Olaf Tyaransen reports from the Birthday JD set in Lynchburg, Tennesse, which featured performances from such acts as Hugh Cornwell, Roisin Murphy and Ash's Tim Wheeler.
Written in France at Bono’s house, no less, it seems that all the excitement of meeting the man himself made Tim Wheeler forget the basics of creating a song. Stuff like melody. Remember that Tim? From a band who brought us ballads as strong as ‘Oh Yeah’ and ‘Shining Light’, anything less than perfection is a disappointment, and this is a wishy-washy track that’s as uninventive with the string section as is with the lyrics. Cool packaging though.
Tim Wheeler out of Ash recounts their near-miss in America. Meanwhile, the worst of their injuries - drummer Rick's - may cost them Reading and Leeds slots
Last year their Oh Yeah proved to be the star turn of the night, with Neil Hannon guesting on vocals. This year, they ve been nominated in three categories and are looking forward to Awards night with some anticipation. Tim Wheeler of Ash talks to STUART CLARK about that once-in-a-lifetime free CD, the upcoming HEINEKEN HOT PRESS shindig in Belfast and the new album the band are currently in the throes of making.
30th Anniversary Retrospective: On the eve of the release of their fifth album, Ash talk longevity, writing songs in Bono’s summer house and why Twilight Of The Innocents is not a pipe-and-slippers album.
No, she doesn’t hate Tim Wheeler but yes, she does look up her own chart position first. A solo Charlotte Hatherly on Bowie, Star Wars and life with and without Ash.
Along with thousands of other ex-pats, Ash singer/guitarist Tim Wheeler has made the Big Apple his home. He explains why he fell in love with the city.
You can’t but hark back to the days when Ash made good punky pop music. But thank goodness for the fantastic Nine Black Alps. The Manchester boys possess the same youthful energy which Tim Wheeler and company used to churn out at the drop of a hat.
There was much quaffing of champagne in the Ash camp last week as Sir Paul McCartney presented Tim Wheeler with an honorary companionship at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts.
MY VITRIOL are young, angsty and ambitious. They talk to NADINE O’REGAN about fame, their debut album, Finelines, and the merits of female bass players
John Walshe travels to Berlin to see Ash in superlative live form on Paddy's night. And no wonder: the band reckon their new album, free all angels could put them in the Michael Jackson league! plus: why they're so down on Louis Walsh, Westlife and Ronan Keating and so up for Bono, John Hume, David Trimble and - wait for it - Darius of Popstars. Flash photography: Mella Travers
With ‘Yellow’, Coldplay captured the imagination of even the most resistant of hard-boiled rock’n’roll cynics. Now, as A Rush Of Blood To The Head achieves lift-off in the U.S., even the sky is no longer the limit.
In summer 2003, Ash played their biggest ever shows to date at Knebworth and the Phoenix Park alongside Robbie Willaims. Tim Wheeler chose to sport a Thin Lizzy T-shirt for the occasion, paying homage to a lifelong hero.
Tim Wheeler from Ash, Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol and Radio 1’s Colin Murray are among the active supporters of a project to establish a dedicated music centre for Belfast.
PHIL LYNOTT would have been 50 on 20th August this year. Here, PETER MURPHY profiles the legendary Philo, and talks to other stars about his enduring influence.
To celebrate their tenth birthday, Ash are releasing a Best Of double CD, jammed with their 17 ass-kicking singles and featuring "selected highlights" from the B-sides. The title? "We don't have one at the moment," says Tim, "so if anyone's got a good idea, send them to us"
You cook them, we serve them up in the Q&A cantina. At the table to answer the questions posed, in our second serving this fortnight, by members of hotpress.com: Ash
Having dominated the charts here for the past ten years, Ash are gearing up for a full-scale invasion of America. Stuart Clark dons his hard hat as Tim, Mark, Rick and Charlotte tell him about their new record of mass destruction Meltdown, and the A-list celebrity company they’ve been keeping in the city of angels.
Stuart Clark – himself a black belt in origami – discovers how The Ramones and kickboxing chinese detectives have helped Ash to overcome their sordid heavy metal past and become Top of the Chops.
Peter Murphy catches up with former Ash guitarist Charlotte Hatherley to talk about 'crazy woman's music', writing songs and collaborating with XTC's Andy Partridge.
Muse opened up the Heineken Weekender in Galway with an emotionally charged show. Offerings included the wonderful ‘Uno’, current hit ‘New Born’ and a selection of hard-hitting tunes from 1999’s Showbiz album.
The Rentals are fronted by former Weezer member Matt Sharp and buddies, and the sound is not a million miles away from the geeky American college kids style of Matt's previous band.
The mother of Philip Lynott has seen her home in Dublin double as a place of pilgrimage for fans of the Irish rock legend – and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
John O’Neill of legendary northern rockers The Undertones talks to Colin Carberry about the creation of their most famous hits, becoming godfathers to a new generation of garage rock heroes, and why the band won’t be happy until they’ve written a multi-million selling album.
