Gary Walker
They pressed their first record at the same time as studying for their GCSEs, released a volley of infectious chart-topping 7”s and a million-selling album while in their teens; cut 26 singles in a single year, and provoked Eric Cantona into threatening to “spit on your record”. Ash’s next move, in 2007, was to announce that Twilight Of The Innocents would be their last physically released album as the digital revolution took hold and they split from Warner subsidiary Infectious. Thankfully, the band hadn’t banked on the resurgence of interest in vinyl, and this spring unleashed their seventh LP – Islands.
Records remain just as close to the Downpatrick, County Down band’s hearts as when frontman Tim Wheeler, drummer Rick McMurray and bassist Mark Hamilton formed their Iron Maidenaping first band Vietnam as 12-year-olds inspired by their fledgling collections of punk and metal albums.