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Ash have shared a “long lost” song, ‘Bittersweet Blue’, which they say was “30 years in the making”. Listen below.
The track was originally written before the Northern Irish trio recorded their seminal 1996 debut album, ‘1977’, which is being reissued to mark its 30th anniversary.
They subsequently performed it live while supporting Therapy? in 1995, before committing it to tape in early ’96. ‘Bittersweet Blue’ was becoming a beloved song among the band, though frontman Tim Wheeler improvised the lyrics on stage due to it remaining unfinished.
Now, three decades on, ‘Bittersweet Blue’ has finally been completed. Fans can purchase the single as a seven-inch vinyl record here, and watch a brand-new accompanying music video.
“After we began to play ‘Bittersweet Blue’ live, it was probably the best part of 20 years before that song was mentioned again, when our back catalogue moved to a new home to be digitised,” drummer Rick McMurray explained.
“That’s when we discovered there were some missing master tapes!”
He continued: “Fast forward a decade, and as we prepared to put together the soon-to-be released 30th anniversary package, our resident super sleuth, detective [Tim] Wheeler, resolved the ancient mystery, discovering it had been mislabelled way back when.
“However, this was far from the end of the saga because what we had was a usable drum take, bass, some rhythm guitars, a scratchy vocal and not much else. Not even lyrics.”
McMurray went on to say that Ash “asked the impossible” and Wheeler “delivered, getting in touch with his teenage self, writing lyrics and resurrecting this long lost treasure for your listening pleasure. And if that’s not enough sonic time travelling, we have visuals to match.
“It made perfect sense, with all of the above going into this, for us to shoot the video back in the rehearsal space in the band’s formative years. It’s where we played the song for the first time all those years ago. And it means so much to have this space immortalised for all time.”
McMurray concluded: “30 years in the making; this is ‘Bittersweet Blue’. We think it’s turned out pretty damn good. Hope the wait’s been worth it!”
Ash are set to embark on their ‘1977’ 30th anniversary UK and European tour this November, following their shows in Southeast Asia, New Zealand and Australia. The forthcoming run will conclude with a sold-out gig at the Roundhouse in London on December 17. Find any remaining tickets here.
Meanwhile, this summer saw Ash surprise fans at Kendal Calling by taking to the stage under the guise of a tribute band. They were also presented with gold discs for their hit single ‘Girl From Mars’ from ‘1977’.
Last September, Ash shared a double A-side single with contributions from Blur‘s Graham Coxon. Around that time, frontman Tim Wheeler joined Coldplay to perform ‘Clocks’ at London’s Wembley Stadium.
The group’s ninth and latest studio album, ‘Ad Astra’, arrived in autumn 2025, following on from 2023’s ‘Race The Night’.