“A scene that results in Pete Doherty isn’t much to celebrate,” declare Bloc Party as they outline their plan to save UK rock from the heroin chic brigade. Also up for discussion are Elton John, Ash, Thin Lizzy and why they’re nothing like Franz Ferdinand. Honest. Photos by Liam Sweney.
STUART CLARK collars Divine Comedy mainman Neil Hannon for a brief but highly intimate chinwag as they both take a break from drinking the bar dry at the Heineken/Hot Press Rock Awards in Belfast.
Ash guitarist Charlotte Hatherley impressed a lot of people here last year with the quirky guitar pop of her debut solo album Grey Will Fade. hotpress catches up with her as she wows the masses at Japan's Fuji Rock Festival.
Back at the turn of the decade there were three mad bands from Downpatrick Vietnam, Lazer Gun Nun and Confusion. The first of these dropped the dodgy heavy metal element and became Ash. The second toned down the Stooges sound to give room for the Backwater experience. Two-thirds of the last act have come back to haunt us in the form of Griswold.
Snow Patrol and Ash are just some of the North’s rock ambassadors who have given their backing to the Oh Yeah Music Centre, a state-of-the-art multi-media development which will put Belfast on the international musical map.
U2 and Ash played Belfast to support the Yes Vote in the Belfast Agreement. Hot Press columnist Stuart Bailie was the compére for the evening. And it rocked, big style.
Sixteen is a state of mind that, like that summer feeling, haunts you the rest of your life. It’s a quickening of stirrings into one overwhelming surge of sense and sensuality: cars, girls, noise, boys, surf, sand and sea breezes.
1977 went straight to No. 1 in the UK and spawned four hit singles. By the time the group came to record the follow-up, Nu-clear Sounds, they were still only 20.
As is often the case when bands have a whole host of new material they're itching to try out, the crowd become slightly restless midway through the evening. The Meltdown material sounds great, but there's no getting around the fact that we've come to hear the old favourites, and the band know it.
He s so vain, but brian molko is also one of the most astute men in rock n roll. Having put his hedonistic days behind him honest! the placebo mainman talks to stuart clark about martyrdom, maturity and Marilyn Manson.
It’s all about broken down tour buses, Alan Partridge, high speed collisions, Moby, broken ribs, Mina Suvari, MTV stars and David Bowie as Ash launch a sonic assault on America. So riddle me this: can Ireland’s hardest-working rock’n’roll outfit crack the big one?
From the profound and the insightful to the weird, funny and just plain daft, Paul Nolan rounds up what the famous and infamous had to say for themselves in 2004...
John Walshe had a ringside seat for all the music, speeches, laughs and tears that made the 2002 hotpress Irish Music Awards in Belfast a night to remember.
Older and wiser but still mad for it, Oasis have delivered their best album in years. In an exclusive – and expletive-filled – interview Liam Gallagher holds forth on fatherhood, brotherly love and explains why Coldplay and The Killers are limp-wristed also-rans.
When I first started showing a real interest in music, and buying 7'' singles every week in Downpatrick's 'Sounds' for my 99p pocket money, videos weren't as available.
Never mind figgy puddings and partridges in pear trees, there’s some serious seasonal business to be done as the annual HP-7 summit gathers in the crucible of cultural discourse that is The Central Hotel’s Library Bar.
Elstree, remember me, went the old Boggles tune. The location is a far-flung suburb of north London, former nerve centre of an entire B-movie industry, now home to television shows like East Enders, Holby City (wandering through the corridors, your correspondent comes across a room identified by the rather ominous notice: Make-up - GUTS), and of course Top Of The Pops.
He was a literary sensation, a writer with the outlaw charm of a rock star. But when rumours began to circulate that JT LeRoy was nothing more than a post-modern media prank, Peter Murphy, a friend and confidante, found himself caught up in an extraordinary story.
‘Everything Is Average Nowadays’ and ‘Heat Dies Down’ emerge as decent enough tracks that benefit greatly from Rick Wilson’s much-lauded onstage charisma.
It goes without saying that at this stage SNOW PATROL are an incredibly polished live act, with the likes of ‘Spitting Games’ and ‘Chocolate’ electrifying the venue early on.
He may have been a mere whippersnapper when the punk wars erupted in London- but Stuart Clark hustled his way into the Roxy when it was all happening, and survived. At least, we think he did!
It's time for the birthday JD Set to celebrate Jack Daniel's birthday, where britrock legends Brett Anderson, Carl Barat and John McClure join forces for a unique collaboration - and talk bout media manipulation, Jade Goody and, aaah, premature deafness!
Q: Which top Irish quiz-masters’ pathological obsessions include Something Happens, Shamrock Rovers and the amount of shopping days left to the next Suede gig? A: George “You Started, So I’ll Finish” Byrne
