1977 is the debut studio album by Northern Irish rock band Ash. It was released on 6 May 1996 by Home Grown and Infectious Records, with whom the band had signed following the release of several demo tapes. Ash released the mini-album Trailer in 1994, and followed it with three singles "Kung Fu", "Girl from Mars", and "Angel Interceptor", all of which would reappear on 1977. Ash recorded their debut album with producer Owen Morris at Rockfield Studios in Wales in early 1996. Described as a Britpop, power pop and garage rock album, 1977 drew comparisons to the Buzzcocks, Dinosaur Jr., and Sonic Youth.
Preceded by the album's fourth single "Goldfinger" in April 1996, the band embarked on tours of the United Kingdom and Europe. "Oh Yeah" was released as the fifth single in June 1996, followed by tours of the United States, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Ash ended the year with another US tour, as well as a US support slot for Weezer. They toured Europe and the UK, before their appearance at Glastonbury Festival.
1977 received generally positive reviews from music critics, who praised the album's "catchy" nature. The album peaked at number one in the UK, as well as reaching the top 40 in Australia, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, and Switzerland. "Kung Fu", "Girl from Mars", "Angel Interceptor", "Goldfinger", and "Oh Yeah" all charted on the UK Singles Chart, with "Goldfinger" reaching the highest position at number five. 1977 appeared on several UK publications' best-of-the-year album lists, by the likes of Kerrang!, NME, and Melody Maker, among others. The album would later be certified platinum in the UK.
Background In December 1989, schoolfriends Tim Wheeler and Mark Hamilton received instruments for Christmas, and decided to form a metal act they called Vietnam. The rest of the line-up consisted of vocalist Gareth Hutchinson, guitarist Malcolm King, and drummer Andy McLean, who would all leave by early 1992 citing a lack of interest in the band.Bowler; Dray 1997, pp. 16, 18 After seeing a show by a local act, Lazer Gun Nun, Wheeler and Hamilton decided to move their sound away from metal and into Nirvana-leaning territory.Bowler; Dray 1997, p. 21 Around this time, Wheeler was discovering the likes of ABBA and Paul McCartney and Wings.Bowler; Dray 1997, p. 22 Vietnam ultimately disbanded, and Wheeler and Hamilton decided to form a punk band. Wheeler handled vocals and guitar, Hamilton the bass. They spent two weeks amassing original material in Wheeler's bedroom.Bowler; Dray 1997, p. 24 Drummer Rick McMurray joined the pair in June 1992; Wheeler had approached him during a school play, and invited him to his house for a jam session.
With the line-up finalised, they christened themselves Ash after spotting the word in a dictionary.Bowler; Dray 1997, p. 25 Over the course of a year, the band recorded four demos tapes: Solar Happy in June 1992, Shed in September, Home Demo in November, and Garage Girl in February 1993.Citations regarding demo tapes:
A friend of the band had sent one of the demos to Paddy Davis of the public relations company, Bad Moon. He played it for four months, before passing it to Steve Tavener, who had plans to start a record label. Tavener and Davis subsequently went to Belfast to watch the band perform. Ash released their debut single, "Jack Names the Planets", through Tavener's La La Land Records in February 1994, by which point he had become their manager.
In April 1994, the band travelled to London to promote it. Several major labels approached them, before they signed with Infectious Records with an advance of £12,000 and a 50–50 share of the profits with the label.Porter 1997, pp. 21–2 Ash set up the imprint Home Grown as part of Infectious with which they would put out their future releases. As Hamilton and Wheeler were 17 years old, their parents had to sign the contract on their behalf, as well as permission from their school headmaster Jack Ferris.Porter 1997, p. 22 Two more singles, "Petrol" and "Uncle Pat", preceded the release of the band's mini-album Trailer in October 1994. During this period, two-thirds of the band were focusing on their A-Levels, touring with Babes in Toyland and Elastica during their half-term holidays. In February 1995, Wheeler and McMurray flew to the United States to meet with potential labels, including Reprise and Interscope Records.Bowler; Dray 1997, p. 84 They signed to the former, who was experiencing success with the stylistically similar Green Day.
