Daniel Ash

A founding member of the groundbreaking <a href="spotify:artist:5N5tQ9Dx1h8Od7aRmGj7Fi">Bauhaus</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5aBEGOeWQCJfptic9xyaAb">Tones on Tail</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:09mvgMBvJkxarNIDGdwPWg">Love and Rockets</a>, guitarist, singer, and songwriter Daniel Ash distinguished himself in the world of alternative rock during the 1970s, '80s, and '90s. Ash was born in Northampton, England, on July 31, 1957. As a child, he heard <a href="spotify:artist:2HBbky0Z08ZcCKVsXWbNE4">the Dave Clark Five</a>'s "Bits and Pieces" and was blown away by the massive booming echo of the song, but it wasn't the first single he purchased -- "The first record I bought was Dave & Ansel Collins' 'Double Barrel'," he recalls. Driven by a love of rock & roll, Ash began playing in cover bands: "The first gig I ever played was in the Glasgow Rangers Workman's Club." That show ended in a fracas. Ash had become friends with <a href="spotify:artist:7zeHJIIfNStVfxlbT72UwY">Peter Murphy</a> in his teenage years: "We were two oddballs in the class who didn't fit in." Ash went to art school and <a href="spotify:artist:7zeHJIIfNStVfxlbT72UwY">Murphy</a> went to work in a printing factory. They met up five years later and Ash suggested forming a band.

Rigging up a makeshift rehearsal space, Ash played an echo 12-bar blues, while <a href="spotify:artist:7zeHJIIfNStVfxlbT72UwY">Murphy</a> sang a series of newspaper articles. "After 15 seconds," Ash says , "I knew we'd have some sort of success. Four weeks after, we formed <a href="spotify:artist:5N5tQ9Dx1h8Od7aRmGj7Fi">Bauhaus</a>, and we recorded 'Bela Lugosi's Dead'." That song, issued in 1979, became the cornerstone of the goth rock movement. After nearly five years of trailblazing recording and performing, <a href="spotify:artist:5N5tQ9Dx1h8Od7aRmGj7Fi">Bauhaus</a> broke up and Ash put together <a href="spotify:artist:5aBEGOeWQCJfptic9xyaAb">Tones on Tail</a> with <a href="spotify:artist:5N5tQ9Dx1h8Od7aRmGj7Fi">Bauhaus</a> drummer <a href="spotify:artist:3iEq4H8y3Xk5lGAqVLePw1">Kevin Haskins</a>. After several EPs, the full-length Pop, and a club hit in "Go!," the group mutated into the highly influential <a href="spotify:artist:09mvgMBvJkxarNIDGdwPWg">Love and Rockets</a> in 1985, when <a href="spotify:artist:5N5tQ9Dx1h8Od7aRmGj7Fi">Bauhaus</a> bassist <a href="spotify:artist:2EftfRcBC3whzGDBGOwIVG">David J</a> came on board. The band became one of the biggest alternative bands of the '80s, issuing respected LPs like 1986's Express and 1987's Earth, Sun, Moon, and finally enjoying a worldwide Top Ten hit with 1989's "So Alive."

While Daniel Ash's first solo album, Coming Down, was a moody, late-night rumination written in the aftermath of divorce, Foolish Thing Desire, his second, was a celebration of life's perils and pleasures, recorded at Woodbine Street Studios with longtime collaborator John A. Rivers. It's essentially positive, presenting a rush of passionate and powerful rock riffs. In 2002, Ash released a self-titled album that flirted with electronic dance which was followed three years later by a live album, Come Alive. In 2008, Ash would see the reunions of both of his primary bands with <a href="spotify:artist:5N5tQ9Dx1h8Od7aRmGj7Fi">Bauhaus</a> going on to release Go Away White, their first studio album in 25 years, and Love & Rockets reforming to play at the famed Coachella Music and Arts Festival. ~ All Music Guide, Rovi