ASH - ASH'S CAREER FEARS

ASH'S CAREER FEARS

Northern Irish trio Ash are worried their career may run into financial difficulty after leaving a major record label.

Ash are worried they could be "f****d".

The Northern Irish band - who are currently on an A-Z tour of British towns in support of their plan to release 26 singles in one year - parted ways with their major label two years ago and are now selling music through an internet subscription service.

Frontman Tim Wheeler admitted: "I miss the money safety blanket of being on a major label because there's always the thought in the back of your head that if this fails we're..."

Guitarist Mark Hamilton added: "F*****d.

"But it's not as if that money safety blanket even exists anymore. We were lucky, we got signed when there was a lot of money about. Now you hear about bands being signed for advances of 25 grand."

The group - whose hits include 'Girl From Mars', 'Burn Baby Burn' and 'Oh Yeah' - decided to focus on singles rather than albums after seeing how the digital revolution had affected the way people listened to music, and the frontman said the onus is now on the band's "survival."

He said: "We've never thought about how to get out of this. We've always thought about how we can continue doing this. This is another thing for us to survive, the way the music industry's changed."