As Tim Wheeler comments tonight Glasgow is like a second home city for Northern Irish rockers Ash, they always pull a decent crowd in the city and tonight is no different with well over one thousand fans turning out on a very cold November Thursday night for the Ad Astra album tour with the album being released in October. They were in Glasgow earlier in the year supporting The Darkness at The Royal Concert Hall and the year before that it was a tour alongside The Subways at the O2 Academy.
The timings couldn’t have been more perfect tonight: the train up to Glasgow from Ayrshire had us in the West End venue for 7.25pm just as Isle of Wight band Coach Party were about to take to the stage. We have been waiting to see Coach Party live for well over two years now and thankfully the night had arrived … and they didn’t let us down! Album number two Caramel was released a couple of months ago and you can read the Bring The Noise review here. As expected the set would focus mainly on the songs from that album with no less than seven from the LP, but there was still time for a couple of the older tracks in Be That Girl and Parasite. We were loving every minute of the half-hour set, can’t say the same for most of the crowd though that were very static. The last song of the set Girls! was a standout as vocalist Jess Eastwood invited the crowd to join in with the chorus of “where the fuck are my girls?”. The new songs were all delightful to hear live especially the high energy Disco Dream while the punk energy during Still Hurts was a great takeaway memory, we’re looking forward to the Coach Party headline tour early in 2026 even more now. 9/10
Hailing from Downpatrick, County Down, Ash were formed way back in 1992 and now have an impressive nine studio albums behind them including latest release Ad Astra. The trio are Tim Wheeler (vocals & guitar), Mark Hamilton (bass) and Rick McMurray (drums) and the first thing we notice is how tight they are as a unit, from the first song Zarathustra, the intro track from Ad Astra. The first four songs are actually from the new release with the title song Ad Astra being an early standout, Fun People and Keep Dreaming were the other two early pace setters. The first track from the 1977 album is Goldfinger that gets a decent response from the crowd, there is nothing too rowdy about the audience tonight just quiet melancholic head nodding and that perhaps proves that the hall is filled with fans who have grown older alongside the band. Deadly Love from Ad Astra is played live for the first time tonight and is appreciated all round while another new one Which One Do You Want? has bassist Mark Hamilton showcasing his body shape moves, it is also interesting to note that he plays a three-string bass throughout the set … he really is a man of few words and instead expresses himself through the music and movement on stage.
At forty-eight years old Tim Wheeler looks like he has barely aged since the 1990s, his guitar skills when on the v-shaped instrument are almost verging on metal music at times, he is a master of his craft that’s for sure. Race The Night was the previously released album in 2023 and the title track is the only one we get from that particular album, Shining Light is dedicated to former Stone Roses bassist Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield who sadly passed away earlier in the day, the crowd stand in silence remembering the passing of another great musician. Oh Yeah and Sometimes get the energy levels up again while Harry Belafonte cover Jump In The Line is a joyous moment that sparks a mass singalong among the crowd during the chorus. One of our standouts from the new album is Hallion, a humorous and delightful song as is Kung Fu, a short but sweet number from the 1977 album.
After disappearing from the stage for a couple of minutes Tim Wheeler reappears by himself to play a solo song from Ad Astra with My Favourite Ghost being the tune, followed by the always brilliant Girl From Mars and final song of the twenty one track set Burn Baby Burn. The crowd energy lifts big time for these two last songs and everyone leaving the venue with big smiles on their faces proving that Ash are just as relevant now as they were all those years ago. 10/10
Written by: Alan Brown
