A–Z Series

The A–Z Series is a series of singles released by Northern Irish rock band Ash. Consisting of 26 singles, each represented by a letter of the alphabet, the singles were first released on a fortnightly basis from 12 October 2009 until 27 September 2010 on 7-inch vinyl and by download. Along with the 26 primary singles the series also includes 21 B-sides, 13 remixes, 7 acoustic tracks and 2 live tracks which were sporadically released in various formats. The series was later released in various other formats, including two compilation CDs Volume 1 (singles A–M) released on 19 April 2010 and Volume 2 (singles N–Z) released on 11 October 2010, a compilation of all 26 tracks on three vinyl LPs was released on 6 November 2012 through Noyes Records and finally a compact cassette featuring 15 of the band's favourite tracks from the series was released for Cassette Store Day, titled Letters from Alphabet City.

The series spawned 6 radio singles; "Return of White Rabbit", "True Love 1980", "Space Shot", "War with Me", "Binary", and "Carnal Love".

The way people listen to music has changed, with the advent of the download the emphasis has reverted to single tracks. It hasn't helped that most people have forgotten how to make a decent album. I'm constantly disappointed with records I buy

The band's final conventional record, Twilight of the Innocents, was released on 29 June 2007. From this the band members themselves formed Atomic Heart Records, setting up headquarters in New York City, calling their new studio Atomic Heart. Band members Tim and Mark both moved to New York; "It was a dream of mine, ever since our first American tour in the mid-1990s, to live in New York", whilst drummer Rick resided in Edinburgh's Craiglockhart, commuting to the New York Studio on a regular basis and working in "intensive bursts". The announcement itself of the band's boycott on the album format came at the time of release for Twilight of the Innocents, which the band called "their final album"—sparking rumours over the possibility of Ash splitting up.

Upon entering the studio, the band recorded "Survivor", later titled "Ichiban", "Coming Around Again" a cover of Carly Simon, a Beach Boys cover of "Do You Wanna Dance?". Soon after several early titles of tracks surfaced on the band's official website, including "Survivor"—now titled "Ichiban", "Prypiat" which was written originally for Twilight of the Innocents, however wasn't finished in time to make the album, "Return of White Rabbit" which at the time Tim Wheeler supposedly joked about being their comeback single, "Nouvelle Adventures" which features both Tim and Mark on bass guitar, "No Face (Jesus Christ)", "Daedalus", as well as "Hospital Song" and "Lay Down Your Arms" which were both originally intended for Twilight of the Innocents. Soon after more titles were leaked, including "Space Shot" and "Tracer (Without You)".

In NME, vocalist and guitarist Tim Wheeler stated "We wanted to be the first people to do it like this" also saying, "I think it'll be great for our fans waiting every two weeks knowing they're going to get a song and wondering what it'll be like. It'll be fun". Bassist Mark Hamilton also spoke of the merits of releasing in an alternative way; "we thought we'd come up with a different model where we never really had to be actually be away, that might work better. That was one of the reasons. We had the freedom when launching our own label as well, to try something different, so we're going to give it a go. I think if it works, a lot of people might copy it."

Each single is assigned a specific colour and letter A–Z, prequel track "Return of White Rabbit" features the upside down stylised as ʁ, representing the rabbit. The front of each single simply shows the letter followed by the band's logo below, whilst on the back the track name is shown. The coloured artwork has also been used for the promotion of their A–Z Tour, with each colour representing a place and a letter of the alphabet, similarly the band through their forum Archived 16 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine and the assistance of their webmaster have allowed fans to create their own avatars and use emoticons in the A–Z style. Almost all of the artwork for the series was created by Post 98 Design and Modo Productions, with the exception of the cassette Letters from Alphabet City which was created by Elisa Dalla Tor and handmade "Return of White Rabbit" and "War with Me" CD singles which were created by the band.

The 26 singles of the A–Z Series were released once every two weeks through both digital download and 7" limited edition vinyl. The opening to the series was a free download "Return of White Rabbit", released on 18 May 2009, promoting the track were three music videos, an animated one created by Big Button, a home-made one — following the 'White Rabbit' around New York City, and a live footage video, filmed by fans at Thekla in Bristol. The first single to be announced for release was "True Love 1980", opening the series on 12 October 2009, with subscription to the series itself opening on 5 October 2009.