Still Fired Up!

By Joe Kavanagh

Although there have been bands whose careers have endured as long as Ireland's Ash, their path is almost certainly unique. Starting as mere babes, they have now been together for 15 years in an industry not known for its longevity and yet they are all just barely 30-years-old. Despite certain segments of the music media's best efforts to attach their sound to everything from Britpop to heavy metal, Ash have managed to keep enough distance and produced a sufficient amount of good tunes with enough variety to outlive every scene that their name has ever been associated with. In the course of their storied career, they have been both heroes and villains in the media, suffered label collapses, bus crashes and not only been a part of history, but actually helped to make it along the way. For most, the expression, 'I've seen it all' rings hollow but the words gain a certain currency when uttered by one of the members of Ash. Now, after steering their ship through over a decade of sometimes stormy waters, they are ready to return with their sixth studio album and once again they are being met with skepticism from certain segments of the media who wonder if they are still relevant or whether the public has moved on. What is it about this band that means they are forced to prove themselves virtually every time out and why is it that they still feel the urge to continue making music under the gun, so to speak?

For the answers, one has to travel back to the north of Ireland, specifically the town of Downpatrick, when Tim Wheeler and Mark Hamilton, were given guitars for Christmas when both were only 12-years-old. As fans of such bands as Iron Maiden, Megadeth and even Twisted Sister, the two friends recruited a couple of schoolmates to form their own band, Vietnam, and essentially aped the sounds of their metal idols. Even back then, the pair had that certain something that separated them from their peers showing a steely determination that was lacking in their bandmates, as evidenced by the fact that they decided to break the band up after only a couple of gigs, due to the fact that they felt that the other members were not as committed to the cause as they were. By 1992, the pair managed to recruit a similarly dedicated soul when they persuaded an older boy at school named Rick McMurray, to put down his guitar and take up the drums. The moment was also defined by the release of Nirvana's seminal, Nevermind, which profoundly influenced the trio, in addition to bands like the Pixies and Mudhoney. Little did they know what lay ahead of them. Ash essentially hit the ground running, releasing a trio of demos that, although somewhat immature, contained the elements that would later define the band. Aware that they were not exactly musical virtuosos, the band concentrated on creating songs that stayed true to their heavy rock roots but contained a pop component that made them instantly appealing to a wide audience. What they lacked in skill they made up for with boundless energy and the type of commitment that saw them all starve, as they surreptitiously saved their lunch money in order to pay for studio time. The following year they recorded, Garage Girl, a collection made up of their best tunes, plus a couple of additional tracks, including a number called Girl From Mars, which had just been penned by Wheeler. Passing it around to everyone they knew and mailing it off to labels, the band sat back convinced that their big break was only around the corner. They continued to play gigs around their hometown but as time ticked by and there were no responses of note, they began to consider calling it a day, unaware that their demo had in fact crossed the desk of a radio 'plugger' in the UK named Stephen Taverner, who was impressed enough to send the band £300, which enabled them to go into the studio and record a single titled, Jack Names The Planets. Now convinced that he had his hands on something special, Taverner actually quit his job to form Lalaland Records and became the band's full time manager, a position he still holds today.

In 1994 the band released Jack Names The Planets on the label and despite all the odds, it received airplay from such highly influential deejays as Radio One's Steve Lamacq and the late-great John Peel. With Taverner working all his contacts, the trio soon signed a contract with Infectious Records and even used their Easter break from school to do a tour of the UK. Their summer break was even busier as the band released a pair of highly regarded singles and spent time in recording studios on both sides of the Irish Sea. The fruits of their labor emerged in October when the mini-album, Trailer, was released to wide critical appraise with NME hailing the seven tracks as 'pieces of teen genius and imagination.' Incredibly, the band were still at school; a situation that forced them to turn down tours with Pearl Jam and Bon Jovi, as they stayed home and studied for their A-levels. Even when they finally got time to tour with Elastica, Taverner met with their school principal and asked for permission as he explained just how important such a stint could be in their career!

