The main stage line-up for the event on Sunday July 19 is now complete with Madness, The Pogues, Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Imelda May, The Rifles, Kid British and Dog Is Dead appearing.

Tickets are available from Rock City and the Royal Centre, www.gigantic.com and www.alt-tickets.co.uk.

Special thanks to machernucha for the videos.

Ash played the first of two show at London’s Bloomsbury Ballroom last night, the set included two new songs True Love 1980 and Spaceshot. The full set ran as follows:

Walking Barefoot
Girl From Mars
A Life Less Ordinary
Goldfinger
Spaceshot
You Cant Have It All
Petrol
Sometimes
Wildsurf
Oh Yeah
Ritual
Kung Fu
True Love 1980
Orpheus
Twilight of The Innocents
Shining Light
Return of White Rabbit

Vampire Love
Jack Names The Planets
Burn Baby Burn

Photo by machernucha, you can see more photos from this show at the Walking Barefoot Flickr group.

Ash have released the Mark Hamilton penned song Return of White Rabbit as a free download on their official website. The band will also make 1000 limited edition 7" available to buy through mail order and selected independent record shops from June 8.

The bands new single Return of White Rabbit sees the band throwing angular guitars over electro hooks and growling bass, in a febrile departure from their recent output. Created with resident engineer Claudius Mittendorfer, this is an urgent and liberating take on classic heart-tugging Ash, indicative of the darker electronic influence across the forthcoming releases.

The exclusive promo CD’s of Return of White Rabbit have been artworked personally by members of the band: including Rick’s pack of playing cards, Tim’s apocalyptic bunny rabbits and Mark’s day-glo stencils.

The single release of Return of White Rabbit is the starting point for an exciting and ambitious plan from the band. For the past year Ash have been holed up in their New York HQ, Atomic Heart Studios, writing and recording a series of songs, the band have announced that these songs will form the “A-Z series”. From September, each fortnight for the next twelve months, Ash will release a single on limited 7" vinyl and digital download. Commencing with ‘A’ and running through the alphabet, all 26 songs will be released on Ash’s own Atomic Heart Records and will be available through shops and by subscription through the band’s official website.

Weds 3rd June – Concorde 2 Brighton
Thurs 4th June – Wedgewood Rooms Portsmouth

Pre-sale tickets for the warm up shows and Bloomsbury Ballroom tickets are available now. Tickets for the warm up shows go on general sale 9am Tuesday 5th May.

Tickets go on general sale on 9am Monday 27th April from www.gigsandtours.com .

Folkestone’s seafront has recently been cleared in preparation for a redevelopment of the historic seaside town, the festival is utilizing this site before work begins.

Hevy Festival founder James said, “For our first year we’re keeping things simple with a one-day event featuring a diverse line-up of huge bands from the world of alternative music. We’re hoping to develop the event next year, with more bands on more stages, possibly over a number of days.”

“We’re unbelievably excited to be bringing these huge names to Folkestone, but our aim has always been to develop the local music scene and support the wealth of talent Kent has to offer. We’re now on the hunt for Kent’s greatest bands to play the festival’s second stage.”

Tickets for the one day event are priced at £48, and go on sale on Friday 24th April, they will be available online or in person from the Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone.

This is an age 14+ only event. The event lasts until approximately 11pm. Alcoholic and soft drinks will be available at the on-site bar, and a variety of hot and cold food will be on sale throughout the day.

Saturday’s line-up headlined by The Fratellis includes the previously announced The Pigeon Detectives, The View, Echo and the Bunnymen, Noah And The Whale, Howling Bells, and The Twilight Sad.

While Sunday’s line-up features Paul Weller, Editors, Doves, 2manydjs, Super Furry Animals, The Twang, Mystery Jets, Scratch Perverts and 65daysofstatic. There are more acts still to be announced.

Tickets are priced at £125 for a weekend ticket including camping and parking, day tickets are priced at £65 for either day. Career tickets are also available at half price but must be purchased in pairs.

Pre-sale tickets are available from 9am Friday 17th April. General sale begins 9am Monday 20th April.

Tickets are on sale now. For more information go to Thisistruck.com.

So things have been a little crazy around these parts lately and we’ve neglected to update this news with anything meaningful in a while, in our defence we have been working hard on a new walking barefoot however it is still some months away from completion. Anyway here’s an update on some of the news we’ve missed.

A few weeks ago Ash returned home to N. Ireland and played on stage for the first time since their legendary ‘1977’ shows in London last September. The band flew in with acoustics and a borrowed bass to play ‘unplugged’, as it was gonna cost to much to get all their gear flown over for only two songs. The band played ‘Shining Light’ as well as a cover of ‘Mrs. Robinson’. All the bands on the bill got on stage at the end to perform ‘Teenage Kicks’.

On the recording front the band will soon have 36 songs mixed and recorded and are ready to make an announcement in the next few weeks.

Ash have also joined in on the twitter craze that’s sweeping the world at the moment, you can read Ash’s official twitter page at http://twitter.com/ashofficial, while Ash bassist Mark Hamilton has his own twitter account which you can be found at: http://twitter.com/darthmarkh.

The new Ash official forum has also been launched, so be sure to head over there and sign up.