Ash performed at a trouble hit Z008 festival on Saturday despite problems with promoters and bands canceling. Dizzee Rascal, Athlete, The Rascals and Wiley were among the bands who scrapped sets at the Zoo8 event. Mark Ronson, The Cribs, The Hives and Ash were among the acts who did appear. There were also issues with the facilities, while the second stage was closed for much of the festival after its tent became unstable.

Ash’s performance was also in doubt with bassist Mark Hamilton quoted as saying “We didn’t know if it was going to go ahead earlier on. There were a lot of issues with the promoters.”

it is understood the band were meant to be paid half of their fee before the performance and half after. When this wasn’t the case the park’s managing director Bob O’ Connor had to step in to pay the band and their performance went ahead as planned.

The band did eventually play a 12 song set, which ran as follows: Meltdown, Burn Baby Burn, A Life Less Ordinary, Orpheus, Shining Light. , Ichiban, Kung Fu, You Can’t Have It All, Orpheus, Oh Yeah, Girl From Mars, Twilight Of The Innocents.

Ash bassist Mark Hamilton spoke to O2 Making Waves during the bands 2007 December tour in Dublin to find out what it’s like to be back on the road, those rumours about this being their last ever album, and the bands plans for 2008. Catch Ash on O2 Making Waves at podcastingireland.ie.

Ash have posted another interview on their official website this time with bassist Mark Hamilton. In the interview Mark explains when they will start releasing songs straight through the internet.

‘I think next spring, once we’ve finished touring ‘Twilight Of The Innocents’, we’ll probably start releasing stuff straight away. We’ve already got some songs that never actually got recorded for this album. As soon as we have the time, we can just go into the studio and start recording them.’

Mark also confirms ‘End Of The World’ as the next single and explains that the long-awaited ‘Slashed’ horror film may get released.

‘We’ll probably start getting a plan together for ‘End Of The World’. We want to come up with some good creative ideas for that. And I’m going to finally edit the slash thing and put it up on YouTube. I think people should be quite interested to see a video of Chris Martin getting murdered!’

There’s a new interview with Ash drummer Rick McMurray up on the official Ash site in which he recalls memorable Ash performances at the Reading/Leeds festivals over the years, promo plans for new single ‘You Can’t Have It All’ and the lowdown on Ash’s upcoming European tour.

Walking Barefoot would like to wish Ash bassist Mark Hamilton all the best of his 30th birthday today.

There is a new interview with Ash bassist Mark Hamilton up on the official Ash website, the first of 2007, in which he reveals the album is nearing completion and that mixing will start on January 15th.

Also Ash are featured in this weeks issue of NME, you can see a scan of the article on Ash’s myspace site.

Here’s a quick update from Ash bassist Mark Hamilton about what’s happening in the Ash camp.

“A pre-album tour will be announced soon and we’ll start ‘leaking’ stuff in Jan. It just seems right to wait until in the new year.”

“Things are going ahead with the new website. We’re getting Warners to install the Vbulletin software then we’ll get cracking on getting it up and running.”

Ash bassist Mark Hamilton gives us the latest update from the studio where the band are currently recording there new album. Mark details the bands plans for the rest of the recording sessions, possible B-Sides, album names, artwork and when live dates can be expected. Check the offical Ash site for the full interview.

Ash bassist Mark Hamilton has spoken to NME.com about the bands new album. The article runs as follows:

Ash tell all about new album
Ash bassist Mark Hamilton has spoken exclusively to NME.som about the details of their forthcoming album, due for release next year.

Recorded in the band’s Manhattan studio, the have recorded 14 tracks, with plans to record “a few more” in full, before choosing the final tracklisting for the album.

With elements of Bob Dylan, Beck and even Motown influences, they revealed that several of the songs even hark back to the days of 1996 debut album ‘1977′.

Hamilton likened potential album opener ‘Girl Who Can’t Be Owned’ to “a Foo Fighters track, with a Dylan-esque melody” while ‘Suicide Girls’ is “more in the vein of earlier classic Ash. Nathan (Connolly) from Snow Patrol loved it when he heard it”.

He described ‘Shadows’ as “a slower number with a bit of a retro-vibe. The bass line is a bit of Motown in the verses and it’s got pretty heavy lyrics about the effects of breaking up”.

And ‘Polaris’ was written at a very famous band’s villa. “Tim (Wheeler, frontman) wrote the main hook line on a piano at U2’s villa in the south of France. The original dictaphone recording is also used in the intro of the track. There’s an underlining U2 vibe to the overall song”.

Hamilton added: “There’s quite a mash of styles, instruments and samples on ‘End of the World’ which gives it a Flaming Lips or Beck feel”, and he described their recently live debuted ‘What is the Meaning?’ as “a pretty straight-up fast punk rock track with personal and dramatic vocals. Tim sings in a state of confusion asking for answers to what is going on in his life, it’s kind of autobiographical”.

According to Hamilton, “The tracks are still developing in the studio and all of these songs will not make the album.”

Recorded so far are:

‘Girl Who Can’t Be Owned’
‘Suicide Girls’
‘Shadows’
‘Roulette’
‘Princess Six’
‘Polaris’
‘Dark and Stormy’
‘You Can’t Have It All’
‘End of the World’
‘Blacklisted’
‘Shattered Glass’
‘Saskia’
‘What is the Meaning?’
‘In Hell’

The album, the follow-up to 2004’s ‘Meltdown’, is set for release in 2007.

Ash bassist Mark Hamilton answers questions about the bands recent show at the Annex and the on-going recording of the new album in the eigth installment of the bands on-line studio journal. The full interview can be read on the bands official website.