If you've ever dozed off before the hidden track being on Ash's debut album 1977, it's a fair bet you might have awoken in terror as possibly the most rancid five minutes of pissing, retching and spitting in the history of recorded sound kicks in. Sick Party, which consists purely of bassist Mark Hamilton evacuating his body, was a brazen declaration of adolescence in all of its sticky-fingered lunacy.
Those for whom this five minutes of adolescence were never enough may find that new film Teenage Wildlife – released with their new Best Of and charting the band's sudden shot to fame following 1977's release – might fill that nagging hole. Narrated by Ewan McGregor to a savage script by the late NME journalist Steven Wells, it captures the trio of Hamilton, singer Tim Wheeler and drummer Rick McMurray as they embark on a gruelling world tour in their teens, delicate souls blasting out emphatic sounds in a musk of soupy sweat and stale socks.
Despite a throng of hysterical girls screaming at them wherever they go, Tim, Mark and Rick consistently betray their age. They remain unable to wake up, stay sober or walk past any kind of construction sign without stealing it. Pubic hair is set alight, while regular bollockings from their manager about their attitude towards industry big wigs ("Try and work with people rather than telling them to fuck off") are sandwiched in-between live shows that are both frenetic and ecstatic.
It's not all belching and knob gags though; like any snapshot of teenage life, things get gritty. The treadmill of interviews, gigs and journeying across the world in a van that constantly breaks down all eventually adds up. As Lost In You chimes over the top of a lonesome travel sequence, Tim's longing desires of "wanting to call you/ but it is late at night" suddenly sound intended for someone more maternal, rather than the receiver of a booty call that I used to imagine.
What the film truly illustrates is the stubborn, feckless and vulnerable traits of teenagerdom. It's difficult to think of any new artists who celebrate and illuminate this same chapter of life so perfectly, warts and all. Teen tunes seem to have become terribly introspective, terribly go-getting, terribly … dull. My Chemical Romance are grown men making music for gawky outsiders, it's scientifically impossible to smoke an apple bong along to Mumford & Sons and Ed Sheeran singing about a heroin addled prostitute ain't exactly a one-way ticket to LOLcity.
Surely the pre-20s are all about avoiding the imminent life of constant scrutiny, stress and striving that's yet to come? Ash made brilliantly frenzied hits about love, sicking up and occasionally feeling a bit lonely. No emo. No banjos. No loop pedalling, anti-drug anthems. There's something realistic and raw about that.
The Best Of Ash is out now (Warner)
