ASH - A Life Less Ordinary

What this video is

Released 13 October 1997, 'A Life Less Ordinary' occupies a culturally loaded intersection: it is a non-album single bridging Ash's #1 UK debut album 1977 (1996) and Nu-Clear Sounds (1998), commissioned directly for Danny Boyle's romantic comedy of the same name at the recommendation of Ewan McGregor — himself a devoted Ash fan. The single peaked at #10 on the UK Singles Chart and received prominent coverage in NME…

Why it matters

A defining artefact of late Britpop's crossover ambitions, the track and video demonstrate how UK indie-rock acts of the late 1990s leveraged prestige film soundtrack commissions to expand their commercial reach without abandoning their guitar-band identity. The video's use of practical stunt…

The director

Garth Jennings (b. 4 March 1972, Epping, Essex, England) co-founded Hammer & Tongs in 1993 with Nick Goldsmith. The company became one of the UK's leading music video production outfits of the 1990s–2000s, directing videos for Blur ('Coffee & TV'), Fatboy…