The Beat Surrender

This was my first “gig review” and I arrived at Leeds University Union to find Ash’s support act, The Dead 60s, putting on a good selection of their tracks. However, the rockers were cut short and unable to play their final tune as the keyboard had packed up!

On to the main event and with a nod to Halloween, Ash arrived on stage with a pumpkin. The indie rockers hit the ground running with ‘Lose Control’ and frontman Tim Wheeler was superb on lead guitar.

Ash played ‘Orpheus’ and the crowd got in on the act and sang the chorus. The band then played ‘You Can’t Have It All’ from their latest album ‘Twilight of the Innocents’. Before playing ‘Shining Light’, Tim told the crowd: “This one’s for Darth Vadar in the mosh pit!” and the fans belted out a big cheer. Ash then played ‘A Life Less Ordinary’ followed by ‘Clones’ and by this time the mosh pit was jumping.

The Northern Irish rockers then rattled through ‘I Started A Fire’ followed by their massive 1996 hit ‘Goldfinger’. Ash continued with ‘Walking Barefoot’ and ‘Evil Eye’, which Tim described as the gig’s first Halloween-themed song. ‘There’s A Star’ and ‘Ritual’ were followed by ‘1997’ track ‘Angel Interceptor’, with ‘Polaris’ getting the live treatment before fans were treated to ‘Kung Fu’.

The band then belted out ‘Renegade Cavalcade’, ‘Blacklisted’, ‘Oh Yeah’ and ‘Girl from Mars’ before ‘Twilight of the Innocents’. The fans wanted more and Ash played a four-track encore of ‘End of the World’, ‘Vampire Love’, ‘Halloween’ and ‘Burn Baby Burn’.

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