ULU
London, United Kingdom
Show notes
Part of the “Higher Education” UK tour. Supported by the V Formation. “Roulette” was an early title for “Ritual” while “In Hell” was a working tile for “Twilight of the Innocents”.
Set list
- Lose Control
- Burn Baby Burn
- Angel Interceptor
- You Can’t Have It All
- Orpheus
- Goldfinger
- Ritual
- Renegade Cavalcade
- Walking Barefoot
- Polaris
- A Life Less Ordinary
- Oh Yeah
- Girl From Mars
- Twilight of the Innocents
Encore
This was Ash’s last gig of their first UK tour since Charlotte Hatherley left two years ago. Naturally, there was a sense of apprehension amongst the crowd; nevertheless as Ash emerged, thrashing out the blistering build up to Lose Control through an explosion of strobe lighting, this feeling was completely shattered. They then broke into Burn Baby Burn; a faultless choice of song for the crowd to sing along to, and another pre-Charlotte Hatherley song, Angel Interceptor.
With songs in the set as summery and uplifting as Orpheus, Renegade Cavalcade, Goldfinger, Walking Barefoot, A Life Less Ordinary, Oh Yeah and Girl From Mars within minutes of one another, how could anyone have left the ULU without a massive grin plastered across their face.
Returning to their former line-up, the band still manages the stage well as a trio. Tim Wheeler wields his guitar as Mark Hamilton slings around his massive bass, stomping and swinging his way around his end of the stage, whilst Rick McMurray pounds his drum kit standing, sitting and pulling faces at the crowd. The band manages to cover the guitar parts of the Hatherley period well. Hatherley’s vocal contribution was occasionally missed however, most noticeably from the vacant harmonies of Vampire Love.
After minutes of fans screaming for a well deserved encore, Ash returned to the stage to play Petrol from their debut album, and the poignantly edged I Started a Fire. This is their debut post-Hatherley song, yet it is already developing into the mass crowd sing-along song it is soon to become. It was at this point that Tim explained that they did not want to return to the venue after a bad gig they had there in 1996, but after the brilliant gig tonight he and the crowd were inevitably glad they did.
They finished on Vampire Love and Kung Fu, where in the intro Mark Hamilton was summoning the crowd to fight, and Rick stood to get the crowd clapping in the break down of the song. They left the stage to rapturous applause, thanking the crowd profusely, with Rick returning to the stage to take a couple of laps of honour.
Seeing Ash at such a low key gig was as incredible as you could imagine, and judging by the four new songs played tonight, a very promising album is on its way.
Review by Claire Wathen (realbrighton.com)