GASH formed in 1997 with the intention of playing melodic punk rock. The line up differed to the one that exists today. It wasn’t until Matt Steed (vocals/bass), Si Terry (guitar), Jon Priestley (guitar/vocals) and Jamie Jones (drums) all got together in late ’97 that GASH started to develop their own style.
By 1998 they had gigged locally around The Midlands and written their own material. They self funded their first CD release “CAFFEINE FUELLED” a ten-track album that they sold at gigs and local independent record shops. The band progressed from their early poppy style and recorded a four track EP entitled “WHERE’S ANDRZEJ” in 1999, which consisted of a faster heavier style that was more in the direction they wanted to go. After the release and good reception of these two CD’s they started sharing stages with such bands as Pulley, Diesel Boy and Pansy Division as well as numerous gigs of their own around the country.
During 2000 they took a short break from gigging to write and record their first professionally produced record “VIRGIN ON THE RIDICULOUS” this offered 14 tracks that the band were much happier with. The CD received many good reviews achieving a higher profile for GASH who were then invited to share stages with bands such as, GOOD RIDDANCE, SNUFF, DEATH BY STEREO, GROOVIE GHOULIES, FOXY and ELECTRIC FRANKENSTEIN.
In 2001 GASH spent time gigging and writing new songs which they recorded at the end of the year to produce the album “A DAY OFF FOR THE CONSCIENCE”. Unfortunately, after four years of the same line up Simon decided to leave the band and go onto new things which left GASH to enlist the services of James Gardiner (Gadge) as their new guitarist. Feb’ 2002, and GASH are invited to sign to the GOLF record label who release “A DAY OFF FOR THE CONSCIENCE” cat# CDHOLE057 on MAY 20th. A double CD package it also includes as a bonus “VIRGIN ON THE RIDICULOUS”.
