Ash (band)
| Ash | |
|---|---|
 Mark, Rick, Charlotte, Tim - 2005. |
|
| General information | |
| origin | Downpatrick , Northern Ireland |
| Genre (s) | Britpop , indie rock , punk |
| founding | 1992 |
| Website | www.ash-official.com |
| Founding members | |
| Tim Wheeler | |
| Mark Hamilton | |
| Rick McMurray | |
| former members | |
Guitar, vocals |
Charlotte Hatherley (1997-2006) |
Ash is a Northern Irish band that was formed in Downpatrick , Northern Ireland . Their music can be assigned to Britpop and Indie-Rock .
The founding members were Tim Wheeler (born January 4, 1977), Mark Hamilton (born March 21, 1977) and Rick McMurray (born July 11, 1975). Later came Charlotte Hatherley (born June 20, 1979), who left the band in January 2006 to devote herself to her solo career.
history
First years
Inspired by Twisted Sister and Iron Maiden , Tim and Mark formed a heavy metal band called Vietnam with a few school friends in the early 1990s . After only a few appearances, the band threatened to break up and only Tim and Mark remained. While looking for a new drummer , they found Rick, who was a grade above them in school. He originally played guitar , but has since become a drummer. Together they decided to develop their own style of music.
In early 1994, Stephen Taverner came across a demo tape from the band called Garage Girl . He was impressed enough to raise the release funds for Jack Names the Planets . This was done under his own label called LaLaLand. With that, the band had taken the most important step. They were subsequently played on the radio by DJ Steve Lamacq on BBC 1 and released their debut single Petrol on August 5, 1994. The single Uncle Pat followed on October 17th , this time under the new label Infectious Records , and on October 18th the mini album Trailer , which was clearly inspired by punk and grunge .
breakthrough
Next up was work on the first album in 1977 , which was to bring the breakthrough in 1996. From 1995 they received support from Owen Morris, who had already supported Oasis on their first two albums. The album title not only alludes to the year in which Wheeler and Hamilton were born, but also to their fascination with the Star Wars series, the first part of which was also released in 1977 . In addition, the year 1977 marks the heyday of punk in rock history , from whom the band's music is audibly influenced. Ash's first album was released in 1996 as the singles Girl From Mars , Goldfinger and Oh Yeah .
In February 1997, the first live album Live at the Wireless was released, which was recorded in the Triple J Studios in Australia . The British fans were able to purchase a limited edition of the CD from the band's own label Deathstar . Then Charlotte Hatherley joined Ash as the second female guitarist. She had previously played in the band Nightnurse . The band hoped for not only an expansion of their sound, but also a little more concentration on the music after all the hustle and bustle of the previous breakthrough year. The first joint song was the title song of the soundtrack for the film A Life Less Ordinary ( A Life Less Ordinary ) with Ewan McGregor and Cameron Diaz .
Chart albums
Ash released the single Jesus Says in September 1998 and the second album Nu-Clear Sounds the following month . The single Wildsurf followed in November . Nu-Clear Sounds was not as well received by critics and buyers as the debut.
Three years later, Free All Angels followed , with which the success of 1977 could be repeated . The first single Shining Light shot into the English top 10 and was, albeit to a lesser extent, a success in Germany. The album Free All Angels made it to number 1 in England. Other single releases like Burn Baby Burn or There's a Star were also very successful in the UK and Tim Wheeler received an Ivor Novello Award as a songwriter for Shining Light . Following this success, a Best Of was then in 2002 published Intergalactic Sonic 7 "s , with the new song Envy , who also appeared as a single. In addition, in a rematch of Jack Names The Planets also published and as a single live DVD Tokyo Blitz with released from the tour for Free All Angels during an appearance in Japan .
Rock'n Roll 2.0
After a break, the album Meltdown , recorded in the USA, was released in June 2004 . a. as "the most powerful rock'n roll album of the modern age". The very dark and hard Clones was released as an exclusive download single beforehand. The music videos of the other single releases, the fast Orpheus , the ballad Star-Crossed and Renegade Cavalcade were played repeatedly on music TV. Overall, the album v. a. successful again in Great Britain, but not as much as Free All Angels .
Restructuring
In August 2004 Charlotte Hatherley released her first solo album called Gray Will Fade . The previous breakouts were Kim Wilde and Summer . At the beginning of 2006 she left the band in order to devote herself entirely to her solo career. With that, Ash had shrunk back to a trio after 9 years.
Tim Wheeler and Mark Hamilton had both moved to New York by now . So shortly after Hatherley left, Ash rented a studio there and began writing and recording new songs. At the end of 2006 the band played a few gigs in small New York clubs and tested the new song material there. In April 2007 the new single You can't have it all was released. Her album Twilight of the Innocents was released on June 29, 2007. It only reached number 32 in the UK charts at the beginning of July 2007, making it the first Ash album since its trailer that did not enter the UK's top 10.
New strategy
On June 13, 2007, shortly before the release of their album Twilight of the Innocents , the band announced in an official press release that this would be their last album. However, this did not mean the breakup of the band. Rather, no more albums will be released in the future, only singles, which are then put together on compilation CDs. The band sees itself as a pioneer of a new movement brought about by the digital revolution. In this way, the music can then be transported to the fans more quickly and there is no need to wait a six-month period between the completion of the album and its release , as in the case of Twilight of the Innocents . In April 2009 Ash released "Return of White Rabbit", the first of the 26 singles AZ series that came out by September 2010. Each was released digitally and limited to vinyl. They also resulted in two compilation albums. In November 2011 Ash released another Greatest Hits album after Intergalactic Sonic 7 "s (2002) .
Discography
Studio albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
 IE
|
|||
| 1994 | Trailer | - | - | - | - | IE- 1IE |
First published: October 18, 1994
|
| 1996 | 1977 |
DE65 (10 weeks) DE |
- |
CH40 (5 weeks) CH |
UK1  (32 weeks)UK |
IE- 1IE |
First published: May 6, 1996
|
| 1998 | Nu-Clear Sounds |
DE86 (1 week) DE |
- | - |
UK7th  (5 weeks)UK |
IE- 1IE |
First published: October 5, 1998
|
| 2001 | Free All Angels |
DE34 (6 weeks) DE |
AT28 (7 weeks) AT |
- |
UK1 (33 weeks)UK |
IE2 (42 weeks) IE |
First published: April 16, 2001
|
| 2004 | Meltdown |
DE65 (2 weeks) DE |
AT75 (1 week) AT |
- |
UK5 (10 weeks)UK |
IE6 (6 weeks) IE |
First published: May 17, 2004
|
| 2007 | Twilight of the Innocents | - | - | - |
UK32 (2 weeks) UK |
IE26 (2 weeks) IE |
First published: June 29, 2007
|
| 2015 | Kablammo | - | - | - |
UK41 (1 week) UK |
IE27 (2 weeks) IE |
First published: May 25, 2015
|
| 2018 | Iceland | - | - | - |
UK18 (1 week) UK |
IE34 (1 week) IE |
First published: May 18, 2018
|
gray hatching : no chart data available for this year
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Fan Site (English)
- Ash at Discogs (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Complete Idiot's Guide to Ash , themeparkexperience.blogspot.de, April 3, 2007
- ↑ Press release ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Interview with Mark Hamilton
- ↑ AZ Series on the band's homepage
- ↑ AZ Series on laut.de
- ↑ Greatest Hits on laut.de
- ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK IE1 (from 2000) IE2 (Singles Top 25, search)
