Ash biography
Charlotte Hatherley, Nu-Clear Sounds and Free All Angels (1998-2004)
During their time touring with Weezer, Ash felt the limitation of a three-piece band. As a result they recruited Charlotte Hatherley who had previously been with the band Nightnurse and she made her gig debut at a few small gigs a week before appearing at the V Festival in 1997. The first single that she appeared on, "A Life Less Ordinary", featured on the soundtrack to the Ewan McGregor / Cameron Diaz film of the same name.
In September 1998, Ash released "Jesus Says" the following month the second album proper, Nu-Clear Sounds, and in November "Wildsurf". The stress of near non-stop touring of 1977 and Nu-Clear Sounds began to affect the band's mentality. In 1999, Tim Wheeler disappeared for a short while following the commercial and critical failure of Nu-Clear Sounds. He eventually emerged in New York making the self-deprecating, blood, drug and sex fueled video for Numbskull. A note for Stephen Taverner attached to the video said, "I've killed Bambi".
Ash nearly became bankrupt as they prepared to release possibly their last album. Luckily, this was not to be the case. The band retreated to Wheeler's parents' house, to play and write songs in the same garage where the band began. The single "Shining Light" was released in January 2001, followed by the number one album Free All Angels in April. Subsequent singles released from Free All Angels were "Burn Baby Burn", "Sometimes", "Candy", and "There's a Star" . The single "Shining Light" won the "Best Contemporary Song" award at the 2002 Ivor Novello awards. A new single "Envy" was released, followed shortly afterwards by the singles collection Intergalactic Sonic 7"³s with the bonus disk entitled Cosmic Debris. Q magazine named Ash as #2 of its "50 Bands To See Before You Die".
In 2003, it was leaked to the music and tabloid press that Ash were working on a horror film described as a 'teen slasher'. The film, called Slashed, was shot while the band were on tour in America but some scenes were also shot in the UK. The screenplay, written by Jed Shepherd and directed by Alexander Marks included star roles by Chris Martin (Sherbet Bones) and Jonny Buckland (Agent Ford) of Coldplay as a pair of FBI agents hired to track down a supernatural serial killer. Other star performances include that of Moby, James Nesbitt, Dave Grohl and Ash themselves. The film was never generally released to the public.
Meltdown and Hatherley's departure (2004-2006)
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On 29 June 2004, Ash released
Meltdown, which reached number five in the UK. At the same time Hatherley also wrote and recorded her solo side project album
Grey Will Fade. The band teamed up with Lucasarts for a new Star Wars game entitled
Republic Commando. "Clones", taken from the album
Meltdown is the first licensed music to be used in anything Star Wars-related. "Meltdown" and "Orpheus" are featured on the popular British movie,
Shaun of the Dead as well as appearing on the in-game soundtracks for the video games NHL 2005, Burnout 3: Takedown and Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition. Also featured is their cover of the Buzzcocks song "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" featuring Chris Martin on backing vocals. The song "Vampire Love" was featured in American Pie Presents: Band Camp. Starcrossed and "Renegade Cavalcade" were later released as singles from the album.
Meltdown was released in the US on 8 March 2005, through Warner Bros. Records imprint Record Collection. Also in 2005, Tim Wheeler received a companionship (an honorary degree) from LIPA (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts).
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