Ash announce Dublin and Belfast headliners

Buoyed by the news that one of their earlier tracks, 'Burn Baby Burn', has been given the prestige accolade of being selected for...wait for it...the GCSE Music curriculum (!), Ash have announced a rake of new shows at home and abroad for late '18.

Heard yesterday that Burn Baby Burn is one of 3 songs on this year’s GCSE curriculum. The irony is that I wasn’t allowed to study GCSE Music in school I have this to thank for my deep understanding of Physics which I studied instead pic.twitter.com/WLBNjXhvWq

— ASH (@ashofficial) September 2, 2018

They put on an absolute stormer at Electric Picnic over the weekend, proving that they've lost none of their sheen after nearly three decades together.

The band released their seventh studio album Islands earlier this year to critical acclaim and are touring the UK and Ireland to celebrate its release.

Islands is the trio’s seventh studio collection. Released in May of this year on Infectious Music, it’s an open-hearted set of songs dealing with love and loss, friendship and betrayal, identity, salvation, redemption and rebirth… all the important stuff. Pound-for-pound, it’s also the strongest, most exhilarating long player of Ash’s storied 26-year career, an album which reaffirms the trio’s status as one of the most idiosyncratic and singularly thrilling guitar bands on these islands.

The title of the band’s new album alludes to the unique environments in which its constituent songs were birthed. In the spring of 2016, following a whirlwind Japanese tour to close out the touring cycle for 2015’s Kablammo! album, Ash frontman Tim Wheeler undertook a visit to the picturesque island of Naoshima, renowned worldwide for its modern art installations, architecture and sculptures. Wheeler found the island’s tranquil, meditative atmosphere conducive to both reflection and creativity, and as he immersed himself in his craft, new song ideas began to ferment and flow.

Islands is a cathartic collection for the singer, inspired, says Wheeler, “by me trying to get my head around a break-up that didn’t make any sense to me.” Self-produced, and recorded at the band’s own Atomic Heart Studio, where every Ash release since Twilight Of The Innocents has been committed to tape, the album cycles through the full Kübler-Ross grief model - denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance – with Wheeler laying bare his emotions in unflinching detail.

Ash will perform at The Academy, Dublin on December 19 and Limelight 1, Belfast, on December 20.

Tickets for Ash go on sale this Friday at 9am