The Northern Irish band on jamming together at school, booze and breakdowns, and being a weirdly functional family Tim Wheeler, Mark Hamilton and Rick McMurray are the founding members of Ash. School friends from Downpatrick, County Down, they started out as a covers band called Vietnam in 1989. As Ash, their debut full-length album, 1977, went to No 1 in 1996. Shining Light, from 2001’s Free All Angels, won them an Ivor Novello award. The group have released nine albums, three of which feature guitarist Charlotte Hatherley. They are releasing a 30th anniversary edition of 1977 on 16 October and are on a world tour, including the UK and Ireland, until December.