The young band from Downpatrick, County down, Northern Ireland, began their way to the mainstream in 1994. Their youthful style and punk pop image was reflected well into their music and at 17 they made their first release. ‘Jack Named the Planets’ was the title of this release. Tim Wheeler and Mark Hamilton had release this with a limited 1000 copies. The media and press sipped up the band and were reeling from their radio friendly sounds. A lot of their success was drawn on the fact that other record companies were searching for a new green day to compete with that band.
For the uk market they signed to infectious records after a long discussion because they were still in A levels. Soon after they released their EP ‘Trailer’. This album placed them onto the music scene and featured some classy styled songs that were instantly listenable like ‘Uncle pat’ and cool like ‘jack names the planets’. Soon after this the band were in the studio creating their seminal hit album 1977. Named after the year of the founders birth 1977 featured hit upon hit of songs that helped them to the top of the chart. The album featured ‘girl from mars’, ‘oh yeah’ and ‘kung fu’. These songs were the main stand out points but the rest of the album was flowing and sonically great. To show their success one of the songs was drafted into the intro of a computer game by the name of ‘Gran Turismo’. This extra push got them into peoples homes who probably wouldn’t of heard of them before. The album was thought to be influenced mainly by the era it was titled from but it also took a great influence from the film ‘Star Wars’. The main song that this is heard in is the end track ‘Dark side, Light side’.
Next on the cards was a step in a more mature direction. The album they were to create from this maturity was 'NU-clear sounds'. It featured a fresher sound that pushed them into a harder direction, which may have shut out some of their original fans. Despite this the songs were successful and one of them was used in the film ‘Road trip’. This new maturity in their sound probably came from the fact they had recruited a new member, Charlotte Hatherlly, originally of NightNurse.
It took three years before the next release from Ash was shown and this pushed them more towards the chart market with the releases 'shining light'. The album ‘Free all angels’ featured poppy alternative songs that would put them back into the charts and put them into the youthful scene again.
Overall the band are pushing the boundaries of youthful punk pop and are still in their twenties so more of them should be on its way.
Bio written by: uglow |
|
Add to Profile
