Ash (band)
Ash are a
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.
The original band members were
Tim Wheeler (
vocals and
guitar),
Mark Hamilton (
bass guitar) and
Rick McMurray (
drums). The three were joined by
Charlotte Hatherley (guitar and vocals) in 1997 who, as of 2005, also began a solo career as a
side-project. On the
20th January,
2006, Hatherley's record label,
Double Dragon Music announced her departure from the band
[News report on Hatherley's departure Drowned In Sound].
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 schoolfriends. After barely two gigs they were left on their own when the others left. Requiring a drummer they had a few drinks with Rick, who was in the year above them at school and had switched from playing the guitar to drums. They then ambitiously set out to develop their own music now inspired by
grunge bands such as
Nirvana,
Mudhoney and the
Pixies.
1992
Ash officially formed. They created three demo tapes this year,
Solar Happy in June,
Shed in September, and the
Home Demo Tape 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".
1993
In 1993, Ash made the demo tape,
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. The demo tapes had not gained much attention yet and Ash was still playing small shows at local clubs.
1994
In early 1994,
Stephen Taverner came across the
Garage Girl demo tape. Suitably impressed Steve put up the money so that they could press 2000 7
″ copies of "
Jack names the Planets" â€" (February 1994) on Steve's own LaLaLand record label. The band was on its way.
Ash released their first album,
Trailer, in October of this year, which only included seven songs. This album would later be released in the United States in 1995 with four bonus tracks, making it have 11 songs total.
They received some priceless airplay from
DJ Steve Lamacq on
BBC Radio 1 and so followed up their debut single with "
Petrol", (
August 5 1994), and "
Uncle Pat" â€" (
October 17 1994) on their new label
Infectious Records.
1995
This is the year Ash left school and released their breakthrough singles "Kung Fu", "Girl from Mars" and "Angel Interceptor".
1996
1996 saw them release the singles "Goldfinger" and "Oh Yeah" either side of their album
1977, which saw considerable success.
1997
February 17 had them release
Live at the Wireless, as the title suggests 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. The lads then 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
V97 festival. The first single that she appeared on, "
A Life Less Ordinary" was the
soundtrack to the
Ewan McGregor /
Cameron Diaz film of the same name.
1998
In September 1998, Ash released "Jesus Says" the following month the second album proper,
Nu-Clear Sounds, and in
November "Wildsurf".
1999-2000
Things go badly for Ash. Tim Wheeler went AWOL following the commercial and critical failure of
Nu-Clear Sounds. Later Ash nearly become bankrupt as they prepare to release possibly their last album. Luckily, this was not to be the case.
2001
The single "Shining Light" is 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" (April), "Sometimes" (
July), "Candy" (
October) and "There's a Star" (
December).
2002
The single 'Shining Light' wins the 'Best Contemporary Song' award at the 2002 Ivor Novello awards.A new single "Envy" is released, followed shortly afterwards by the singles collection
Intergalactic Sonic 7″s.
Q magazine names Ash as #2 of its "50 Bands To See Before You Die".
2004
On
June 29, Ash released
Meltdown. It goes top ten in the UK. The band teams up with
Lucasarts for a new
Star Wars game entitled
Republic Commando. "Clones", taken from the album "Meltdown" is the first music to be used in anything Star Wars related that hasn't been composed by
John Williams.
Meltdown and
Orpheus are featured on the popular
British movie,
Shaun of the Dead.Also featured is their cover of the
Buzzcocks song
Everybody's Happy Nowadays featuring
Chris Martin on backing vocals.
2005
Star Wars Republic Commando is finally released using "Clones" as title music. "Meltdown" gets a US release date of
March 8, through
Warner Bros imprint Record Collection.
Tim Wheeler receives a companionship (a honorary degree) from
LIPA (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts).
2006
20th January,
2006,
Charlotte Hatherley leaves the band after 9 years leaving the rest with what they started with. 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."
