Interview: Glenn Kingsmore, Ashanti

ASHANTI are a powerful trio who come from Belfast, Northern Ireland. However, although the name will be news to the ears of those of you on the mainland, in their native Ulster these boys are part of the furniture, and their reputation as an excellent life band has been established eight (yes, eight!) years on the Irish club and pub circuit!

The group was formed way back in 1983 by guitarist and backing vocalist Stevie Boyd and today's line up - which has been stable for a couple of years - is complemented by Glen Kingsmore on vocals and bass, and drummer Gary Murdock. 

Following the release of two self-financed singles (their vinyl debut "June" appeared in November '87, followed by "Childhood Revisited" in December '88) the band have now signed to Polygram Ireland, and have just released their first single for the label entitled "Real World."



Being a native of County Down myself I was lucky enough to attend the launch party for the single in Belfast's Errigle Inn, where the band have played many times over the years, and were indeed to do so again that evening when the celebrations had ended. Once again the band packed out the venue, played a blinder of a set, and made sure their major label debut release got off to a great start.

Frontman Glenn explains how the deal with Polygram/Polydor came about:

"The deal happened through John Rogers, who's managing us now. He got us a two single deal, and we'll just have to wait and see if we're going to sign the album deal, you know."

OK, so that deal was probably due in no small way to the fact that Ashanti have played nearly every gig in Ireland that's worth playing, so have the band trekked around the South as much as their northern home ground?

"Not as much," replies Glen. "We've done a lot of stuff a year or so ago down South, but we weren't actually making any money out of it; we were actually losing money travelling down and all, so for a while we actually stopped playing down South and concentrated on the North."

At the moment, as Ashanti are signed to Polygram Ireland, the new single has only been released to the Irish public, with British and further releases depending on what happens in the Emerald Isle. So, how's the single been doing in a couple of weeks since its release?

"Really well," states Glenn. "At the moment [the beginning of November 1991] we're at number 20 in the Irish charts, and number 14 in the Northern Irish charts. Things are looking good..."

As the band seemed to be gigging constantly on home turf, will they carry on in support of the single, and are there any plans to take the show to the British mainland?

"Yeah, we'll be doing quite a lot of dates. We'll hopefully be getting the COMMITMENTS tour [the touring band from the Mega Successful Irish film of the same name] when they start touring in December. Nothing's definite yet, but there's a possibility. I think there should be dates in London and a couple somewhere up in Scotland, as well."

So what, or who, would Glenn say are Ashanti's influences?

"Well, my influences would be a lot of the punk stuff; THE CLASH, THE BANSHEES, THE JAM. Stevie [guitar] would be more sort of rock, you know, LED ZEPPELIN and FRANK ZAPPA, stuff like that. There's definitely a lot of different influences in there."

Finally, although Northern Ireland has produced many fine and influential musicians over the years, the province is so small that aspiring stars usually have to leave and relocate to either London, the US, or, at the very least, Dublin. Are Ashanti planning to leave their Belfast base when they move into the Big League?

"We'll definitely stay in Belfast," states an adamant Glenn. "I had a go at London a few years back, but it wasn't really for me. It's not a problem for the band to be based in Belfast at the moment, but it could be. Just see how it goes..." he pauses, then adds pensively, "it might cost you a wee bit more in plane flights, but that's about all!"

Nick Douglas

Riff Raff

January 1992

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