Those crazy fellas behind the classic singles Burn Baby Burn and Shinning Light came to Southampton Guildhall last year, and we managed to catch up with them before the show began....

We had loads to talk about with them... 
For instance why they curiously announced that they were ceasing to release albums, and dealing only in singles following the release of their last studio album Twilight of the Innocents last Summer...
And why they got rid of the girl...she has a name, sorry Charlotte...
Oh and they’ve aged a bit since they were bathing in tubs of champagne...
There’s certainly a lot to talk about...but we talked about other stuff instead... so as not to bore them with typical music journalism talk...

Excited about tonight?

Mark - Yeah, it should be good, it’s the last two of our shows on tour, so we’re all pretty excited I think.

Rick – It’s also one of the biggest venues we’re playing on the tour too, we had to bring our own lights and stuff to fill the stage. We’ve got cameras here too tonight, because we’re hoping to use some of the footage in a DVD or something, so we’re going to do our best to make it a great performance.

How’s the tour been so far? Has the new stuff been well received?

Tim - Yeah brilliantly, especially the final track in the album, Twilight Of The Innocents, we’re closing the shows with it.

Mark – it’s got some of the longest tracks we’ve ever done, we’re playing sets getting close to two hours, and we’re mixing in tracks we haven’t played for nearly ten years.

Can we expect any of the old stuff?

Rick – Yeah, the lot, everything we’ve ever done is potentially to be played.

Tim - We have a set list of about forty five songs to choose from every night, and we’re mixing up the set lists each time, which makes it pretty exciting to play, and very different each night.

You preceded this album with a Higher Education tour, how was it playing to students compared to more adult crowds?

Tim – Because it was much smaller venues that we played, they were that much more intimate.

Mark - We did Southampton University actually, back in march, it was the hottest gig we’ve ever played!

Rick – It was too hot! We were dying, I had to throw my shirt away after that.

You said that this is going to be the last Ash album, can you explain a bit about that?

Tim - We just don’t like the way that with albums you’re locked into a cycle – you make an album you take a year off, you tour, then you spend a year making the next one. So we’re planning to release separate singles, so we can get them out a lot quicker and spend more time touring and playing music.

You made some big changes to the production and the line-up of the band between albums, how’s that affected the production and the sound?

Tim - I don’t think the sound so much, but I think the fact that we were all in separate countries when we recorded it, and then all went into a new studio to produce it. And going back to being a three piece - we tried to focus the sound a lot, going back to just drum, bass and guitar on each track, to keep it pure.

And will you be producing all your albums yourselves in future?

Rick – Absolutely, sometimes it’s good to get someone else’s influence, but it’s important to us to just make good quality music, and now we’ve proven we can do it ourselves that we can do it after producing this last record entirely on our own.

What’s it like being famous so young?

Rob – A bit weird! But we must be doing something right because we’re all still together, still making music.

Is it true you picked your name from the shortest word you could find?

Tim - It is! We started with Aardvark, but got a bit bored, so we plumbed for ‘Ash’.

Rick – We just wanted something snappy really, and ‘The Clash’ was already taken Rick McMurray.

 

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