Ash celebrate a career that has encompassed two #1 albums and eighteen Top 40 hits with the release of ‘The Best of Ash’ on Friday October 14th.

‘The Best of Ash’ documents the band’s biggest hits and most loved songs to date. Opening with their breakthrough hit ‘Girl From Mars’, the album also includes such defining Ash songs as the Ivor Novello-winning single ‘Shining Light’, their highest charting single ‘Goldfinger’, the enduringly popular ‘Burn Baby Burn’ and live staple ‘Kung Fu’.

In addition to the hits – which also include ‘Oh Yeah’, ‘A Life Less Ordinary’ and ‘Orpheus’ – ‘The Best of Ash’ also presents three of the band’s less discovered gems with the progressive title track from the band’s 2007 album ‘Twilight of the Innocents’ and two songs (‘Arcadia’ and ‘Return of White Rabbit’) from their groundbreaking A-Z singles series. The album is completed with a brand new recording of ‘Jack Names The Planets’ which originally featured on their debut EP ‘Trailer’.

In addition, a special CD / DVD format of the album will feature the first ever release of the previously unseen tour documentary ‘Teenage Wildlife’. Entirely self-funded, it depicts the band’s rise from local school heroes to the all-conquering band that topped the charts with their debut album ‘1977’. Yet underneath the surface of the band’s success, we see the three young musicians struggling to adapt to their new-found fame and the insane workload that a global tour of a hit album necessitates. Narrated by Ewan McGregor to a brilliantly acerbic script by the late Stephen Wells, ‘Teenage Wildlife’ shows the highs, lows and debauchery of the band’s initial breakthrough.

“It was hard for me to watch it for a while as we were going through complete nervous breakdowns trying to deal with it all as we were so young,” says vocalist/guitarist Tim Wheeler. “But it’s a really cool document of that whole time especially as it was a lot harder to make documentaries on the road back then and there was a lot of craziness.”

In addition, it features all of the band’s music videos on DVD for the very first time, including the rampaging energy of the cheerleader and basketball ‘Burn Baby Burn’ video and the Hammer & Tongs-directed video for ‘A Life Less Ordinary’.

Formed in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland by Wheeler, Mark Hamilton (bass) and Rick McMurray (drums), Ash released their first studio album ‘1977’ and were then joined by Charlotte Hatherley (guitar) for a further 3 studio albums ‘Nu-Clear Sounds’, ‘Free All Angels’ and ‘Meltdown’. Charlotte left the band in 2006 and the band went on to record and release ‘Twilight of the Innocents’ before launching the innovative A-Z series which saw the band release a single every fortnight for a year. Bloc Party’s Russell Lissack has joined the band on stage since 2010.

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