Ash free long-lost ‘Bittersweet Blue’ for 1977

Ash have released ‘Bittersweet Blue’, a long?lost song written before the Rockfield sessions for their 1996 debut album *1977* and unheard in public for three decades. The track features on the band’s 30th?anniversary edition of *1977*, set for 16 October 2026, and sits alongside fresh mixes and a full live reading of the original record as the group continue a worldwide run built around that breakthrough set.

The anniversary edition arrives on 2LP EcoRecord green?and?black ‘InkPlosion’ vinyl in a gatefold sleeve, on 2CD digisleeve with booklet, and digitally. The digital and 2CD versions restore the original twelve tracks and add ‘Bittersweet Blue’, a 2026 version of ‘Oh Yeah’, a 2026 mix of the ‘Girl From Mars’ demo, and a 2026 acoustic mix of ‘Gone The Dream’. Disc 2 of the 2CD set carries the complete *1977* album as recorded live at STABAL Studios in 2021. Tim Wheeler finished the newly surfaced song by channelling his teenage self, bringing a piece that pre?dated the Rockfield sessions into the anniversary package.

From Downpatrick to *1977*

Ash formed in Downpatrick, County Down, in 1992 as a three?piece of vocalist and guitarist Tim Wheeler, bassist Mark Hamilton and drummer Rick McMurray. The mini?album *Trailer* established them in the mid?1990s; *1977*, released in 1996, became the full?length debut that fixed their place in British and Irish guitar music and was later named among the 500 greatest albums of all time. The record’s rush of singles and its teenage energy made it the reference point for everything that followed.

After that success the band brought in Charlotte Hatherley on guitar and vocals and released *Nu?Clear Sounds* in 1998. Having come close to bankruptcy, they returned with *Free All Angels* in 2001 and a run of strong singles. The catalogue has continued into the present decade with *Race the Night* in 2023, its expanded edition in 2024, *Ad Astra* in 2025 and further singles, before the anniversary return to *1977* itself. Placing a pre?Rockfield song on the anniversary edition closes a circle: material that never made the original sessions now sits beside the finished album and a 2021 live take of the same twelve tracks.

The anniversary tour still rolling

The release sits inside an expanded global *1977* 30th?anniversary tour. Dates already played have taken the band through Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong. Shows still ahead include Utrecht on 10 November, Cologne on 11 November, Berlin on 12 November and Eindhoven on 15 November, then London’s Electric Ballroom on 25 November, Bristol on 26 November, Limerick on 28 November and Cork on 29 November, with further UK dates through December. The run concludes at the sold?out Roundhouse in London on 17 December.

For a Northern Irish band whose first full statement arrived when its members were barely out of school, the combination of an unheard 1990s song, new 2026 mixes, a 2021 live disc and a tour that still includes dates in Ireland and a London finale keeps *1977* in active circulation rather than sealed as heritage. The anniversary edition is the document; the remaining gigs are where that document meets the stage. Tickets and formats are already aligned with those dates and the 16 October release — the lost track now part of the set audiences will hear next.