Daniel Ash

Born in Northampton, England, on July 31, 1957, Daniel Ash helped establish Bauhaus, Tones on Tail, and Love and Rockets as their founding guitarist, singer, and songwriter, carving a distinct path through alternative rock across the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. An early exposure to the Dave Clark Five’s “Bits and Pieces” left him stunned by its cavernous echo, yet his first purchased single was actually Dave & Ansel Collins’ “Double Barrel.” Rock & roll enthusiasm soon led him into cover bands, with his debut performance taking place at the Glasgow Rangers Workman’s Club—an evening that concluded in a brawl. During adolescence he bonded with Peter Murphy as fellow outsiders, recalling that “We were two oddballs in the class who didn’t fit in.” While Ash attended art school, Murphy took a job at a printing factory; five years afterward they reconnected and Ash proposed starting a group.

They assembled a temporary practice area where Ash laid down an echoing 12-bar blues and Murphy voiced lines from newspaper clippings. “After 15 seconds,” Ash later observed, “I knew we’d have some sort of success.” Four weeks later Bauhaus was formed and they cut “Bela Lugosi’s Dead,” the 1979 single that anchored the emerging goth-rock sound. Following nearly five years of pioneering releases and shows, Bauhaus disbanded; Ash then launched Tones on Tail alongside drummer Kevin Haskins. A string of EPs, the album Pop, and the club favorite “Go!” preceded the 1985 reconfiguration into Love and Rockets once bassist David J joined. The revamped lineup ranked among the era’s leading alternative acts, releasing Express in 1986 and Earth, Sun, Moon in 1987 before scoring a worldwide Top Ten single with 1989’s “So Alive.”

Ash’s debut solo effort, Coming Down, emerged as a brooding nocturnal reflection shaped by the wake of divorce. His follow-up, Foolish Thing Desire, offered a buoyant survey of existence’s hazards and delights, tracked at Woodbine Street Studios alongside longtime associate John A. Rivers and propelled by fervent, muscular guitar lines. The self-titled 2002 release explored electronic dance textures, succeeded three years later by the concert recording Come Alive. In 2008 both cornerstone projects reconvened: Bauhaus delivered Go Away White, their first studio album in twenty-five years, while Love and Rockets returned to the stage at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival.