No Hot Ashes

The band tour a debut album 34 years in the making.

During the 80s, melodic hard-rock hopefuls No Hot Ashes moved from Belfast to London, only to implode when their debut album was shelved by GWR Records. In March this year, 34 years after forming, they finally released a debut. Frontman Eamon Nancarrow fills in the gaps.

No Hot Ashes took their name from an instruction on council dustbins – not the most salubrious of starts.

Whenever people went to their bin, they saw our name. I don’t think that has negative connotations. It was good logic.

Why did the original debut album fall by the wayside?

GWR went into liquidation, but to be honest there were quality issues. It wasn’t recorded well. That it never saw the light of day is probably a positive thing.

GWR was also home to Motörhead. Did you know Lemmy well?

I was on good terms with him, yeah. He was so intelligent, such a gentleman, though I think he fancied the girl I was with at the time [laughs].

Years later you wrote a book about those days: Holywood Star: The Life And Times

Of A Rock ’N’ Roll Misadventurer. It’s been called “a very funny tribute to failure”. That’s exactly what it was. I tried and failed to become a rock star, but out of that I gained numerous friends and experiences.

What brought about the reunion?

We were invited to play a charity night in Belfast. Steve [Strange, drummer] now lives in LA, but we played the gig and went down a storm. Steve insisted we give it another go.

How did FM’s Merv Goldsworthy and Pete Jupp come to produce the new album?

We became friendly on tour. They made us sound better than anything we could have hoped for.

The title of your book suggests you understand the comedic potential of five middle-aged guys attempting a return to the limelight.

We don’t take ourselves too seriously, though we are deadly serious about the quality of our music. We’re going to take things as far as we can without breaking up families or anything ridiculous. DL