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AshTHERE MAY be many cooler and more successful bands out there than Ash, but there are few better. In 1992, no one could have foreseen three gawky, Iron Maiden-obsessed teenagers from rural Downpatrick, Northern Ireland becoming one of the UK's best-loved, consistent and most enduring rock bands. The role of underdog though, is one Ash's Tim Wheeler, Mark Hamilton and Rick McMurray would relish and thrive in throughout their career.Their debut album proper, '1977', was a refreshingly pretension-free capsule of girls, guitars and sci-fi lullabies at odds with the Britpop-infested era it was born into. The whirlwind tours that followed almost killed them but for the addition of guitarist Charlotte Hatherly to shore the ship, which she did for nine years before going it alone in 2006. Surviving the reign of short-lived musical fads, the threat of bankruptcy and some dubious haircuts along the way, Ash have been the band least likely to fail and above it all have become one of our most idiosyncratic and cherished. 
Name: 1977
Label: INFECTIOUS
Year: 1996
Review: FROM THE breathless fretboard wig-out of 'Lose Control' to the ill-advised but endearingly naïve hidden track coda of Mark, Rick and Tim's 'Sick Party' hijinks, '1977' beamed with boisterous world-beating confidence and frighteningly precocious songwriting. Hit after honey-topped hit drip from the stereo, full of bombastic, brash choruses that still sound as tasty today as ever. 
Name: Free All Angels
Label: INFECTIOUS
Year: 2001
Review: ON THE brink of bankruptcy and following the commercial/critical failure of 'Nu-Clear Sounds', Ash were on the ropes. Bruised but not beaten, they made a Balboa-esque recovery, returning to where it all began in Wheeler's parents' garage. Ditching the ill-fitting rock cliches to concentrate on what they knew best, the quartet emerged with their most accomplished set of songs to date. 
Name: Meltdown
Label: INFECTIOUS
Year: 2004
Review: REINVIGORATED AND full of vim following the success of 'Free All Angels', Ash made another volte face, bravely ditching the ornate orchestration of their predecessor and relearned how to rock. Guitars crunched once more but never at the expense of the song. 'Meltdown' was the perfect distillation of Ash's ragged punk roots, reinventing them as a newly dynamic rock beast. 
Name: Nu-clear Sounds
Label: INFECTIOUS
Year: 1998
Review: ASH'S DEBUT record with new guitarist Charlotte Hatherley was an ambitious (if somewhat confused) affair that represented something of a departure from the evocative, sunny-side-up spark of '1977'. The sound of a band coming to terms with the travails of touring and the media spotlight, curve-balling critics who had short-sightedly pegged them as three-chord flash-in-the-pans. 
Name: Trailer
Label: INFECTIOUS
Year: 1994
Review: MADE WHILE the band were still studying for their A-Levels, 'Trailer' (as the title suggests) was merely a taster for what would follow - the architect's plan to '1977''s luxury apartment. Showcasing the band's scuzzy punk beginnings, it remains a decent curio for completists but a few under-produced gems aside, Ash still had some wrinkles to iron out in the garage.
Key Ash Tracks |
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