Matthew James Ashman

born on 3/11/1960 in London, England, United Kingdom

died on 21/11/1995 in London, England, United Kingdom

Matthew Ashman

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Matthew Ashman

Matthew James Ashman (3 November 1960, Mill Hill– 21 November 1995)[1] was an English guitarist with Adam and the Ants and Bow Wow Wow. He died aged 35 after lapsing into a coma due to complications arising from diabetes 1995.[1][2]

Career

Raised in Mill Hill, Barnet he attended school alongside Boz Boorer. He was influenced by jazz while learning guitar,[3] and joined his first band, Staffix, after learning Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird".

He joined Adam and the Ants after leaving The Kameras, in June 1978, playing guitar and singing backing vocals. After 18 months, during which the Ants toured the UK twice, visited Belgium, Germany and Italy, and released the singles "Young Parisians" and "Zerox", plus the album, Dirk Wears White Sox, Ashman, together with fellow Ants Dave Barbe and Leigh Gorman were persuaded by manager Malcolm McLaren to leave the Ants and join Bow Wow Wow, featuring 13-year-old lead singer Annabella Lwin.

Bow Wow Wow broke up after three albums in 1983 and while Lwin went solo, the other members formed Chiefs of Relief with Ashman now as frontman. Gorman and Barbe drifted away (the latter replaced by former Sex Pistol Paul Cook, and the new lineup released an eponymous album on Sire Records in 1988 before breaking up. After several years away from the music industry, Ashman joined Agent Provocateur in the early 1990s, dying in 1995 shortly before the band released their album.

On the fifteenth anniversary of Ashman's death, Adam Ant topped the bill at a tribute concert for Ashman on 21 November 2010 at the Scala in London, in a show also featuring later Ashman bands Bow Wow Wow, Chiefs Of Relief and Agent Provocateur. Boorer provided guitar for Ant's set.[4]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Thedeadrockstarsclub.com - accessed June 2011
  2. Knocking on Heaven's Door: Rock Obituaries By Nick Talevski
  3. Simmonds, Jeremy. The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars. Pg. 342. Chicago Review Press, 2008. ISBN 1-55652-754-3, ISBN 978-1-55652-754-8
  4. Adam-ant.net
This page was last modified 17.03.2013 13:19:55

This article uses material from the article Matthew Ashman from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.