"Ian Paisley is a wan  ......"   Ash frontman Tim Wheeler checks himself and thinks better of casting aspersions on the Honourable Member for North Antrim.  It was last May when Ash hit the headlines with U2's Bono, UUP's David Trimble and SDLP's John Hume with a glorious night of rock 'n' roll in Belfast to urge Ulster to say Yes to the Agreement.  It was a great day for everyone concerned.  Except perhaps for Big Ian. 

Before all that, Ash had been relatively quiet.  They slipped out the piledriving single A Life Less Ordinary, supported U2 on the PopMart tour and attended the wrap party for the new Star Wars movie.  However, this week they're hunkering down to the serious business of flogging their second album Nu-clear Sounds, the follow up to that half-million selling classic debut 1977. 

With the Voxy kick of lead single Jesus Says, owing more than a little to Blur's Song 2, Ash's new album is a crash course in all that is good in guitar pop.  Their renowned love of sci-fi is intact too, only this time The Deathstar is piloted by Johnny Thunders and has crash landed in NYC some time in '73. 

"Well there's a lot of stuff that we'd been listening to.  The Velvet Underground is quite an influence on a few tracks", says taciturn drummer Rick McMurray.  "We had been listening to a lot more rock 'n' roll like The Stooges, New York Dolls ..."  "Mind you, there's some real downbeat stuff as well, like Neil Young", adds Tim.  The Beach Boys, Sonic Youth and The Chemical Brothers also get a look in and, while there are at least three tracks (Low Ebb, Folk Song, Burn Out) that we could have done without, Ash have succeeded in remoulding their wispy innocence into a raw, turbulent sound with massive production.  The album wan written in a cathartic two-month stint after the band came off two years on the road.  "We were completely wrecked after touring" says Tim.  "We really needed to take time out and get ourselves together. 
We decided London wasn't really working for the writing thing, so we went to this little place in Surrey, a fifteenth century farmhouse.  We stayed there for and by the end of it we had about twenty songs together and a shit-load of ideas together." 

The band roped producer Chris Kimsey who'd previously worked with the 'Stones, Led Zep, Bowie and Duran Duran.  "He was so out of his mind on PCP at the time that he can't remember a lot of it," laughs Tim.  But even with Kimsey's experience behind them, Ash found themselves unhappy with the end product.  Normally the band would have turned to Oasis producer Own Morris, the man who worked wonders on 1977, but they had fallen out.  "We had an argument with Owen about the mind's eye," says Rick cryptically.  "He'd just finished the last Oasis record and he asked us what we thought of it and we basically said it was shit which upset him." 

Withdrawing to Dave Gilmour's studio in London they took a revolutionary rock 'n' roll step and slapped more guitars on the songs they'd recorded in Surrey.  They even managed to make up with Morris after Tim played guitar with his band, Technique.  "Owen takes us where we want to go musically," is all Rick will say now.  "He's the guy who can get it for us." 

Wheeler's voice has certainly improved since his slightly weedy efforts on 1977.  On most of Nu-Clear Sounds he's finally found the sneer to match the music.  Recruiting old school indie babe Charlotte Hatherley, who joined the band a week after meeting them, on guitars has left Wheeler free to concentrate a lot more, but he also admits that he's become more "aware" of his voice.  "My voice has gotten a lot stronger and a lot more confident.  I didn't really think of myself as a singer before." 

As to their big day in the North last May, Ash agree that it felt slightly weird sharing a press conference with three powerbrokers, one of whom sings for a living.  "We had an argument with Bono the night before," says Rick.  Tim: "We said it was a bit cheesy to sing "Give Peace a Chance".  But that's his whole big gesture thing and that was the bit they used on all the newscasts about the gig.  Bono's great, but there's a cheesy side to him." 

Unlike most Northern Irish bands (with the honourable exception of the tragically defunct "Joyrider") ASh are to be applauded for actually recognizing where they come from.  "People always ask us do we write songs about Northern Ireland, the whole situation there......but we actually did feel that taking part in this gig was a chance to help sort things out."  The only problems we got for taking part  were from paisley," says Tim.  "He called us a republican band.  People say it was a publicity stunt but that was the people who were in the No campaign." 

When I enquire after after Ash bassist Mark Hamilton, the missing link between the band's former schoolboy naiveté and well, Keith Moon, Rick says, "He's very together.  Coming off the serious medication has helped, and not drinking a bottle of gin a day helped too."  On their last American tour Hamilton trapped a nerve after falling asleep on stage, and more recently he lopped the top of one of his fingers while trying to cut a banana.  He needed ten stitches.  How new girl Charlotte handles all of this is a matter of little concern to Tim and Rick.