Rick McMurray from Ash Q+A

What memories does Manchester hold for the band?
Mostly amazing ones, I have to say – from our first, downstairs at The Roadhouse in what must have been 1994 or 95, to last year, when we played upstairs at Academy 3 as part of a memorial gig laid on by the friends of one of our fans, who died of a heart condition, called Fat C.

We always ask: do you reckon a city can be a muse?
It's certainly inspiring just to walk around Manchester, that's for sure, when you know of all the bands and the history of the place... on the one hand that can bog a young band down living with such big reputations but at the same time I think if you're from Manchester you've got to be proud too.

The heritage industry certainly represents a double-edged sword here, doesn't the same go for where you lads come from?
It was pretty fragmented when we started – you had this long gap between punk and Therapy? Bands like The Undertones and Stiff Little Fingers we only got into later and we were oblivious to at the time, to be honest.
I was living in Belfast while the other two were living in London and we always stay on a while after each tour as well as going back a few times a year.
We now get it the other way round anyway, where people theorise in interviews that bands coming from County Down are some kind of Ash legacy! I don't know about that, but it's a lot friendlier a vibe back home between bands than it used to be.

Were there any rash Ash decisions given you started out so young?
Can't say that there were, certainly none that we regret to this day. Before we'd even played ten gigs we got offered a Pearl Jam support slot in the Far East and as fans we were tempted but the venues were so vast we just didn't feel we had the experience. We turned down the Sex Pistols too but that's really because we've always been more than happy with our level of success and not felt the need to play to someone else's crowd.

It's a 20-year anniversary on the horizon isn't it? 
Yes we'll have to come up with some way of marking something so rare next year – so many bands we know have split up and got back together in that time, I can only really think of The Manics and us as exceptions!

Finally, who would be your top three living drummers (we have to make it living cos everybody would stick John Bonham in there anyway)?
OK, I was really stunned by a guy who stood in for me actually – Alan Lynn from LaFaro, plus I'd plump for Dominic Howard from Muse and Dave Grohl...

Ash play Heaton Park on July 24th as part of Ben and Jerry's Sundae and are also releasing an EP with touring partners LaFaro and The Plea which includes Ash's "Running To The Ocean", previously unreleased outside of Japan. This can be downloaded free from www. ash-official.com