Ash // Ad Astra LP // Instores & Outstores // October

ASH

INSTORES & OUTSTORES // OCTOBER

AD ASTRA LP // 3 OCTOBER [featuring Graham Coxon]

UK & IRELAND TOUR DATES // ON SALE NOW

To coincide with the release of their forthcoming ninth studio album Ad Astra via Fierce Panda Records on 3 October, ASH have unveiled details of seven intimate Instore and Outstore shows. Tickets available here: https://ash-official.com/pages/shows

Containing eleven brand new tracks, including their raucous take on surprise single and Beetlejuice staple Jump In The Line and the most recent single Give Me Back My World, the Ad Astra album sees Graham Coxon appear on two particularly sassy songs and catches the perennial power pop kings in typically rocket-fueled form.

INSTORES & OUTSTORES // OCTOBER

Fri 03 BRIGHTON Resident Records (Instore)

Sat 04 LONDON Rough Trade East Records (Instore)

Sun 05 LEICESTER 2 Funky Café (Truck Records Outstore)

Tue 07 NOTTINGHAM Rough Trade Records (Instore)

Wed 08 KINGSTON Circuit (Banquet Records Outstore)

Thu 09 LIVERPOOL Baltic Jacaranda Records (Instore)

Fri 10 EDINBURGH Liquid Rooms (Assai Records Outstore)

Ad Astra follows hot on the heels of Race The Night – the band’s highest charting album for 20 years – and is being released two years and one month later, which is no coincidence. Always a band that lives for live music, Ash vowed that the fierce pandemic-induced five-year chasm between 2018’s Islands and 2023’s Race The Night would never happen again.

Pre-order Ad Astra HERE

Jump In The Line video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjvOJ6Co53k

Give Me Back My World video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uJppcr-lRY

By focusing on the endless horizon of galaxies far, far away and staring into an endless black hole Ash have somehow ended up creating a cohesive whole. There is classic Ash power-pop rocking action with the blistering purity of Hallion, the crunchy chuggings of Keep Dreaming and the furious sonic lunges of Dehumanised. But equally you can’t fail to succumb to the glorious swooping jangles on Which One Do You Want? – a whirl from Marr’s canon for sure; My Favourite Ghost and its acoustic elegance, floating on strings of desire; and Fun People (feat Graham Coxon) is quite simply one of the maddest, punchiest songs they have ever recorded.

As if creating this lovingly optimistic opus wasn’t enough to be getting on with, they’ve kept themselves busy elsewhere. Since Race The Night came out, they’ve run riot at SXSW in Austin, played Belfast for Steve Lamacq during Independent Venue Week, headlined the 100 Club in London for BRITS week and toured Australia. Already this year, they’ve amassed the masses at Glastonbury for the eighth time – equaling the multi performance record of Van Morrison – and toured the UK with The Darkness.

In short, three decades into a career peppered with timeless indie-punk nuggets and wildly inventive gigging and releasing concepts, the trio shows no sign of slowing down. To infinity and beyond indeed. Or as Rick McMurray gently muses …

“The title Ad Astra, the worst kept secret of the last month, points to ideas that became a big identifier back in 1995, but they’re updated with 30 years life experience. I’ll leave you to compare the differences, and with the thought that while the optimistic innocence of 1995 might have been tempered by those 30 years, if you look to the stars, you might still feel a glimmer. Of hope.”

And for those of you wondering, Ad Astra is Latin for “to the stars”, the words that came out of a teenaged Tim Wheeler’s mouth in the summer of 1995, setting up the classic chorus to the band’s first Top 20 hit Girl From Mars.

To celebrate the album release of Ad Astra, Ash embark on a huge touring schedule from this autumn into the early part of next year as follows:

SEPTEMBER

Tue 09 LONDON Scala

Wed 10 LONDON Scala

Fri 26 VALENCIA, SPAIN Visor Festival

OCTOBER

Tue 14 FUKUOKA, JAPAN Zepp

Thu 16 OSAKA, JAPAN Zepp

Fri 17 NAGOYA, JAPAN Zepp

Mon 20 SENDAI, JAPAN Gigs

Tue 21 YOKOHAMA. JAPAN KT Zepp

NOVEMBER