By 1995 all three had finished their schooling and had become sufficiently famous that the BBC's Radio One had them open their exam results live on-air! They continued to grow in stature with the release of a pair of singles titled, Kung Fu and Girl From Mars, both of which are memorable for additional reasons to their musical quality. The cover art of the former showed the infamous photo of Manchester United player, Eric Cantona's kung fu kick at a fan and the player even allegedly wrote a note to the band's label saying simply: 'I spit on your record.' NASA, used the latter as the music that played when customers were kept on hold, a fact that thrilled the band who are all huge sci-fi fans. The following year Ash finally released their first full-length album with 1977 hitting the shelves to almost deafening praise in European music media circles. Although lumped in with Britpop by lazy journalists, the band's trademark heavy verses and pop hook choruses owed more to their musical cousins across the water in the US and they spent much of the next two years touring America in an effort to break the world's biggest music market. It was also during this time that they toured with Weezer, which made them deeply aware of the sonic restrictions that came with being a three-piece. The experience convinced them to bravely expand their number, resulting in the addition of guitarist Charlotte Hatherley, who had made her name with UK indie act: Nightnurse. This period also represents the time that McMurray refers to as 'the one big thing we ever did that had any real meaning,' when the band was asked to help canvass for a yes vote in Northern Ireland's historical Good Friday Peace Agreement, which they readily agreed to do. In fact, they even shared a billing with U2 at the huge peace concert held in Belfast's Waterfront Hall, when Bono famously had his Bob Marley moment and managed to get Nationalist leader John Hume and Unionist leader, David Trimble to hold hands in a gesture of solidarity. Later that year, they also became the only band to headline two stages in the Glastonbury's history when they played their own scheduled Friday night slot on the Main Stage and closed the Pyramid Stage when singer Steve Winwood was unable to make the festival the following night. Barely out of their teens and with sales of their album topping a million, it appeared that Ash were a band capable of dominating the music scene for the next decade at least. Then came the fall.

In 1999 the band released follow-up album Nu-Clear Sounds, to an almost comically hostile reception from the music media, with critics describing it variously as a 'rock tantrum' or NME's memorable characterization of it as a "terrifying, ghoulrawk thrashnik deathcore noiseterrior sultans of satanic verse.' Despite a huge budget and not one but two different producers, the darker, heavier sound turned fans away in their droves and the band came under an immense emotional and financial strain as they watched everything they had worked so hard to build slip away in a matter of a few months. After a US tour turned into a shambles, many began to speculate that they were finished and Wheeler allegedly escaped to New York just to get away from it all.

They resurfaced in 2000 returning the place where it all began and spending time rehearsing and recording in the home of Wheeler's parents, as they tried to reconnect with their roots and even the band's soul. Against the odds and facing an array of critics with knives out, they returned with arguably their strongest song to date with the release of Shining Light in January of 2001. In addition to shutting up the naysayers, the song went on to win that year's prestigious Ivor Novello Award for best contemporary song and the band were named by Q Magazine as the #2 band to see live before you die. When their album, Free All Angels, entered the UK charts at #1, their return to the top was complete and could not have come at a more opportune time as the band insist that they were quite literally only £1,000 away from bankruptcy. They now turned their gaze once again towards the American market that had eluded them, spending much of the next three years touring with acts like Moby, Our Lady Peace and Coldplay to a growing US fanbase. Their exhausting schedule was made memorable by episodes including bus breakdowns and a serious crash that left McMurray with broken ribs.

Buoyed by the response from American audiences and in an act of symmetry, in 2004 the band decided to accept an offer to record their next album in the legendary Sound City Studios, where their idols had recorded Nevermind over a decade before.

In fact, Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl was a frequent visitor to the studio and acted as somewhat of a tourguide for the band throughout their stay. Whilst certainly not as hostile as the reception that greeted Nu-Clear Sounds, their next album, Meltdown, hardly set the world on fire as it appeared to suffer somewhat of an identity crisis, appearing too 'American-sounding' for Europeans and 'too-European' for an American market then absorbed with bands like Linkin Park and Staind. There were also the first signs that the internal dynamic of the band might be changing when Hatherley released her first solo album, Grey Will Fade, in 2005, which announced her as a talent in her own right with a work that appeared to be moving away from the heavier guitars associated with Ash. Despite robust statements to the contrary, Hatherley did in fact split with the band in 2006, leaving to pursue a solo career in a move that both sides are at pains to insist was amicable. It has since emerged - according to Hatherley - that she was forced out of the band as they wanted to return to being a three-piece. Only two weeks ago, she released her second solo album to wide critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, even as her former bandmates worked feverishly on their next long-player.

Now Ash find themselves in a position that they have become entirely familiar with over the course of their career. Critics wonder aloud whether they will remain relevant or if they can survive the loss of Hatherley. For their part, the trio have been working feverishly over the past few months in a studio that they have leased in New York, just doing what they do best: writing tunes without regard for what the critics have to say. The first salvo from these sessions recently appeared on their Myspace site in the form of I Started A Fire, which seems to indicate a return to their earlier indie roots, albeit with a coat of American gloss. The album, tentatively titled Toti, will appear in stores in April with lead single You Can't Have It All, already available in the UK.

Whatever the result, Ash certainly earned their place in the rock n' roll pantheon and every bit of respect they are due. Each time critics have written them off, they have picked themselves up off the carpet and delivered a knockout blow, so reports of their demise are most likely premature.

It's often the hardest journeys that are the most rewarding and you get the feeling that the route Ash have taken was almost written in the stars. Being the Star Wars/ sci-fi buffs they are, they probably wouldn't have had it any other way.