{"id":37450,"date":"2018-06-25T23:30:28","date_gmt":"2018-06-25T22:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/?p=37450"},"modified":"2018-06-29T00:17:02","modified_gmt":"2018-06-28T23:17:02","slug":"this-is-the-pops-daniel-ash-on-his-return-to-live-performance-with-poptone-plans-for-new-material-and-his-enduring-love-for-the-three-and-a-half-minute-hit-single","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2018\/06\/this-is-the-pops-daniel-ash-on-his-return-to-live-performance-with-poptone-plans-for-new-material-and-his-enduring-love-for-the-three-and-a-half-minute-hit-single\/","title":{"rendered":"THIS IS THE POPS – Daniel Ash On His Return To Live Performance With Poptone, Plans for New Material And HIs Enduring Love For The Three-And-A-Half Minute Hit Single"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Picture by Brian Hodges<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Funny, open and engaging,\u00a0Daniel Ash\u00a0<\/strong>is not quite what you might expect from the man behind some of the darkest and most experimental music of the past 40 years.<\/h4>\n

The founder of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets is back on the road with new ensemble Poptone and teasing the prospect of new music and a European tour.<\/h4>\n

Featuring the father-daughter combination of long-term collaborator\u00a0Kevin Haskins <\/strong>on drums and Diva Domp\u00e9\u00a0<\/strong>on bass, Poptone have been playing a set heavily laden with tracks from Ash’s cult third band\u00a0Tones On Tail<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Formed about 18 months ago, the trio’s gone down such a storm with US audiences that they’re out on the road again having just released a self-titled 13-track album recorded live in session for the KXLU\u00a0<\/strong>radio network in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Excited and invigorated by his return to live performance, Daniel was on fine form when he spoke to Matt Catchpole<\/strong>\u00a0shortly before the start of the new tour.<\/p>\n

He revealed that Poptone have started work on a new track and are in talks about the prospect of a European tour, perhaps as early as this Autumn.<\/p>\n

Refreshingly honest and highly entertaining, he confessed to being drunk on Top of the Pops<\/strong>, dumbstruck by David Bowie<\/strong> and in awe of the perfect three-and-a-half minute commercial pop song.<\/p>\n

Just don’t ever say that Poptone is a Tones On Tail covers band….<\/p>\n

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Poptone – Ash (right) with Diva Domp\u00e9 and Kevin Haskins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So Daniel, I gather it was Motorhead that awakened your desire to play live again?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, it was very weird, I nodded off at about midnight, I suppose, watching Youtube and I think, listening to Brian Eno<\/strong>, Before and After Science<\/strong><\/em>, or something really subdued, when I suddenly got a blast in the ears at full volume of Ace of Spades<\/strong><\/em> –<\/strong> it was quite a moment! Just straight away I got this idea of {adopts Hollywood announcer-style voice} I should get the band back together! I think I was still buzzed from drinking red wine. I left it a couple of days and still felt the same, so I called up Kevin and he said: \u2018My daughter plays bass\u2019 and the rest is history \u2013 she worked out really well. That was like, a year and a half ago. We played 60 gigs across America and Canada and a few in Mexico last year, just finished off the West coast and we\u2019re going out again to do the East Coast.<\/p>\n

Any plans to bring Poptone to Europe and the UK?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019d love to do Europe. It\u2019s a matter of making it financially viable. There\u2019s talks at the moment of trying to get a promoter there. If that\u2019s the case we\u2019ll hopefully do something in The Fall in the UK and, I don\u2019t know, France, Spain. Obviously, the UK is top of the list. The one thing with the band which has been a misconception is that we\u2019re a Tones on Tail cover band, because of the name Poptone \u2013 we never saw that one coming. We are not<\/em> only doing Tones on Tail music I didn\u2019t feel comfortable doing that because Glenn (Campling) the original bass player isn\u2019t in the band. But it\u2019s been a bit of a hurdle for us for doing festivals, because nobody out there really knows what Poptone is.<\/p>\n

