Ash officially formed in 1992, reportedly having taken their name from the first word they liked in the dictionary. They created three demo tapes that year, Solar Happy in June, Shed in September, and the Home Demo in November.

These tapes featured their earliest material and the first recordings of some songs that were later on their 1994 release, Trailer, including "Intense Thing", "Get Out", "Obscure Thing," and their future single, "Jack Names the Planets".

In 1993 Ash recorded the Garage Girl demo tape, which featured "Jack Names the Planets" and "Intense Thing" taken from Shed, as well as some new tracks including "Petrol".

Following Garage Girl, they released their compilation demo tape, Pipe Smokin' Brick later that year, which featured an assortment of their best songs from the other 4 demo tapes.

Downpatrick Musician Ray Valentine recorded Ash's demo's at his studio, Cosmic Rays. Ash's moniker at the time was "Genuine Real Teenagers" because they were so young when recording their early material.

The demo tapes had not gained much attention yet and Ash were still playing small shows at local clubs, but in early 1994, Stephen Taverner came across the Garage Girl demo tape.

Taverner put up the money so that they could press 1000 7″ copies of "Jack Names the Planets" on Stephen's own LaLaLand record label. The band was on its way and Stephen became their full-time manager.

Ash released their mini album, Trailer, in October 1994, which only included seven songs. They received some airplay from Steve Lamacq on BBC Radio 1 and so followed up their debut single with "Petrol", and "Uncle Pat" on their new label Infectious Records.

In 1995, Ash left school and released their breakthrough singles "Kung Fu", "Girl From Mars" and "Angel Interceptor"