21 September 2026 – Ash Unearth Bittersweet Blue from the 1977 Vault

Ash have opened the archives and discovered that 1996 apparently still had one more song hiding behind the sofa. Bittersweet Blue, a previously unreleased track written around the period of the band's landmark debut album 1977, has emerged as part of the record's 30th-anniversary celebrations.

The song arrives alongside a wider campaign around the anniversary reissue, which revisits the album that helped establish Ash as one of the defining guitar bands of the mid-'90s British and Irish alternative explosion. Unearthing archival tracks is always a slightly dangerous business. Sometimes there is a very good reason something remained in a box for three decades. In other cases, hearing the material adds another piece to the creative puzzle surrounding a familiar record.

Bittersweet Blue falls into the more intriguing category simply because of the era it comes from: 1977 captured Ash at an absurdly youthful moment when melodic instincts, punk velocity and pop ambition were colliding at exactly the right speed. The anniversary campaign also includes touring activity around the album, giving old and new listeners another reason to revisit classic Irish alternative rock. Thirty years later, the vault apparently still has a few lights blinking.