Guaranteed real teenagers

Guaranteed real teenagers, promised the debut mini-album from Belfast’s radio-friendly punks, Ash. Three boy hardcore action boasted their tongue-in-cheek T-shirts at the Reading Festival. Yup, Tim, Mark and Rick have certainly got a way with slogans, but drummer Rick, having reached the age of 20, can no longer lay claim to the teenage tag. The hardcore action, on the other hand, is never in doubt.

Jon Ewing met up with Rick on the eve of yet another tour to discuss their rapid rise to fame.

Taking a break before going to Japan in October, Ash are resting before the next two months on the road: Australia for two days, back to the UK for gigs in Leeds, Nottingham, Wolverhampton and London, then five weeks in America “in a shitty van”, partly as headline act and partly supporting Babes in Toyland. It’s a hectic schedule.

Since their first single, “Jack Names the Planets”, came out in February ‘94, they’ve been working hard to take their punkish, melodious wall of sound to the people of England, with almost wholly positive results. Originally discovered by publicity gurus Bad Moon PR (Nirvana, Hole, Smashing Pumpkins etc), Ash signed up with manager Stephen Taverner in early ’94 and released “Jack Names the Planets” on his label, La La Land. The band had already been together for two years, getting nowhere fast.

“We were just recording demos,” says Rick, “and every spare bit of cash the three of us had was put into the band to try to get somewhere. Eventually we just worked our arses off. We played a few gigs round Belfast, but there’s not much of a scene where local bands can get to play.”

Not easy to get spotted by an A&R man.

“No, there aren’t any. Unless they’re on holiday. It was just luck, really. Luck and good songs.”

The trio then came over to England and played three or four gigs in London and a couple down on the south coast. Stephen Taverner had arranged for record companies to come and see them and before long they were signed to Infectious, home of Pop Will Eat Itself, who released their debut album Trailer.

The drummer always gets the least credit. Is that fair?

“It’s okay. You get to take it easy… and sit down during a gig. It’s alright. It doesn’t make much difference being up the front and I love performing. It’s great. I love playing the drums. Tim comes out with all the songs and practically all the lyrics, but our manager was out in America and he got hold of CMJ magazine and it said I was ‘Ash’s secret weapon’, which I found quite amusing. Half the review said the songs are good and the rest just talked about how great the drums were. Maybe it was a drummer writing the review.”

You’d be lucky to get that kind of credit from the press in this country.

“I’d be lucky to get that from the rest of the band.”

Ash are now signed to Reprise in the US (home to megabucks punks Green Day) and the US college music scene beckons, although it’s early days yet. “It’s fine while they’re buying the drinks,” says Rick, cautiously, “but you have to treat it lightly. They were taking us out for meals all the time and they took us to Magic Mountain. Don’t have a heavy drink in there and then go on the Freefall, like I did. It goes up ten stories and then just drops you.”

It’s amazing to think of these kids going to play in America when it’s only a blink of the eye since they first left Belfast.

“I suppose if you look back it seems to have happened quite quickly, but not to us. Menswear and bands like that, from the outside it seems like it’s instant for them. We’ve been going for three years.”

Does being on Top of the Pops or magazine covers mean much?

“Well, you don’t say ‘Oh, I don’t care’; it’s nice to get that sort of publicity. But at the same time, it’s just a cover - they’ll probably be slagging you off next week, anyway.”

The one thing that everyone knows about Ash is that they are all really young and this year they’ve been doing their ‘A’ Levels. It’s the only thing that’s sunk in about who they are. Is the ‘A’ Level thing a millstone around the neck?

“Yeah, I guess so, but we’ve thrown it off now, ‘cos we’re finished.”

Were your results published in the NME? “Well, mine weren’t, ‘cos I did mine last year” [he got three As. Clever, good looking and a rock star. Bastard]. “Mark dropped out half-way through the year; he was sick around the time of his exams, but he still passed Art, even without doing the exam.”

Since then, there has hardly been a break from work. It’s been non-stop on the road. We’ve been all round England with a few gigs in Ireland and then we were in Scandinavia and Germany. And when they’re not playing live, they’re recording with a variety of choice producers from David Gedge to Owen Morris.

