He joined Adam and the Ants after leaving The Kameras in June 1978, playing guitar and singing backing vocals.
He played guitar on Adam and the Ants' first single, "Young Parisians"[4] and their debut album Dirk Wears White Sox.
[5] Shortly afterwards, Adam Ant hired former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, in the hope of gaining more widespread recognition.
", for which Ashman shared songwriting credit with McLaren, Barbarossa and Gorman,[7] is the world's first-ever cassette single.
Likewise, Ashman shared songwriting credit with McLaren, Barbarossa and Gorman on seven of Your Cassette Pet's eight tracks.
Barbarossa's stay with Chiefs of Relief proved short lived, however, and he was soon replaced by former Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook.
[20] Gorman was also out of the group by the time they released their second single, "Freedom To Rock" b/w "Dream Baby", in late 1985 on WEA.
In 1992, he joined Kevin Mooney's Max, and appeared on the Red Dot Records release, Silence Running.
[22] After which, he briefly joined Rams, and appeared on their 1993 debut release, Wrecked on Swiss record label, Sound Service.
[23] The next stop for Ashman was Agent Provocateur, and it was while a member of this band that he died due to complications arising from diabetes on 21 November 1995.
[24] Previously during Adam and the Ants, Ashman used a cherry red Gibson SG with a Marshall amp.