6th June,
2006, NME reports that Ash are holed up in a New York studio and have 27 'rough' songs. Tim Wheeler hinted that the album is likely to be more retro sounding than any of their previous material.
He went on: "I like this tight 70s guitar band sound that's around quite a lot at the moment. And I've been listening to a lot of older records, stuff like Bo Diddly. Those records were probably just recorded with a couple of microphones in a room, but to me it sounds awesome."
Ash plan to start recording the follow up to 2004's 'Meltdown' later this month, with a release date scheduled for next spring.
No shows are planned for the remainder of the year but Wheeler says Ash are hoping to test out their new songs 'in tiny New York bars' once the album is completed.
Albums
Image:Ash-Trailer.jpg|Trailer
(October, 1994)
InfectiousImage:Ash1977.jpg|1977
(May 6, 1996)
Infectious
#1 UKImage:Live at the wireless.jpg|Live at the Wireless
(February 17, 1997)
Deathstar
#10 UKImage:Ashnuclearsounds.jpg|Nu-Clear Sounds
(October 5, 1998)
Infectious
#7 UKImage:FreeAllAngelsAlbumCover.jpg|Free All Angels
(April 23, 2001)
Infectious
#1 UKImage:Intergalactic Sonic 7s Album Cover.jpg|Intergalactic Sonic 7″s
(September 9, 2002)
Infectious
#3 UKImage:MeltdownAlbumCover.jpg|Meltdown
(May 17, 2004)
Infectious
#5 UKSingles
*"
Jack Names The Planets" â€" (February 1994)
*"
Petrol" â€" (
August 5 1994)
*"
Uncle Pat" â€" (
October 17 1994)
*"
Kung Fu" â€" (
March 20 1995) UK #56
*"
Girl From Mars" â€" (
July 31 1995) UK #11
*"
Angel Interceptor" â€" (
October 9 1995) UK #14
*"
Goldfinger" â€" (
April 15 1996) UK #5
*"
Oh Yeah" â€" (
June 24 1996) UK #6
*"
A Life Less Ordinary" â€" (
October 25 1997) UK #10
*"
Jesus Says" â€" (
September 21 1998) UK #15
*"
Wildsurf" â€" (
November 23 1998) UK #31
*"
Shining Light" â€" (
January 29 2001) UK #8
*"
Walking Barefoot" â€" (March
2002) Released in Australia only.
*"
Burn Baby Burn" â€" (
April 2 2001) UK #13
*"
Sometimes" â€" (
June 9 2001) UK #21
*"
Candy" â€" (
October 1 2001) UK #20
*"
There's a Star" â€" (
December 31 2001) UK #13
*"
Envy" â€" (
August 26 2002) UK #21
*"
Jack Names the Planets" â€" (
December 2 2002)
*"
Clones" â€" (
February 25 2004)
*"
Orpheus" â€" (
May 3 2004) UK #13
*"
Starcrossed" â€" (
July 19 2004) UK #21
*"
Renegade Cavalcade" â€" (
December 6 2004) UK #33
EP
Numbskull â€" (
April 26 1999)
Satellite Transmissions Volume 1 â€" (May 2003)
Fan club releases
*"
Get Ready" â€" (December 1995)
*"
Barbie" â€" (
March 1 1997)
*"
I'm On Drugs" â€" (
February 15 2003)
Demo tapes
Solar Happy â€" (July 1992)
Shed â€" (September 1992)
Home Demo â€" (November 1992)
Garage Girl â€" (February 1993)
Pipe Smokin' Brick â€" (1993)
*
Official Ash Site*
Ash Demo & Other Unreleased Lyrics Page - Ash fansite dedicated to rare lyrics.
*
Jedisteve's Ash Tabs - Comprehensive collection of guitar and bass
tablature for Ash songs.
*
Lyrics Directory - Ash Lyrics.
*
Walking Barefoot - Popular and comprehensive Ash fansite.
*
Ash MySpace - Ash's
MySpace page
