Ash Hail A-Z Singles Campaign a Wedding Present-Inspired Success

Ash have admitted that the hugely successful A-Z singles campaign was inspired by Leeds indie heroes the Wedding Present.

The Irish rockers have been releasing a single every fortnight since October 2009, and release the last on Sept. 27 -- as opposed to the Wedding Present, who released a single a month for the duration of 1992.

Talking to Spinner at Reading Festival at the weekend, drummer Rick McMurray says, "We thought we'd do one a month, then we thought, no, it's already been done by the Wedding Present before, so we thought we'd better push the boat out."

Bassist Mark Hamilton explains that despite all the hard work both before and after the project began, it had been worth it.

He says, "It's taken a couple of years, because we knew we'd bitten off a lot and it was whether we could rise to the challenge so we were in the studio, just intensely creating and writing for about 18 months before we even started."

He adds, "Someone showed us a graph yesterday of how the singles chart-wise have been working, and we worked out that if we keep going for another couple of months, we'll get a No. 1."

The band explains that the decision was made to embark on the ambitious singles campaign due to the changing nature of people's consumption of music in the digital age.

Wheeler continues, "It's really worked for us and we're really enjoying doing it. It's the nature of what's happening at the minute.

"People don't treat albums like they used to, they just download a couple of tracks that they like instead of giving the whole thing a chance. That's what we were trying to do, put out a single every two weeks, as it's not so much of a challenge for people to digest it in their daily lives.

"I don't think we'll ever do an album ever again, but then, never say never."

All 26 singles are also being released on two compilation CDs with added bonus tracks. 'A-Z Vol. 1' is out now, with 'A-Z Vol. 2' out on Oct. 11.