Recording and production In preparation for their debut album, the band met with a few producers, such as Phil Vinall, who had produced the Auteurs, while Wheeler wanted Marc Waterman to produce it, having known him for his work on Nowhere (1990) by Ride.McDermott 2022, event occurs at 23:16–25; 23:34–9 Producer Owen Morris was working on A Northern Soul (1995) with the Verve at the end of 1994; Ash's manager and Infectious founder Korda Marshall suggested they record a few songs with him.McLoone 2022, event occurs at 22:45–23:00, 23:25–33McDermott 2022, event occurs at 23:29–34 Wheeler said they wanted a "cool, young" producer and selected him upon learning that Morris was influenced by acts they liked, such as David Bowie, T. Rex and Thin Lizzy. The band opted to record one song with him to see how their working relationship would unfold. They recorded "Kung Fu" and an unfinished version of "Angel Interceptor" over Christmas 1994 at Loco Studios in Usk Valley, Wales.McDermott 2022, event occurs at 24:39–58; 26:55–27:00 "Girl from Mars" was recorded in Easter 1995 at Rockfield Studios in Rockfield, Monmouthshire, Wales.McDermott 2022, event occurs at 29:01–6
Ash had to record some B-sides with Phil Thornalley in London, but as they were not working effectively, Thornalley walked out and Morris, who happened to be in the city, was drafted in; they then finished working on "Angel Interceptor".McDermott 2022, event occurs at 29:48–30:01; 30:06–8 The band worked on pre-production with Morris in December 1995, with him visiting the band at their rehearsal space, running through all of the song ideas they had.McLoone 2022, event occurs at 25:54–26:06 After playing him everything they thought was worthwhile, including portions of "Lose Control" and "Oh Yeah", he inquired if they had anything else, they showed him "Goldfinger".McLoone 2022, event occurs at 26:08–11McDermott 2022, event occurs at 34:12–7; 34:25–9 Wheeler considered it a B-side, until Morris exclaimed, "you idiot, that's a single!".McLoone 2022, event occurs at 26:13–9 The band and Morris began recording their debut album on New Year's Day 1996, commencing with "Goldfinger". The rest of the material that would appear on the album was recorded at Rockfield Studios at a cost of £800 per day, with Morris and the band co-producing the album.McDermott 2022, event occurs at 34:56–9
Though the process was planned to take only six weeks, it ended up lasting three months. Because they had toured incessantly since leaving school, the band did not have enough time to accumulate material for an album. Wheeler wrote nearly half of what would end up on the finished album in the studio. As Rockfield was a residential studio, according to Wheeler, the members became "very nocturnal and very crazy". He attributed this to Morris "gradually introducing us to drugs, so we were off our heads a lot of the time". Nick Brine, Sorrel Merchant and Neil Kiely acted as studio assistants. Morris later mixed the recordings at Orinoco in London, except for "Girl from Mars" (Thornalley) and "Angel Interceptor" (Mark "Spike" Stent). Thornalley mixed "Girl on Mars" as the band's label and manager felt the track was incomplete, much to the annoyance of Morris.McDermott 2022, event occurs at 29:16–29
Composition and lyrics
Music and themes Musically, the sound of 1977 has been described as Britpop, power pop,Nixon 2003, 42 garage rock, pop-punk, and pop rock, with elements of glam rock and grunge, drawing comparisons to the work of Buzzcocks and Sonic Youth, as well as the albums Bug (1988) by Dinosaur Jr., and Bandwagonesque (1991) by Teenage Fanclub. In a 2020 interview, Wheeler thought that the Britpop tag "felt a bit weird", as he explained that they were influenced more by American music than British music. He attributed the range of styles to the band's American label, Reprise Records, having sent him several CDs from their back catalogue. They had spent two months coming up with random titles: Ash – The Album, Child Abuse, A Tribute to Apache Indian, Owen's Angels, Tim, Mark and the Other and Corporate Record Company Bullshit Wank. When Morris eventually asked what it was going to be called, the band replied 1977.
1977 refers to the release year of Star Wars (1977) and the year Wheeler and Hamilton were born. Though some commenters said it alluded to the year punk rock and Sex Pistols achieved mainstream popularity, author Charlie Porter in his biography on the band Ash: 77–97 (1997) dismissed this.Porter 1997, pp. 43–44 He said the genre's "vigour was extinguished by bitterness and internal cat-fights", de-evolving into a brand, "[s]o punk is not the reason this CD [...] is called 1977". He considered the name as "rather a blank name, a title that sounds sassy, but which means nothing. It leaves the music to be judge on its own merit".Porter 1997, p. 44
Wheeler is credited with writing all of the album's tracks, except for "Lose Control" (which he co-wrote with Hamilton), "Innocent Smile" (written by Hamilton) and "Angel Interceptor" (co-written with McMurray). Wheeler estimated that Hamilton had written half of "Lose Control", while McMurray had helped him with the lyrics to "Angel Interceptor". When working on material, Wheeler wrote the music first, taking inspiration from other peoples' songs he heard.
Nick Ingman, Morris and Wheeler came up with string arrangements, which were done with a 30-piece orchestra; Ingman had worked on "History" (1995) from A Northern Soul and "Unfinished Sympathy" (1991) by Massive Attack.McLoone 2022, event occurs at 34:23–32, 34:52–4 Wheeler referred to some of his lyrics as "a little too sickly sweet", explaining that he took inspiration from the work of the Beach Boys and Phil Spector-produced tracks. The album features a sample of a TIE fighter from Star Wars; Wheeler was unsure if the band got permission for it, but theorised the label was fine with it as they were owned by 20th Century Fox which had made Star Wars. A science fiction theme can be heard throughout the album, which Wheeler attributed to his sister having a David Bowie poster with the phrase "Life on Mars" written across it, coupled with Trompe le Monde (1991) by Pixies.McLoone 2022, event occurs at 32:53–33:18
Songs The opening track "Lose Control" is a punk rock song that utilises a quiet-and-loud dynamic, recalling the work of Therapy? with its guitar solo. Wheeler's guitar riff consists of tremolo-enhanced octave picking in an ascending order, while the solo is affected by a wah-wah pedal and includes multiple bends. The song's protagonist pleads for a girl to cheat on her boyfriend. "Goldfinger" channels the sound of Teenage Fanclub. When they began writing it, the band borrowed an instrumental break section from what they believed was "Goldfinger" (1964) sung by Shirley Bassey, but turned out to be a song by John Barrie. Subsequent sections of the song were written around the world while touring to support Trailer. Wheeler said they kept the name "Goldfinger" as "it has a lot of mystery", while the lyrics detail a man wanting to buy drugs.Porter 1997, p. 39