Interview with Ash.
Please note this interview may contact some strong and abusive language.
Ash are a Irish Rock/Indie band which formed way back in 1992. We have managed to get old of Mark Hamilton from the band who also announced on live breakfast show 'Soccer AM', that he is indeed a Aston Villa supporter.
Hey firstly, I would personaly like to thank you for taking time to answer our questions, for those who arent famillier with you, could you please introduce yourself?
My name is Mark Hamilton, I play bass in the Irish rock trio Ash and I've been a Villa fan since I was a kid.
You recently revealed on Soccer AM that you support Aston Villa, Can we ask how long you have been following the club and of course why Aston Villa?
Well in N. Ireland there's a huge percentage of the population which support either Liverpool or Man Utd. Usually it's a family thing that is passed on to you. But as my Father was never a big sports fan I never had any allegiance forced upon me. In school everyone else would ask how your team was and I refused to pick either of the big 2. I was watching Villa on TV and as they had a lot of Irish players with Paul McGrath, Townsend, Staunton and Houghton it seemed logical to me to take an interest. After following them casually I started getting more into it and it wasn't long before I was telling my school mates I was a Villa supporter, which they all laughed at.
Do you get to visit Villa Park often with all your tour dates etc?
When I lived in London i used to go to all the away games in the area and then I'd get to about 3-4 home games a year when our schedule allowed it. I got a friend in ticketing at Villa park and she always sorts me out. Now I'm living in Brooklyn I haven't had a chance all year but you do have access to watch all the matches on cable in the US so I've seen the Villa on TV more than ever. I do miss the away matches though, they're the best fun. Villa's away supporters are fucking great.
Who is your all time favourite Aston Villa player?
It's gotta be Paul McGrath. Of the current team I think Carew could really become a hero next season by what we've seen so far.
With the other lads following other clubs, do you get much stick following the Villa?
Tim supports Arsenal and Rick is a Liverpool fan. There's nothing worse than top 6 fans who moan when they lose once every 3 months... Some of my mates are United fans and the old chants of "Shit on the Villa" are quite common. I got total faith that MON and Randy Lerner are gonna turn things around and we'll be fighting for European football again soon.
As you was on Soccer AM, what is Mr.Lovejoy really like?
He's actually really nice, they've wanted us on the show for a long time but the schedule never fit. It was good to actually get down there and it was a fun morning. Lovejoy's 2 young daughters were on the set and he was very sweet with them.
And what about the gorgeous Helen Chamberlain?
She's nice too but Tim seemed genuinely into our music and knew all about us.
Ash has been on the scene now for some time, how and when did you get started?
We started the band in the school yard when we were 12. Tim and myself were shit at football having little in the way of skills and we needed to think of another avenue on our quest for stardom! We got cheap guitars for Christmas that year and we were in a few dodgy metal bands before we met Rick in 92 and formed Ash.
Apart from your own music, what other music are you into?
Currently my favorite bands are Muse and Brand New.
Whos your favourite all time artist and why?
Well that's a hard one but my favorite all time band is Nirvana, closely followed but Weezer and the Pixies. Kurt was a true genius but it's a pretty tragic story how it all feel apart.
Mark, we would like to thank you for answering the questions, is there any last words you would like to say to the Villa faithfull?
Villa 'til I Die!
Once again avillafan.com would like to thank Mark Hamilton for taking time out of his work to answer our questions and wish him the best of luck in the future. Discuss this interviews over at the Aston Villa Forums
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