Do you work in the studio pretty quickly? “Not with Owen, no. Every time we’ll be recording for a couple of hours and he’ll say ‘Right, down the pub for a swift half’. And we end up staying in the pub for about two hours getting pissed. The more you work at it, it gets quicker. We normally end up pushed for time, ‘cos we’re down the pub so much.”

Did you watch yourself on Top of the Pops? “Yeah, we were down in the studio. We got a few beers in, sat and watched it and cringed.”

Did you used to watch as a kid? “To be honest, I think I did watch it, but it just went over my head. Tomorrow’s World came on after and I was more interested in that.’

What was your first musical influence? “It was pretty sad - erm, Heavy Metal.”

Every 12 or 13 year-old boy goes through that phase. There are a few records, like Paranoid by Black Sabbath, that are a good influence.

“Exactly. For me, looking back, it was something that got me into music and then you mature and realise that it’s a load of crap, basically. Actually, I watched my AC/DC video the other day. It was dead good, actually, especially Bon Scott. They were good then. When you’re younger you think ‘Yeah, Angus is dead cool’, jumping about like an idiot. That was the first time I’d watched it in about five years and I thought ‘The songs are alright, Bon Scott was a great frontman, but Angus was an idiot’. When I was even younger than that, my brother was into the Who and the Kinks and stuff like that. He used to bring those records home and I’m kind of getting into them now.”

Ash don’t really fit into any scene right now. Their press release calls them a popcore trio which is journalese for loud guitars with melodies - but although they’re hip enough for the weekly music rags, the average punter seems to be ready to listen to their brand of punk music on the radio. “Well, I dunno about that… the first album sounds pretty punky, but we’re changing, listening to lots of rock and stuff, the Stooges, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones - quite a lot of old music. There’ll probably still be a sort of punk edge, but I don’t think we fit into the traditional sort of punk thing. There’s a basic guitar, bass, drums thing, but there’s more going on. A lot of melody.”

The singles have all been very catchy and melodic, but the B-sides have seen Ash spread their wings a bit, such as a version of “Cantina Band” by film composer John Williams.

“We’re just really into Star Wars. The song’s cool. The Cantina Band did it in the first movie and we thought we’d have a go at it.” You don’t read those sad books, do you?

“The Star Wars ones? No. I think Mark does, but not me.” There’s a book of stories called From The Mos Eiseley Cantina. “I think Mark’s got that one.”

It’s rubbish, apparently, the worst one so far.

“I don’t think he would even dare to criticise it. If it’s got Star Wars on the cover, it’s bound to be great. I’m not quite that bad yet. The B-sides to “Angel Interceptor” are even weirder. We decided to record this song we wrote ages ago [“5am Eternal”] and then we took a little bit too much space cake and started getting all these weird keyboards and whooshing noises. And then we did a cover of “Gimme Some Truth” by John Lennon, the electro-pop version. It’s - phew - I don’t know…”

Is that the kind of thing you really enjoy doing?

“It’s a chance to experiment. I wouldn’t say it was throwaway, just very spontaneous. Most of our B-sides have been very strange. I’m not really sure where they’re going.”

There won’t be a new album before June 1996, but Ash are writing songs right now, despite the pressures of work. And they still haven’t even spent any of their hard-earned money. What’s holding them up?

“There’s not really much point yet. We’re too busy. I bought a new drum kit over the summer, but I haven’t paid for it yet.” That doesn’t even count cos it’s tax-deductible. What about luxuries?

“I’m more into sleeping. Just being at home. I was actually woken up by the police this morning.”

Why? What have you done? “Well, last week our manager’s assistant sent some CDs of “Angel Interceptor” off to us - one each - and mine didn’t turn up. I was going to phone up today and tell her it had got lost in the post and then my brother came to my room today and said ‘The police are here. They want to speak to you. They’ve got a CD.’ Apparently the package had the wrong address on it - half of the address was the address where I live, but she got the town name wrong and I’ve moved house, so it went to some poor geezer’s house and he called the bomb squad. So I was woken up but a policeman saying ‘Is this your CD?’ It had been through the X-Ray machines and everything!”

By Jon Ewing