WHO WOULD VE thunk it? Downpatrick s finest modelling for Calvin Klein? Don t get me wrong Tim, Rick and Mark are fine strapping lads in their prime, but only the most optimistic of marketing heads could have ever pegged these young pups as the Norn Iron version of 5ive.
Until two years ago that is. Forget about qualities like extra guitar firepower or songwriting input the arrival of second guitarist Charlotte Hatherley in the summer of 1997 endowed the band with the kind of not-so-hidden benefits that only the most dedicated of Ash-philes could ve previously detected, namely The Glam Factor. Open up this month s Elle magazine the one with Naomi on the cover and inside, along with Chrissie Hynde, Skin, Dolores O Riordan, Jewel and Sheryl Crow, you ll find the demure Ms Hatherley togged out to the nines and partaking in the Young Woman s Guide To Being A Rock Chick! (inset right)
I thought it would be quite funny to get to wear some designer clothes for about half an hour and then give them back at the end of the day, Charlotte explains. It was really weird dealing with fashion people rather than music magazines. I don t really care for it that much, either. You kind of start acting like a model rather than a scuzzy musician!
Nevertheless, acting like a model is something Charlotte s going to have to get used to, given that she and Tim recently flew out to New York, following in the footsteps of Shirley Manson of Garbage and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth as part of the new Calvin Klein campaign. Of course, doing ads ain t as cheesy as it used to be, not since Jennifer Herrema of Royal Trux strutted her stuff for CK1 a few years ago, and William Burroughs, Henry Rollins and Luscious Jackson all signed up for Gap duty.
Our manager said, Calvin Klein want you to do some modelling thing for their worldwide campaign , Charlotte says, and I m like, What the fuck? And then I realised that they re doing some with musicians Kim Gordon and Shirley Manson just looked really cool, they looked fucking brilliant. If it had been done by crap people like Mick Hucknall or someone I wouldn t have done it.
Apparently we get something like $15,000 worth of free clothes, which will kind of sort me out underwear-wise. But also it s an introduction for the American market, which is what we re aiming to conquer this year a lot of different factors went into this managerial decision!
As Charlotte has indicated, the domination of America is the next step in the Ash masterplan. To this end, the band are hellbent on hiring |ber-producer and Garbage drummer Butch Vig to helm their third album, which they ll commence recording in New York at the end of the year. Vig, by all accounts, is a confirmed fan of the band: Nu-Clear Sounds is a staple on the Garbage tour bus, and he recently remixed several of the tracks for the American market.
When we were thinking of getting Butch Vig, it wasn t so much, He did Nevermind, let s do an album like that , Charlotte avers. I think we re kind of trying to see what he can bring out in terms of experimentation in the studio. We wanted to get into the whole Pro-Tools thing. It s hard to see where it s gonna go, but I think it s gonna be a pretty interesting departure from Nu-Clear Sounds. I mean, that whole album was just a fucking mish-mash, there s Death Trip and Projects and even Numbskull . It was a lot harder, and that was definitely an indication of what we could do with Butch.
Upon hearing words like harder and Numbskull in the same sentence, one inevitably thinks of Ash s last XXX-rated video, in which Tim Wheeler was filmed on the business end of a serious oral/genital transaction, courtesy of a young nubile in a New York hotel room shower stall. Given that a good 40% of Ash s fanbase might ve preferred to see Charlotte in the same scenario, it seems fair to inquire of her whereabouts while her bandmate was remaking Ciao Manhattan?
It was nothing to do with me, mate! she laughs. I dunno, Tim just decided that he was going to go to New York and lock himself in a room with some dominatrix chicks and we all kind of said, Alright, see you next week! Good luck! It was a bit worrying, it was like, This could either be really bad, or this could be done well, and I think Darren, the guy who filmed it, did a really a good job. It was definitely an Andy Warhol-esque, Velvet Underground sort of thing. And also, I think it s more of a shock factor to have tiny Tim Wheeler doing it rather than anyone else in the band. Except maybe Rick that could ve been shocking! n