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B-sides/Other Lyrics:	Demo Lyrics:
- I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday - 5 a.m. Eternal - Hulk Hogan Bubblebath - Sneaker - Astral Conversations With Toulouse Lautrec - Obscure Thing (Live Vocal Version)	Solar Happy Demo Shed Demo Home Demo Garage Girl Demo Hat-wearin' Fiddle-playin' Jig-dancin' Pipe-smokin' Brick Download all of the demo tapes in .mp3 format at The Ash Files Official Demo Lyrics Sheets: Sheet 1 Sheet 2 Courtesy of Mark Hamilton
Solar Happy (1992 Demo): TRACKS: 01.) Two 02.) American Devil 03.) Goog + Gegg 04.) Solar Happy 05.) Sorry My Friend 06.) No More [Click Here For Information] This was Ash's first distribution of any recorded material. This was also probably the rarest piece of Ash material out there. Solar Happy was recorded in June/July 1992 at Cosmic Ray's 8-Track Studio. However, the studio only had 7-tracks because the 8th track was broken. The cover was designed and drawn by Mark Hamilton. Solar Happy was recorded just 2 weeks after Rick McMurray joined the band. Tim Wheeler's take on Solar Happy: "As far as I can remember Solar Happy is terrible! Rick had only been in the band for about 5 minutes" Solar Happy featured very early songs, none of which were never heard of again except "American Devil" which appeared on the Pipe Smokin' Brick demo compilation tape and played live often in Ash's early shows through 1994. Ash also played "American Devil" during a BBC Session at Maida Vale Studios in October 1994. This version was recorded in CD quality along with early versions of "Coasting," "Girl From Mars," and "Jack Names The Planets." These were Ash's first 6 songs, so I'm sure these songs were played at Ash's very first local gigs in Downpatrick, Ireland in 1992. Shed (1992 Demo): TRACKS - SIDE 1: 01.) Old Guy (Age Concern) 02.) Jack Names The Planets [Demo Version] 03.) Cruelty Street Contest 04.) Little Duck 05.) Different Today [Demo Version] 06.) Waterfall [Demo Version] TRACKS - SIDE 2: 07.) Get Out [Demo Version] 08.) Chorus Pedal 09.) Here 10.) Things [Demo Version] 11.) Intense Thing [Demo Version] 12.) Goodbye Tractor [Click Here For Information] Shed was recorded in September 1992 at Cosmic Ray's 8-Track Studio. However, the studio only had 7-tracks because the 8th track was broken. The cover was designed and drawn my Mark Hamilton (the bassist) and features a picture of a tool shed on it and a guy peering through a window. This demo tape included the first song, "Jack Names The Planets," which was to become a single nearly two years later. It is a very early version of the song. This demo tape really exposes Ash's early dark punk-grunge style with songs such as "Old Guy (Age Concern)," "Cruelty Street Contest," "Little Duck," "Chorus Pedal," and "Get Out." Ash eventually strayed from this style of music by the time their second and most popular album, 1977, was released in 1996. Really, the only songs ever heard of again that were from this genre were "Get Out" which appeared on Trailer and "Cruelty Street Contest" which appeared on Ash's final compilation demo tape, Pipe Smokin' Brick. This demo tape included several songs that would later be released as b-sides and the first recording of "Intense Thing," which later appeared on Trailer, Ash's first album. "Different Today" would later appear on the U.S. version of Trailer. "Things" later became a b-side to the "Petrol" single, Ash's second single. "Waterfall" is unique in the fact that it was recorded again MUCH later as a b-side to the "Candy" single in 2001. "Goodbye Tractor" was Ash's first completely instrumental song. Home Demo (1992-1993 Demo): TRACKS: 01.) Ex Bon Jovi (Slow Long One) [Early Version of Only Friend] 02.) Rick's Riff [Early Version] 03.) A Song 04.) Obscure Thing [Early Demo Version] 05.) Don't Talk To Them [Early Version] 06.) Raptor [Click Here For Information] The Home Demo was recorded at Tim Wheeler's Home in November 1992. It was recorded on a regular cassette player with no studio mixing, so the quality is not very good. "Raptor" was recorded in September 1993 at Tim's Home and added to the demo. Ash also recorded "Happy Halloween" (much later to become just "Halloween") during this session, but it did not make the demo. This demo was distributed with some copies of the Garage Girl demo in late 1993 after "Raptor" was added. Some do not consider this an official demo because it was not mixed in a studio, but nevertheless it contains some real old versions of songs that were later recorded for the Garage Girl demo, with the exceptions of "A Song" and "Raptor" which were never released again. The same version of "Don't Talk To Them" appeared again on the "Pipe Smokin' Brick" compilation demo, although it was re-recorded for "Garage Girl." This demo featured the first recording of "Obscure Thing," which sounds different than any other recording of the song and contains spoken vocals. Garage Girl (1993 Demo): TRACKS - SIDE 1: 01.) La La La 02.) Petrol [Demo Version] 03.) Only Friend 04.) Garage Girl 05.) Don't Know [Demo Version] 06.) Coasting [Demo Version] TRACKS - SIDE 2: 07.) Rick's Riff 08.) Don't Talk To Them 09.) Unlike You 10.) Obscure Thing [Demo Version] 11.) The Little Pond [Demo Version] 12.) Jazz '59 [Demo Version] 13.) Jack Names The Planets [Demo Version] [From Shed] 14.) Intense Thing [Demo Version] [From Shed] [Click Here For Information] Garage Girl was recorded in February 1993 at Cosmic Ray's 8-Track Studio. However, the studio only had 7-tracks because the 8th track was broken. The cover was designed and drawn by Mark Hamilton (the bassist) and contains a girl at a gas station filling her car with gas. This demo tape contained the 2 best songs from Shed which later appeared on Trailer; "Jack Names The Planets" & "Intense