| Ireland's punk-pop trio Ash first formed in 1989 when childhood mates Tim Wheeler and Mark Hamilton got guitars for Christmas
and established the metal act, Vietnam. Nothing more than something for kicks, Vietnam switched to Ash in 1992 as Wheeler
(guitar/vocals), Hamilton (bass), and Rick "Rock" McMurray (drums) aimed to be something more serious. They shared a love
for the raw British punk of the Buzzcocks and crafted their musical talents to take the Brit-pop scene by storm at the start
of the decade. NME was swooning over these "teen punkers from Belfast" and by 1994 Ash had signed to Infectious Records to
issue the Trailer EP later that fall.
Their glossy youth was undoubtedly alluring, yet their Irish roots exuded a bit of an American flair similar to the likes
of Pavement and The Lemonheads. They weren't even out of high school before three singles hit the Top Five in the U.K. indie
charts. A year later marked Ash's full-length debut with 1977 and a deal with Reprise Records in the U.S. Named in honor of
the year Star Wars was released, Wheeler's and Hamilton's love for all things extra-terrestrial and science fiction was full-fledged
on 1977. Sharp guitar hooks and exact production work by Owen Morris (Oasis, New Order, Paul Weller) gained the band the notoriety
they'd been wishing for since childhood. They were headlining major festivals -- T in the Park, Glastonbury, Roskilde, and
Reading -- and playing countless club dates across the globe. In fall 1997, female guitarist Charlotte Hatherley was added
to the all-male lineup, a definite change for the band's sound and image. She brought the Ash male fans out from behind and
allowed the band's fan base to fully expand into more of what they had been looking for since the beginning.
With a new bandmate and the end of their teenage years, Ash welcomed anything that came their way. The late '90s marked
a maturation for Ash as a unit, as well as individually. Their sound played into heavier guitars while Wheeler's lyrical content
experienced a much grittier shift. Their sophomore effort Nu-Clear Sounds (1998) had Garbage's Butch Vig (Smashing Pumpkins,
Nirvana) at the mixing board and it wasn't necessarily their finest moment. NME turned on the band, criticizing Ash's new
sound as "terrifying, ghoulrawk thrashnik deathcore noiseterrior sultans of satanic verse" in August 1998. Harsh words and
reviews didn't distract Ash, however. Free All Angels followed in April 2001, although it didn't even see a US release until
the following summer. Meltdown, the band's first stateside release for Record Collection, arrived in spring 2005 |
