Ash have released a new video for ‘Confessions In The Pool’, the latest single to be lifted from their UK Top 20 album release, Islands, out now via Infectious and also featuring 6Music play-listed singles ‘Buzzkill’ and ‘Annabel’. The video arrives alongside details of three just-announced Irish shows for December, landing on the end of an European tour which will follow UK headline dates  from Ash through October, including London’s O2 Forum on October 24.

Speaking about the new video - which parodies ideas of religious devotion, with a nod towards Monty Python - Ash say; “The video is a surreal play on the song title. It takes the Confessions idea and runs with it so far it becomes surreal meditation on belief and salvation in the modern age. Blessed are the cheese makers!”

Islands - Ash’s first album since 2015’s Kablammo! - marks their debut for new label Infectious Music – previously home to the band’s number one albums, 1996’s 1977 and Free All Angels in 2001. Produced by Tim Wheeler and featuring guest vocals from The Undertones’ Damien O’Neill and Mickey Bradley (who also performed with Ash during their BBC Biggest Weekend appearance earlier this year), Islands is the band’s seventh studio album with additional production from Mark Hamilton, Rick McMurray and Claudius Mittendorfer – who also mixed the album at the band’s studio in New York. 

Following 2015’s Kablammo! after the band’s self-imposed album hiatus since 2007’s Twilight Of The Innocents – Islands is an open-hearted collection of songs drawn from frontman Tim Wheeler’s reflective lyrical axis dealing with friendship and betrayal, love and loss, an album which reaffirms the band’s status as one of the most idiosyncratic and singularly thrilling guitar bands on these islands.

September

1st   DALKEITH  Midstock Festival

October

16th  SHEFFIELD   Leadmill

17th  GLASGOW   O2 ABC

19th  BRISTOL   SWX

20th  BIRMINGHAM   O2 Institute

21st  NORWICH   Waterfront

23rd  MANCHESTER   O2 Ritz

24th  LONDON   O2 Forum

December

18th CORK Cyprus Avenue

19th DUBLIN Academy

20th BELFAST Limelight

There's something uniquely liberating about the first evening of a festival; inhibitions are cast off and comedowns are yet to set in; respective sites aren't yet sullied by beer cans and half-eaten burgers, and the toilets aren't something you enter at your own risk. It's a rare twelve hour window where people still look and smell their best and there's no-one wandering around pallid and sweaty, bedecked in a sleeping bag whilst trying to shake off last night's Jager haze. Couple this with the rural idyll of Pikehall in the beautiful Peak District, not to mention a couple of quality opening bands, and Thursday's at Y-Not Festival are an absolute winner.

With tent successfully pitched and armed with a bottle of gin and tonic, we decide to explore this year's site, heading roughly in the direction of the Quarry stage for Thursday night headliners, Ash. Though little has changed in terms of the size of the festival, its scope has increased noticeably since last year, with The Octopuses Garden offering more in the way of stalls and small stages. With nothing on offer yet however, we head to The Quarry and arriving to an already heaving tent, decide to watch from the periphery, perched on the side of a giant sea turtle.

Providing us with a 15 song strong set, they play what proves to be one of the longer sets of the weekend, taking in tracks from across their career and most likely turning on host of younger punters on to the joys of their pre-'Burn Baby Burn' material. Folk-punker Beans on Toast meanders past at one point, posing for a photograph with a couple before asking if they had any weed, perfectly epitomising the type of festival Y-Not is - the kind where bands can wander around freely without being swamped with autograph requests, comfortable enough to ask strangers for a smoke. Ash finish up with an excellent double-header of 'Girl From Mars' and the aforementioned 'Burn Baby Burn', closing the first night of the festival in fantastic style. Making our way back to the tent it's clear that people are already in well in to the spirit of things; The Octopuses Garden now throbbing with good vibes and basslines whilst Sgt Peppers Meadow hums with sound of bumper cars and a rollerdisco. We opt for an early night however, knowing full well that a clear head will serve us far better tomorrow than a dry mouth and bleary eyes.