Ash review: Size is not important..feel the music quality

I HATE to say this, but I'm not sure Ash’s music is made for stadiums.

The idea of the Northern Irish three-piece splashing out on huge light shows and stunts just seems wrong when their polished rock sound and anthemic choruses are totally at home in dark, dirty clubs.

It’s not that they can’t carry it off in big venues—I’ve now seen Ash in crowds of 300, 1,000 and more than 10,000 and they pulled it off every time.

But the music is the main draw and I reckon they should leave the big production epics to those concerned with style over substance and just let the audience feel the quality of classics like Girl From Mars, Oh Yeah and Shining Light.

My point was proved when Ash’s A to Z Tour rolled into Rotherham after more than two weeks on the road for their long-awaited date at The Vault, being the R between Queen’s Park and Swansea.

As venues go it’s (intentionally) a long way from the “academy” circuit and its medium-sized arenas.

Indeed, a ceiling beam over the stage left towering bassist Mark Hamilton in serious danger of banging his head and he was barely an arm’s length from drummer Rick McMurray, who gave his drumkit a thunderous workout.

And to enhance the up-close-and-personal feel, the front row of a joyous audience was within touching distance of the stage.

But it’s hard to imagine that Ash could have gone down anywhere else better than they did at The Vault, where an intimate crowd of about 300 was treated to a blistering 90-minute blitz basically amounting to a greatest hits set with some new songs thrown in for good measure.

Vantage points with a decent view of the stage are few and far between at The Vault (luckily I grabbed a good spot on some steps), as frontman Tim Wheeler pointed out in the first of several brief, genial exchanges with the audience.

Referring to the cellar club’s structural layout, which divides the crowd in half, Wheeler noted: “It’s an interesting stage set-up here, but we’ll still all have a good time anyway."

How right he was. Having sworn off albums two years ago in favour of releasing a single a fortnight over the coming year, the band have no need to fill their touring set with new album tracks, so it’s packed with a 14 years’ worth of hit singles, anthems and rockouts.

Particularly popular were old favourites Kung Fu and Jack Names the Planets, each given a frantic going over.

A relentless mid-section, to the delight of a steaming, bouncing audience, featured pounding versions of Meltdown, Orpheus and Star-crossed.

Ash are grown up now, with families and responsibilities, like many of their fans, but they clearly still relish playing to enthusiastic crowds in cramped, sweaty clubs. And why wouldn't they?

For all the freshness of new singles True Love 1980 and Joy Kicks Darkness (the latter has yet to completely win me over), it was obvious that many of the crowd had turned up for a flavour of 1977, the CD which shot to No 1 in 1996.

It was fitting then that the set fizzed into life with album opener Lose Control—still a powerful slice of guitar rock—while Angel Interceptor, one of the few singles to name-check cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, was also given a pulsating airing.

By the time 2001 single Burn Baby Burn brought matters to a roaring finale, it was evident that the rest of Ash's national tour of smaller venues is going to give fans a thrilling rare chance to get close enough to see the whites of the band’s eyes.

As gigs go, this was one to savour.

And on this showing, rocking Rotherham will welcome Ash back with open arms any time.