No Hot Ashes are a Hard Rock band from Belfast. Formed in the early eighties, they moved to London and supported bands like Mama’s Boys, Girlschool and Magnum. They released a single “She Drives Me Crazy” in 1986 and subsequently signed with the same label Motorhead and Hawkwind were on, GWR records, in ’88. But they had a torrid time trying to release their album and with much wailing and gnashing of teeth, the band dissolved around 1990.
Fast forward twenty three years the band reformed to pay tribute to one of their favorite old venues The Rosetta Bar (or The Rosie as the punters called it) which had sadly shut it’s doors and their old manager Stephen Magee who had set them up in the Rosie with their own club night ‘Cinders’. Having been bitten by the music bug once again, the band have not looked back and since the start of 2014 have been playing out of their skins, supporting the likes of Aerosmith, Foreigner, FM, and UFO and playing Hard Rock Hell AOR, Download, London Calling, Ramblin’ Man and Steelhouse, Rockingham and Frontiers Rock Festival in Milan. They are also at this year’s Download festival on Sunday on the Dogtooth Stage.
Their debut album (35 years late!) is straight up melodic rock-till-ya-drop slice of 80’s nostalgia but with a modern twist that makes the tunes feel as fresh as an ice cold beer on a baking hot day. The album has a sad side to it, as bass player and founding member Paul Boyd lost his battle against Cancer. The rest of the lads knew that Paul would want them to carry on and they finally released the self-titled album in March 2018 and you can find it on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon and Apple Music.
This is the Offical Music Video of “Glow”…
As an aside, lead singer Eamon Nancarrow wrote the funniest book about being in a rock and not making it big that you’ll ever read, the fabulous Holywood Star, find it on Amazon here.
Links
http://nha-reunion.com/
https://www.facebook.com/nohotashesreunion
Words by Dan O’Gara
