Brimful of Ashes

Today is Ash Wednesday, a day of fast for many Christians and a reminder that Easter will be upon us in six weeks. It’s been decades since I took part in the rituals associated with the day, but for the last few years I’ve been using it to remember the musical trio from Downpatrick in the county of Down in Northern Ireland. Ash formed there 21 years ago and have released half a dozen albums since. They haven’t released any original albums since 2007, though, as the band has decided to focus exclusively on singles instead of the lengthier format. So, today I’m going to look at a couple of songs that appeared on singles by the band and also a couple of singles from a time when singles ruled. Punk Boy is a song by a Welsh band that formed in the same year as Ash and are named after their lead singer. Ash’s version of the Helen Love song appeared on the filp side of their 1995 single, Petrol. Who You Drivin’ Now? was originally released in 1991 on Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, the second album from Seattle grunge band, Mudhoney. Ash’s version is taken from a 1999 EP that also saw the band performing songs by Ween and Nirvana

The Return of Ash Wednesday

It’s Ash Wednesday today and, like last year, I present a number of tunes for the day that’s in it. Warmer Than Fire by Little Hell is performed here by Northern Ireland’s Ash (pictured) and it appears on Cosmic Debris, a bonus disc with 2002’s Intergalactic 7″s. Emm Gryner recorded Ash’s Shining Light on her Songs of Love & Death album of Irish covers from 2005. David Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes has been covered loads of times since its original release in 1980. Recently, Warpaint were one of two acts to each record a version for We Were So Turned On: A Tribute to David Bowie. Last year’s post features another cover of Ashes to Ashes, loads more tunes from Ash and a couple of songs about Ash Wednesday. This one is dedicated to Dan O’Sullivan, a fellow fan of Ash and Wednesday

Warmer Than Fire (Little Hell cover) – Ash

Shining Light (Ash cover) – Emm Gryner

Ashes To Ashes (David Bowie Cover) – Warpaint

Ash Wednesday

In honour of the day that’s in it, here are some tunes by the band from Downpatrick in County Down. The three-piece from Northern Ireland have been together for nearly twenty years and I’ve been a fan of them since their first album, 1977. The band’s punk-pop sound had been augmented for a while by the inclusion of Charlotte Hatherley on guitar, but has reverted to its original line-up in recent years. In 2007, the band announced that they would be only releasing singles for the forseeable future. This is not a bad idea for the group as their single releases have always stood head and shoulders above their album tracks. Here are songs covered by Ash that have appeared as extra tracks on some of their singles and on tribute albums. It should be obvious that the Buzzcocks and Nirvana were influences on the band and it shouldn’t really be a surprise that the music of Abba and Motown were also influences on them. Like their predecessors The Undertones, Ash’s sound has always combined elements of both punk and pop. Another contemporary pop star from the North, Neil Hannon, joins the band for a version of their song, Oh Yeah. Peter Wilson (aka Duke Special) is from Belfast and he brings out the spiritual side of Shining Light, a song that has also been given a piano-based cover by Emm Gryner. We move away from Ash and Northern Ireland to New Zealand and Bic Runga’s version of Ashes to Ashes. The final two songs actually concern Ash Wednesday. Elvis Perkins is the son of the actor Norman who died on September 12th, 1992. Nine years later, his mother died as a result of the attack on the Twin Towers. He wrote the songs on his album Ash Wednesday about her; the first side is about her life up to 9/11 while side two focuses on its aftermath. I got Mary Catherine’s Ash Wednesday Journal Entry by Christine Kane from this Star Maker Machine post. Nice. I’m off now to take the chicken out of the oven