The thing about Ash...
An anonymous Ash fan writes...
I first discovered Ash the summer I was 14, these were the days when music television was actually pretty good and you could watch it for hours without actually having to turn over in disgust. My tastes at the time were fairly eclectic, I was into all the usual suspects my friends were into; Nirvana, The Offspring, Muse, Placebo some unfortunate so called “crappy punk”, you know the Blink 182 type thing, some older 70’s and 80’s brilliance and then there were the bands who produced one or two fairly great singles that summer but you wouldn’t be interested in buying an album. This is where Ash were different, Burn Baby Burn was getting some good video play and I liked it, plus Ash were easy on the eye, which helps a lot when you’re fourteen and deciding which bands you want to follow. My friend, helpfully, had Free All Angels and used to play it a lot when I was round, as I was for most of the summer, her mother demanding that Candy be put on and singing along in a strangled cat sort of way. It didn’t put me off.
A few weeks later I was at the other side of the country (long story) and preparing for a ten hour journey home. This was in the good old days of the CD walkman, where you carried a selection of your favourite CD’s around in a wallet and choice was rather limited. Tired of the CD’s I was dragging around I set upon a quest to buy a new one for my journey. I found myself in a music store in Southampton, a Virgin Mega-stores if I remember correctly, browsing the isles looking for inspiration. What had I heard that I liked? What band would I like to hear more of? Oh yeah, Ash. They seemed pretty good. I found a copy off Free All Angels and proceeded to the counter with my prize where the excited southern sales assistant told me it was a special edition. Cool. Cut to commencement of ten hour coach journey; insert new CD into good old CD walkman, play, hooked. Ten hours and I listened to nothing else. Thus began the start of a new era.
Like any band conscious obsessive teen I had to have everything I found relating to my new found favourite band and I had to know everything about my new found favourite band. I had to know every album, every song, I stuck pictures of them over my school planner (that might be a little sad), requested the songs on jukeboxes when I was out, other bands had to wait. I found the Ash website, joined the message board. Got confused and didn’t join again for a good long while, maybe a year, when I found myself bored in a business studies class at school (advice: do not take business studies). Meanwhile the other bands that had dominated over that summer faded into insignificance, their songs became annoying, people forgot about them. My tastes changed, CD’s accumulated dust as I didn’t listen to them any longer. But not Ash. Why? Why though, when most of the other bands that took my fancy during that summer are lucky to get a play in my house anymore? Why, when I find it hard to admit that I even liked some bands during that era was I still a proud Ash-fan?
I never joined any other bands forum and talked with other fans, I can’t remember why, they must just not have been that interesting. The Ash forum was a good waste of time at school, the people were fairly interesting, and there was always something worth reading. Admittedly some people seemed rather scary and intimidating but newbie-bashing is just part of internet life; you get through it and hopefully learn not to be such a tosser. Then you start to meet these interesting people at gigs and discover they are a cracking bunch, even the previously intimidating ones, other Ash fans that you can share you fandom with. It makes you more likely to go to more gigs, when with other bands you wouldn’t bother because you wouldn’t have anyone to go with and you wouldn’t have such a good time. It makes you more likely to go back on the forum, even when there’s no album out, all is quiet, just because you like these people and you want to see what they are doing, how they are. Plus you meet the elite of the fans, they lead you to Ash.
The first time I encountered Ash close-up I was too drunk to actually clearly remember or hold any sort of coherent conversation with anyone, so I don’t count that. The second time I don’t think I really said anything, that’s what happens when you are seventeen and in awe because you are in a room with your favourite band and you’ve previously only ever (remembered) seeing them on TV, in magazines or above you on a stage. Plus there were a lot of other fans about who weren’t in a state of speechless awe and could hold conversations. The third time I did better, I was unfortunately drunk again but not too much and I remember having an amazing night, talking with the guys and coming home thinking “wow those guys are legends, they are really nice”. That’s the thing with Ash I think, they are three nice guys who have a lot of time for their fans, however drunk and weird, and they put a lot of effort into cultivating a relationship with the fan base. How many other great bands do that?
So six years later, Ash are still my top band, not just because they continue to make brilliant albums, never seem to pander to current trends and just do their own thing and are in general just a fucking great band but because underneath the steely rock star exterior they are three great guys and they have a great set of fans who make the gigs what they are, people you know you are going to be friends with for a long time yet and all because you liked the same band. It would be so easy to hate Ash, they were famous and touring the world at an age when most of us are stuck in our parents house reading Shakespeare for A-levels whilst working weekends for minimum wage in some God-awful place, they are talented musicians, all unfairly better looking than most of the general public and also seem to have managed not to age at all in the past ten years (seriously, it’s pretty odd). The thing with Ash though is you can’t hate them, they are too nice, too good at what they do and not at all arrogant about it. Twilight of the Innocent’s already sounds like it is going to be an amazing album and I hope this is going to be the album to give them the recognition they deserve. The charts are unfairly dominated by artists nobody will even care about in five years, like all those bands who had the good couple of singles when I was 14. They have gone, Ash remain and it is time more people realised what an amazing, enduring band they really are.