With the lads enjoying a few well-earned days off, we called up Rick at home in Edinburgh for a bit of a natter.
Hello Rick! So, the big news this week is that you’ve announced your Reading festival slot?
Yeah, we’ve been dying to tell everyone that it’s happening because we’re so excited about it. We’re headlining the big tent. We’ve played some great, great gigs in there. I think the last time was in 2001 around Free All Angels. The tent was rammed and there were thousands of people outside trying to get in.
Is it fair to say that Reading is Ash’s favourite festival?
Yeah, definitely. We have such a history there and we just love playing it. It seems to be more our crowd than any other festival and we’ve got great memories of it. Like going back to 1995 we played the tent and it was totally rammed with all these crazy people climbing up the central pole. And we had a really great gig on the main stage around 1997 too. We do definitely look at Reading as the highlight of the festival season. The crowd are just so up for it.
You’ve also announced a German tour?
That’s right. And we’ve got a European promo tour coming up as well, so we should be out in Europe for four or five weeks, which is always a lot of fun. The last time we were out there, there was a lot of craziness. It was Mark’s birthday and it was carnage. And it’s his 30th when we’re out there this time, so I’m sure we’ll celebrating that in style too!
You seem to have picked up where you left off on the partying front.
Yeah, I did rather well on the UK tour. I think I was the last to bed every single night on the bus. So, yeah, I’m keeping the flag flying.
Does it get harder as you get older?
Well I think we’re all sticking to beer and wine these days, so that we can cope with it a little better. But we had three TVs on the tour bus, loads of DVDs and we didn’t watch a thing. We just sat there drinking and yacking away to each other every night.
So you enjoyed the UK tour?
Oh yeah, I think it was probably one of my favourite tours of all-time. It was such a buzz getting back to it and everyone seemed to really appreciate the shows. I think being away from touring for such a long time really gave us that hunger. Plus there was the excitement of getting back to a three-piece.
And the reception at the gigs was pretty amazing.
Yeah, there was some craziness going on. I remember looking up during ’Girl From Mars’ at the ULU gig to see this girl in a white shirt crowd surfing closer and closer to the mosh pit. But then once she got to the edge of the mosh pit she went down like a sack of shit! I almost stopped playing because I thought she must’ve broken her neck. But I saw her after the gig running around drinking, so no permanent injuries!
Have you started getting feedback about the album?
Yeah, people seem to be really excited about it. There’s been a really positive response to us going back to the three-piece. After the gigs, a lot of people said it sounded bigger and more direct. In fact, we haven’t really heard a bad word about missing the extra guitar or the backing vocals. The thing we found when Charlotte joined the band, was that a lot of people were a bit weird about it, questioning why we’d done it. And I was sort of half expecting the same response now that she’s gone, so it was kind of a relief that people didn’t seem too bothered. And the crowds seem to have been filling in for her backing vocals too. Maybe we should mic them up!
How are things going with the new single?
Seems to be going well, but I noticed myself feeling a bit tense yesterday! I guess it’s important for the album that the single does well, so you do get a bit nervous. But we’re gonna be pretty busy leading up to it, so that’ll keep our minds off it. We’ve got a Lauren Laverne T-Mobile live show on Friday, then we’re doing some recording for various Channel 4 stuff on Monday and it looks like we’ll be doing a bunch of instores around the single as well. I know worrying about it doesn’t help, but you can’t help it. So I’m going to relax and watch Countdown today.
Are Tim and Mark back in New York at the moment?
Yeah. I think they’re coming back over at the end of the week. And then we’ve got an interview with Colin Murray next week, on Radio One. It’ll be good to see him again. We’ve known him for years, because we come from the same place.
When did you meet him?
Well he used to run this magazine in Belfast called Blank. I think he was the first person to interview us when Charlotte joined the band. We hadn’t actually announced that she’d joined, but we were doing a gig with her at the Limelight in Belfast and Colin came along to interview us. So he sat down to do the interview and there were four of us sitting there. He was like, “Who the hell is she?!” So, yeah, it’ll be good to see him and give him a bit of ribbing about Fame Academy.
Did you see him on that?
I did, yeah.
Did you rate him?
Um, well let’s just say he definitely had a lot of enthusiasm. Actually, I saw him doing “The Boys Are Back In Town” on it. The last time I saw him onstage while that song was being played was at Derry One Big Weekend when he was pretending to fellate Tim, while he sang it!