Ash - Teenage Wildlife - 25 years of Ash

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Twenty five years of red hot music by Ash

Ash have been around as a band now for twenty five years and wow does that make me feel old, back in my student days they were one of the acts that me and friends saw many times live. We are talking about ‘1977’ era Ash here for anybody that wants to question that I might be an old git by now. But less of me and more of what we are here to talk about, as a celebration of marking their silver anniversary they are re-releasing all the songs they have put out thus far. 

From the heady days of their debut mini album ‘Trailer’, first full album ‘1977’ all the way to 2018's release ‘Islands’ all eight albums have their tracks on there, 54 songs in total. Now it was quite a memory trip with ‘Kung Fu’ and ‘Girl From Mars’ all featured bringing me to sweaty nights at the Astoria (or Ashtoria) as they christened it a classic venue that’s now sadly a part of Crossrail. 

I must admit I somewhat lost track of them abit in the late 2000’s so it was also great for me to hear all those tracks I had missed. I like the simplicity of just releasing the songs too, a number of these “best of” style albums end up with hundreds of tracks and four or five versions of the same track, I don’t need the version of ‘Burn, Baby Burn’ recorded on a pan pipe in a shepherds hut in Mongolia that was never meant to be heard, they just give me the version the band want me to hear. 

I also like the fact that the songs are mixed up and not just in chronolofical/ album and in fact is one of the real selling points I think, you get a new one I was less familiar with and followed by an old classic and love it for that. They have always been very good at spinning a cover and making it their own so it was a bonus to hear Carly Simon’s ‘Coming Round Again’ and ‘Teenage Kicks’ all with a bit of Ash added. 

The fact they have come out with new material for 25 years, kept it fresh and kept people interested in something not many can say, I think this has appeal all round for the reasons stated, you get their whole career in one place, whenever you found or lost them it’s certainly time to re-acquaint yourself (or even discover for the first time) with the Alternative Rock Ash can offer. See you down the front when  they play them live next month. 

Check Out! the Video for 'Girl From Mars (2020 Remaster)' Below...