Thing." The track "Jack Names The Planets," which originally appeared on Shed, was to become Ash's first single and "Petrol," their 2nd. "Don't Know," "Coasting," "The Little Pond," and "Jazz '59" were later released as b-sides. "Intense Thing" and "Obscure Thing" ended up being re-recorded again for Ash's first album, Trailer. This demo features the second recording of "Obscure Thing," which sounds different than any other recording of the song. This version contains sung vocals, some of which Tim screams raspily at the top of his lungs. "Only Friend" (formerly "Ex Bon Jovi"), "Don't Talk To Them," and "Rick's Riff" are re-recorded versions. Track 8, "Don't Talk To Them," is absent from the tracklisting on the tape's insert but appears on the tape. "Coasting" was re-recorded MUCH later and released as a b-side to the "There's A Star" single in December 2001. A session version of "Coasting" from the 1994 BBC Session at Maida Vale Studios also appeared on a freebie 2-disc compilation CD distributed with Volume magazine called "Volume 14: Reading '95 Offical Volume Special" in 1995. This was the demo tape that gained Ash the attention they needed to start a successful music career. A friend of the band had a friend who knew a man named Stephen Taverner (Tav) starting up a record label called La La Land Records. So, Ash decided to submit the Garage Girl demo to La La Land. After Tav heard Garage Girl, he offered Ash a record deal with La La Land, which they accepted. Accordingly, Ash recorded the single version of "Jack Names The Planets," an early version of "Season," and the b-side version of "Don't Know" for La La Land Records in September 1993. At the end of 1993, Ash released the recording of "Season" on a rare 4-way split 12" with Buttlip, Marabone, and Fat on Raptor Records. This marked Ash's first offical non-demo release. In February 1994 "Jack Names The Planets" was then released as Ash's first single with the "Don't Know" recording as the b-side. This same "Jack Names The Planets" single was later re-released in 2002 with the original 1994 versions of "Jack Names The Planets" and "Don't Know" and included the original rare version of "Season" as a bonus track. Another version of the "Jack Names The Planets" single also exists with the much more common album version from Trailer and a radio edit, released around the time of the Angus movie soundtrack which gained Ash their first nationwide radioplay. Hat-wearin' Fiddle-playin' Jig-dancin' Pipe-smokin' Brick (1993 Compilation Demo): TRACKS - SIDE 1: 01.) La La La [From Garage Girl] 02.) Jack Names The Planets [Demo Version] [From Shed/Garage Girl] 03.) Cruelty Street Contest [From Shed] 04.) The Little Pond [Demo Version] [From Garage Girl] 05.) Obscure Thing [Demo Version] [From Garage Girl] 06.) Waterfall [Demo Version] [From Shed] TRACKS - SIDE 2: 07.) Get Out [Demo Version] [From Shed] 08.) Petrol [Demo Version] [From Garage Girl] 09.) Intense Thing [Demo Version] [From Shed/Garage Girl] 10.) Don't Know [Demo Version] [From Garage Girl] 11.) American Devil [From Solar Happy] 12.) Don't Talk To Them [From Home Demo] [Click Here For Information] Hat-wearin' Fiddle-playin' Jig-dancin' Pipe-smokin' Brick is called Pipe-smokin' Brick for short. Hat-wearin' Fiddle-playin' Jig-dancin' Pipe-smokin' Brick was compiled sometime in 1993 after Garage Girl was released. This was the last demo Ash released. Hat-wearin' Fiddle-playin' Jig-dancin' Pipe-smokin' Brick had no new songs. It is a "best of" compilation which contained songs taken from all of Ash's other demos. This tape was principally released to be sold/distributed by band friend Andrew Johnston on the summer 1993 Decadence Within/Shutdown European tour on which Johnston was roadie. 50 copies were made. "La La La," "Cruelty Street Contest," and "Don't Talk To Them" (my personal favorite demo song) were never heard again after this demo. Once 1994 came around, Ash focused on polishing the other songs for the recording of their first album, Trailer. After this tape, Ash started to compose new songs such as "Season," "Sneaker," "Melon Farmer," "Luther Ingo's Star Cruiser," "Girl From Mars," "Silver Surfer," "Kung Fu," "Uncle Pat," "Day Of The Triffids," and "Hulk Hogan Bubblebath," (all regular songs in their 1994 live setlists) for the Trailer era.
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Links:
Ash Files - My other website. It is a forum based Ash bootleg trading-post type of site -- Your ultimate resource for Ash's live recordings and bootlegs! Ash History - a historic article written by Tim Wheeler in 1995 that tells of Ash's early days and more Ash Official Website - Ash's official site that includes a blog and the Ash Forum. Ash Official MySpace - Ash's official MySpace site that includes regular news updates by bassist Mark Hamilton as well as tons of music videos, a bio, a FAQ, and full-length streaming tracks from Ash's albums. Walking-Barefoot - The most comprehensive Ash fansite around containing news updates, lyrics, a massive gigography, discography, and so much more. Jedisteve's Ash Tabs - This fansite contains tons of Ash tabs and rare and exclusive information.
P.S. You will find similar descriptions to the above demos on the Ash (band) section of websites such as Wikipedia. This is because I submitted these descriptions to those sites. All of this content is original based on my knowledge, thus may have small errors. Thanks goes out to those who provided mp3s of the extremely rare & limited demo tapes for all hardcore Ash fans to hear (Michael Coates, Chad, and Ash (notably the bassist, Mark Hamilton) mostly). -FireSka-
This website is maintained by me, FireSka. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, concerns, website errors to report, lyrics to submit/correct, or just to say hi. xfireskax@gmail.com