.
On the
19 February 2007 Ash released the first song from their new album, which was announced as being called ''
Twilight of the Innocents''. This new material was a download only sneak-preview track called "
I Started A Fire". The first physical single "
You Can't Have It All" was released on
16 April 2007[2]. The release of YCHIA coincided with an in-store gig and signing in Virgin Megastore, Belfast. The music video for "
You Can't Have It All" debuted on
MTV Two on
11 March 2007.
On
12 June 2007 Ash revealed that ''
Twilight of the Innocents'' would be their last album. They however denied that they were splitting and instead stated they would only release singles from now on as "The way people listen to music has changed, with the advent of the download the emphasis has reverted to single tracks".
[3]
Discography
:''See main article:
Ash discography''
Studio albums
References
1. Ash: We are way better than The Beatles (thelondonpaper)
2. "You Can't Have It All" Release Date BBC
3. http://www.nme.com/news/ash/28918
External links
★
Official Ash Site
★ Ash at
Reading festival &
Leeds festival
★
Walking Barefoot - An extensive fan site
★
The Ash Files - The ultimate Ash live recordings resource, moderated by the band themselves
★
Official Ash Myspace - Frequently updated by the band, contains videos as well as news
★
Ash ranking polls
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