Last Friday my wife and I attended the NI Music Awards 2016 presentation of the OH Yeah Legends award to Ash. Growing up in the 90s as teenagers Ash were one of our favourite bands and we were excited to be out together. We’d been talking about it for a while and were excited to see how the night panned out.
I couldn’t help notice as we arrived and queued we were all mostly of similar age, clearly Ash’s glory days were those of us who remember their best loved album 1977 released in our teenage years, and with current fashion’s spin on the 90s it all felt a little nostalgic. Inside as we strolled to the bar chatting with friends we relieved memories of some of the bands we’d seen in small venues like the Mandella Hall before they were famous and there was a sense of anticipation in the air.
The bar was loud and busy as we leaned over to order drinks. It reminded me of the times I’d played in tiny venues in Manchester as I squashed into my wife to avoid the guy next to me trying to navigate the busyness of the bar with four drinks in his hands. As the barman served our drinks the first support band finished their set. (If next 2 bands was anything to go by I don’t think we missed much)
We filed through the crowd with our drinks and found a great spot in the middle of the room. The following 2 bands we somewhat of a disappointment. The 2nd were reasonably talented but way to mellow to be on before Ash whilst the 3rd were way to pretentious without the skill to pull it off.
Once the presentation actually got underway of the Oh Yeah Legends award for Ash the room erupted. There was a lot of love for the band that really had continued Northern Ireland’s fine tradition of great music. Once the ceremonials and photos were out of the way and Ash took to the stage properly to belt out the full 1977 album the crowd went even more wild. With us all singing classics, like Girl From Mars at the top of our lungs. The crowd were really into it, the guitar solos were epic and every song gutsy but in a strange way both my wife and I came away feeling like that little bit of something special that occasionally happens at gigs, that little spark of electricity missing. All of that said though we had a great time and loved catching one of our teenage favourites in action on their home turf.