Oh Yeah!
Tim Wheeler on 30 Years of Ash.
By Darren Croft
Photo credit: Roger Sargent
Thirty years on from the release of “1977”, Ash are still proving that great songs never go out of fashion. The Northern Irish trio’s platinum-selling debut propelled them from teenage upstarts to one of the defining bands of the Britpop era, delivering a string of timeless anthems that still pack a punch three decades later.
With a 30th Anniversary Edition celebrating the album’s legacy and a UK and Ireland tour on the horizon, frontman Tim Wheeler chats with Loaded on the record that started it all, the unlikely story behind ‘Goldfinger’, and what it feels like to revisit the songs he wrote at just 18.
We also find time to ‘bring up’ Tim’s infamous MTV moment, discuss the band’s refusal to fit neatly into any one musical box, and discover why, even after all these years, there might still be a few lessons to learn from his teenage self.
You’ve been quite busy since last time we spoke.
Yeah, we were touring our album, Ad Astra; now we’ve come straight out of festival season, and we’ve started touring “1977”. We did Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. So yeah, quite busy. It’s been really cool.
We had a bit of a celebration back in May around the 30th Anniversary of our album “1977”, and it’s been great seeing all the love for the album again.
Do you think there might have been a few USA dates in there had you not vomited in the MTV studios all those years ago? Sorry to bring that up, if you excuse the pun.
Haha. Yeah, we are looking to do something in the States next year, but yes. Hey, maybe we would have been doing arenas if that hadn’t happened.
Does it feel different when you're touring the album these days?
We played it so much back in the day that it feels really easy now. We’ve been through the 10th and 20th anniversary shows too, so we kind of know how these gigs go. It used to be a rare thing that artists would play an entire album, but now everyone does it. Even U2.
It’s a very different pressure than when we were touring Ad Astra last year, and we were still getting to grips with the material and still finding new things about it. This time round it feels very familiar.
I think I appreciate it more now I have a greater perspective of life. Especially considering we were teenagers when we wrote the album. The fact that it still stands up thirty years later is incredible.
Does it amaze you that you wrote “1977” when you were just 18 years old?
Yeah, but there are certain aspects of the songwriting that I’ve moved on from. There were some really complex chords and key changes that I was doing in the middle of songs. I liked to really complicate things. I had quite a super-skill back then, but I’ve not had the urge to write quite like that since. Maybe I should?
There were so many influences wrapped up in that album. Was there one in particular that you were channelling?
I think we were sponges to everything we were hearing. Working with Owen Morris was great. He opened our minds to things that we maybe thought were uncool, and made them seem cool. There was punk rock stuff mixed up with some Ziggy Stardust and even ABBA.
This made it difficult to categorise you…
It touches industrial as well as dance music and various other genres. It made it easier to keep people's interest. We were on the cover of Smash Hits, Kerrang! and NME simultaneously, so that probably confused people. We were accepted by everyone.
You guys met at school, and there definitely seems to be a link between that and band longevity.
Yes, U2 were at school together, and so were Coldplay and Starsailor. There’s something about forming a bond at school. There might be something about being a school band that gives you thick skin, ‘ cause everyone takes the piss out of you.
Is it true that you came up with the name Ash by looking in the dictionary? If so, you didn’t look very far, did you?
Haha! Yes, it is true. Most of my favourite bands at the time had one syllable, and I was looking for a one-word band name. It took a long time, and eventually I saw it and went with it. It’s nice that it’s at the front. It helped in the old days with the CD racks.
There’s an American singer called Ashe. Have you had any contact with her?
No, but at least she’s spelling it differently. There’s also another guy called Ash. He’s Canadian/Egyptian. He started touring, and it was getting complicated. We were getting his fans turning up to the show. The thing is, the streaming services do not care, so in the end we just feel there’s not a lot we can do.
You could do a collab and call yourselves Ashes To Ashes.
I love it. Yeah, maybe there’s a split single to be done there.
1997 is one of these albums, which is absolutely packed full of great singles, but Goldfinger- which turned out to be your biggest hit- almost missed out.
Yes, I kept finding new ideas for it. Every few weeks I’d come back to it and try something new, but I thought it was too weird to be a single. I thought it might make a nice B-side. We wrote Kung Fu as a B-side, and it ended up as a single.
Owen Morris came to my parents’ house in Northern Ireland and stayed for a couple of nights. I was playing him loads of song ideas, and he didn’t look that impressed. I didn’t play him Goldfinger until the end, and he was like, “Why the fuck didn’t you play this earlier? It’s fucking amazing!” Thank God he pushed me, or who knows.
We finally found the track Bitterweet Blue. We sent it away to be transferred, but it came back as completely the wrong song. We’d moved record companies a couple of times, so we just assumed it was lost forever. It was discovered at BMG recently, so we finally released it as a single this year. It was weird to revisit it thirty years later.
Is it true there were a number of highly inappropriate working titles for the album “1977”?
There were a lot of comedy ones floating around. For a long time I was really bad at finding titles for albums and singles, but yes, there were a few bad ones floating around. I’m going to blame our old guitar tech, Lee, for that. He was a comedian. They were quite funny at the time, but quite unrepeatable now.
Originally released in 1996, “1977” is the #1 platinum-selling debut album that launched Ash from teenage upstarts to Britpop-era icons. Three decades on, this 30th Anniversary Edition celebrates the album that defined a generation with its breakneck energy, razor-sharp hooks and unforgettable anthems including ‘Girl From Mars’, ‘Goldfinger’, ‘Kung Fu’ and ‘Oh Yeah’. The 30th Anniversary Edition will be available on 2LP EcoRecord Green & Black ‘InkPlosion’ vinyl in a Gatefold Sleeve, 2CD Digisleeve plus booklet, and digitally. Pre-save / Pre-order the new collection HERE.
The band are also kicking off a tour in the UK and Ireland shortly. Full details at ash-official.com.