Any plans for new material? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Well I didn\u2019t, but I\u2019ve just put out something on my website called Alien Love Song <\/strong><\/em>on Danielashmusic.com<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 you can download it for a couple of bucks, or I\u2019m also doing a limited edition CDs with a hidden track. And then the other day I came up with something that was really really quick and I thought: ‘I\u2019m going to give this a go with the band’. So, I\u2019ve sent my bits off to Kevin and Diva \u2013 just the guitar and the vocals \u2013 and they love it. So, they\u2019re working on it as we speak. So we\u2019ll see, if that works out, that could be the beginning of this thing going to the next level. I\u2019m just experimenting, I know there\u2019s\u00a0 chemistry with Kevin and myself, and with Diva I want to see what she comes up with as far as the bass goes and take it from there. If it feels good we\u2019ll do it. I have a working title for it, but I don\u2019t want to say because it\u2019ll probably change.<\/p>\n

So tell me about the album, I understand it was recorded live?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah it was radio session for the\u00a0Part Time Punks <\/strong>station in Los Angeles. After the tour we had some time off and this thing was offered and we were fresh off the road so it came together pretty quick. Tones was something I was doing in between Bauhaus and when Love and Rockets formed. The live set last year was 70 per cent Tones on Tail songs, plus a couple of covers we were doing just for fun. This year we\u2019re leaning more towards Love And Rockets tracks \u2013 we\u2019ve got three or four of those \u2013 and then this time next year who knows? We might have some new songs, that would be the ideal because all that thing of ‘they\u2019re a covers band’ will go out the window.<\/p>\n

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Ash with Glenn Campling in the original Tones on Tail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Did Tones on Tail give you an outlet to experiment without any of the commercial pressures of being in Bauhaus?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes that\u2019s right, although ironically I\u2019ve always loved the three-and-a-half minute hit single, I\u2019ve got a lot of respect for anyone who can write hit singles, it takes a lot more talent than writing another obscure album track. I\u2019ve always had admiration for pop music. Certain songs are just three-and-a-half minutes of perfection for me. Billie Jean<\/strong><\/em> by Michael Jackson<\/strong> was just the perfect pop song. It just makes you feel good from beginning to end. It\u2019s just that magic where everything is in its right place.<\/p>\n

That really is ironic considering the song you\u2019re perhaps best known for,<\/strong>\u00a0Bela Lugosi’s Dead<\/em>,\u00a0is eight-and-a-half minutes of alternative rock?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I remember the day we recorded that pretty well. <\/strong>I was thinking this is so good, this has really got the thing, but it is eight-and-a-half\/nine minutes long \u2013 so we weren\u2019t gonna get on Top of the Pops<\/strong>, or MTV<\/strong> with that, we knew that, but it did have something special. Yeah, I know, there\u2019s a real contradiction there, because I\u2019ve always been into commercially successful music and I\u2019m in these bands that are the opposite of that, so it\u2019s very strange. I don\u2019t know, maybe these pop stars wish they were more arty farty I don\u2019t know \u2013 I doubt it (laughs).<\/p>\n

What sort of music made you want to pick up a guitar?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh definitely the whole punk thing that happened in \u201976 with The<\/strong> Sex Pistols<\/strong>, but before that what really got me was the whole Ziggy Stardust<\/strong> thing and very early Roxy Music<\/strong>, Lou Reed<\/strong> around Transformer <\/strong><\/em>time \u2013 that whole thing set me alight – that was where I wanted to be. After that whole punk thing came and got rid of all the old farts, the Deep Purples <\/strong>and all that crap and it gave us all the confidence to actually do it. It\u2019s an old clich\u00e9 but, until punk, none of us thought we could do it, because all these musicians like Led Zeppelin <\/strong>and Pink Floyd<\/strong>, they could all play properly and we couldn\u2019t. But then the Sex Pistols and all these other punk bands came along and were successful and we thought: ‘We can do this!’ Seeing the Sex Pistols on Top of The Pops was so inspiring, such a breath of fresh air, after all the middle of the road crap that was going on at that time.<\/p>\n

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\"Bauhaus