Manchester O2 Ritz
22 September 2021
Images by Warren Millar Words by Peter Goodbody
It’s a while since we saw Ash playing live. Probably 15 years, or thereabouts. Since then, they had more or less dropped off our radar. There are a few CDs on the shelves in the den. That’s where they’ve stayed, unloved and unplayed in favour of newer, brighter, shinier things.
Until now. Well to be fair, they still remain gathering dust. We only need a trip to iTunes to get up to speed. We discovered the band released a 25 year celebration best of CD “Teenage Wildlife”, in February last year. It’s a monster, running to 54 tracks. Given the band has only released six albums in 25 years, this may be thought to a bit ambitious. As a “best of” it’s more like a retrospective. But that’s being picky.
They’d planned a tour to celebrate their quarter century as a band, but, guess what. The world fell off a cliff and, well, we all know the story. Listening to “Teenage Wildlife” as a bit of prep for this review, we can’t help feeling the years when Charlotte Hatherley was part of the band were probably the best and most creative. She brought an extra kick to the band. Their current three piece line up is probably a mistake and it lacks a bit of depth. The Manics can pull it off, The Jam made a decent go at it, too, but we think Ash may be limiting themselves.
So, this was going to be an interesting one. Let’s keep an open mind and see what has happened in the Ash world, all those years since we last saw them, supporting The Darkness at the Manchester Arena. Yup, we’re that cool. Or we were. You decide.
“Hello Manchester. We’re gonna play some rock & roll music”, which is precisely what the evening’s openers, London’s The Gulps, proceeded to for the next half an hour. We immediately got waves of New York Dolls from this aggressive, thrash rock. They definitely have the moves and the snarly look that fits perfectly. The 7.30 slot on a three band gig is often unkind and you sometimes feel like it’s the very short sample of a pile of many longer straws. Not these guys. They gave it everything and didn’t care about the fact the room was nowhere near busy. If they stick around, you’ll be hearing more from them soon. Finishing off with “King of the Disco”. Yeah, really, this set was outstanding and some of the best fun we’ve had before 8 pm since, well, whenever.
Indoor Pets have a tough act to follow. They just about get over the line, but it’s close and we’re not quite sure they won this particular two horse support race. A more playful psych / pop thing to start with is going down well with the room. And it’s fine. They’re a good fit as support for Ash. There are obvious similarities in their styles and sounds. The band’s bass player has such an impressive mane of long hair that we doubt he saw any of the audience all set, nor even anything else much. The set builds and gets heavier (and therefore better in our world) in the second half. Their last song would probably have gone down well at a Megadeath gig.
The name Indoor Pets, of course, conjures up images of kittens and hamsters. If you can think of the complete opposite of an indoor pet, then you’re pretty much there with understanding this band. They were a new one on us and we recommend you have a wander over in the direction of their YouTube channel.
And, so to ASH. Who may be a three piece or a two piece with added drums. It’s a semantic point. Blasting open the set with Goldfinger, they were clearly not going to take even one single prisoner from the start. You know what Ash sound like and this was essentially a greatest hits set, which is nothing more than we’d expected to get. The band seemed to be genuinely happy to be here and the audience were obviously even more pleased to see Ash.
As an evening it was a crowd pleaser from both sides of the crush barrier. Ash were in their element and we could tell. In a sense, the band could do no wrong. And they didn’t. It was a flawless trip through the life of Ash and all the better for it. We’d guess the band has been gagging to get gigging again (see what we did there) and so too were most of the audience. A night of joy and love. Oh, and fair number of air guitars too.
This was not the place for innovation. It was the place for a damn good time. And Ash did what was asked of them. But, as someone who searches out the new, then, The Gulps pretty much stole the night. They were just immense.
Ash set list:
1.) Goldfinger
2.) Wildsurf
3.) Oh Yeah
4.) A Life Less Ordinary
5.) Walking Barefoot
6.) Shining Light
7.) Let’s Ride
8.) Orpheus
9.) Arcadia
10.) Sometimes
11.) Darkest Hour of the Night
12.) Confessions in the Pool
13.) Buzzkill
14.) Kung Fu
15.) Cocoon
16.) Angel Interceptor
17.) Jack Names the Planets
Encore:
18.) Another Girl, Another Planet (The Only Ones cover)
19.) Girl From Mars
20.) Burn Baby Burn
FOLLOW ASH
FOLLOW INDOOR PETS
FOLLOW THE GULPS
Warren is a live music and festival photographer based in Cheshire and covers gigs/festivals mostly in the North West of England. He has been photographing live music for over 10 years and has covered major artists and festivals
