You’ve just done an extensive European tour with The Darkness - what was it like playing Arena’s in Germany with a classic rock band?
It was a blast and we played on great form. We got to go to a viking ship in Norway and do all sorts of other weird things. We always try and play many places in Europe - this time we did about 12 shows in Germany alone. They seem to really like us there at the moment.
As a band, Ash are younger, prettier and have had way more hits than The Darkness. Do you think they’re secretly insanely jealous?
Oh, I don’t think so. We first met them at Knebworth last year at a Robbie Williams show when they were first on the bill and I watched them every single day and was blown away. I kinda grew listening to bands who sounded just like The Darkness so to see it come back with such panache and with such a sense of fun is great. I actually said to Justin that I reckoned this time next year he would be headlining Reading - and it happened. I’ve never seen such a meteoric rise before
You’re playing the Astoria - once nicknamed Ashtoria when you played there - again
Yeah, I don’t think there’s anywhere else in the world that we’ve played quite as much. I’ve totally lost count of the amount of times. We once did five nights there and it was a real defining moment for the band. It was then we realised that we were here to stay. But this show is going to be a bit special because its a triple Downpatrick band bill, which in the past would have been pretty much unthinkable.
So who else is playing?
We’ve got The Answer, who are like Led Zeppelin meets The Who, with a bit of The Verve in there. Their drummer James actually filled in for Rick (McMurray, Ash drummer) on a tour in 1995. We were still at school at the time, except for Rick who was at university and wouldn’t take the two weeks off, so James stood in. His band are fantastic. The other group is Acidtone, who are opening. They’re sort of managed by Mark (Hamilton, Ash bassist) and are all about 15 years old. They’re influenced by Rage Against the Machine, stuff like that. You look at them and think ‘How are these wee guys making that much noise?’ It’ll be a great buzz for them, though they’ve already played at Download this year. So the night feels like quite a big deal - all us country bumpkins taking over the capital!.
In that case do you have any surprises planned for the evening?
It’ll be our last headline show of the year, so its just a chance for us to let our hair down. We’ve got about 40 new songs, so maybe we’ll drop one or two in there. A mix of old and new. Who knows we may play a christmas song.