In 1996 I was watching the first video by a young unknown Irish band called Ash on MTV. My dad entered the room and without batting an eyelid proclaimed “this band will never make it” as if he was some sort of expert on bands and making it. He then carried on talking like the statement was set in stone.
I was slightly irked by how dismissive he had been and told him that from that day I would be openly rooting for the band to succeed. I also showed my support by buying the bands releases which, considering at the time I was using pocket money provided by my parents, meant my dad was inadvertently contributing in a tiny way to ensure the band “made it“.
That debut album ‘1977′ was a burst of energy spawning a series of bubblegum pop singles and a earning them a fair few awards. That summer I caught the trio at an Italian festival and I remember thinking I wanted to be just like them. Despite only being a couple of years older than me they had just played a confident set on the main stage of an international festival and were now negotiating a swarm of young girls. In my youthful eyes these guys were real rockstars.
It’s follow up ‘Nu-Clear Sounds’ was much maligned (it “only” went gold) but I actually enjoyed the experimental nature on it and felt that tracks like ‘Wild Surf’ and ‘Jesus Says’ represented some of the band’s best material. The addition of Charlotte Hatherley for this album made perfect sense in my mind adding some new dynamics to the band (though I often considered how tough it must have been to join a band who had known each other for so long).
I didn’t particularly care for the next album ‘Free All Angels‘ but it spawned some of the bands greatest hits and guaranteed them airplay. Sure enough Charlotte left/was thrown out of the band soon after and then I slightly lost track of them whilst they released their next studio albums.
All that is of little importance now because 14 year’s from the release of their debut the band are heading for what could be the most exciting period of their careers. Having split from Infectious Records the band relocated to New York City to launch their ambitious plans for their own Atomic Heart Records. They also made the brave decision to break off from the traditional album format and become the ultimate singles band; the results have been dubbed The A-Z Series.
Each new track has been made available directly from the band via a digital and vinyl single release, each represented by its own letter and colour, and brought out fortnightly. Additionally the band set out on a tour of British cities, towns and villages they had never visited before that corresponded to the letters of the alphabet bringing some rock to some unappreciated areas of the country.
Having heard much of the band’s reprtorie throughout the years I can safely say that these new songs represents the band’s more constant output to date. Having matured in the public eye Ash circa 2010 are confident in their sound and unafraid to inject even more pop influences into their music. Tim Wheelers voice has never sounded this good and the recordings are truly slick, a testament to the band’s self-productions skills. It will be interesting to see if other bands attempt Ash‘s experimental new singles only release ploy in the future.
Having achieved complete musical independence and set up their own NYC complex the future looks bright for the Northern Irish band and after so many years, as odd as it sounds to say this for those who have known them from the start, they can be considered veterans on the scene. Furthermore I think they did a pretty good job at proving my dad wrong.
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