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Ash celebrate 30 years of 1977 with vinyl reissue, Belfast livestream and European tour
Ash mark the 30th anniversary of 1977 with a 2LP Green & Black reissue, a 2CD set including a 2021 STABAL Studios performance, a Belfast livestream on May 6 and a global tour that closes at London’s Roundhouse on December 17.
There is something stubbornly alive about 1977. The record that made Ash household names in the UK — the one with “Girl From Mars”, “Goldfinger”, “Kung Fu” and the raucous singalong “Oh Yeah” — turns 30 this year, and the band are leaning into the anniversary without nostalgia getting in the way.
Today they announced a 30th anniversary reissue of 1977, due as a 2LP Green & Black vinyl, a 2CD Digisleeve with booklet and on digital platforms. The reissue revisits the original 12-track sequence but pads it with four additions that feel more like recovered snapshots than filler: the long-lost “Bittersweet Blue”, a 2026 edition of “Oh Yeah”, a 2026 demo of “Girl From Mars” and an acoustic 2026 mix of “Gone The Dream”.
Disc two is a document from a different atmosphere: the band performing 1977 in full at STABAL Studios in 2021, intercut with era favourites. It’s a neat counterpoint to the glossy reissue — rawer takes, audience noise in places, Tim Wheeler’s voice up close. Footage of the band playing “Oh Yeah” from STABAL is part of the roll-out, and you can see the clip below.
Tonight, May 6, Ash are streaming a special live concert from Belfast’s Oh Yeah Centre to mark the exact 30-year anniversary of the album’s release. It’s billed as an intimate acoustic set: Tim Wheeler, some electric silence, the songs pared back. BBC Introducing’s Taylor Johnson hosts and will move between the performance and short interviews with the band, pulling at the stories behind the hooks. The stream kicks off at 8pm.
These moves — deluxe reissue, archival live disc, hometown stream — feel calibrated to reassure different parts of their audience. Older fans get the packaging and rarities; people who fell for Ash in the 2000s get a chance to hear those melodies stripped down; local supporters in Belfast get a moment of ceremony. And yes, there’s a tour.
Ash will spend the autumn on the road across Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia before moving into Europe and the UK. The run opens in Perth on September 4, threads through Singapore and Hong Kong in late September, then re-emerges in Europe with a November stop in Utrecht. The UK stint begins in Torquay on December 1 and closes with a Roundhouse show in London on December 17 — a decent cap on a month of hometown-tinged dates. Tickets have a pre-sale starting May 12 with general on-sale on May 15.
The band haven’t been idle in recent seasons. Last September they released a double A-side featuring Graham Coxon, and Tim Wheeler made a surprise appearance with Coldplay at Wembley on “Clocks.” Studio-wise, their most recent full-length is 2025’s Ad Astra, which followed 2023’s Race The Night. This 30th-anniversary activity underlines that Ash still have a thing for revisiting and reframing their history rather than just repackaging it.
If you show up for the reissue or the livestream, expect the evening to feel like a conversation as much as a concert. 1977 was never just a collection of singles; it was a band trying to be bigger than their hometown and loud enough to be remembered. Thirty years on, those guitars still bite, and the crowd still sings back.
