WITH a rousing and emotional support set, Richard Ashcroft made sure each show began on a high.
“I’m the guy who sets up the slam dunk,” says the former Verve frontman. “It’s a very important part to play in a basketball team.
Ashcroft supporting the Gallaghers on their huge reunion tour this summer[/caption]
“If you’re that guy, you can pass the ball on and set up the atmosphere for them.
“So, when I leave the stage, it’s half an hour before they get on it and the anticipation for them is so strong.”
I caught up with the Wigan-born singer a day before his final UK show supporting Oasis at Wembley Stadium.
He has supported all 19 of their British and Irish shows and has just been announced as special guest on the last five Oasis Live ’25 concerts in South America next month.
Appearing on the video-call screen wearing his trademark sunglasses and tousled hair, he’s all smiles despite getting over a recent bout of flu.
“I’ve been rough for a week or so, but starting to feel better now,” he tells me.
“It was the culmination of the end of the Oasis shows then I did a show in Cornwall — but it’s been a massively cathartic summer for the crowd and for everyone involved.
“Society has become fractured and that feeling of all coming together at those shows felt so important.
‘Magical times’
“The older fans had missed Oasis and they were bringing their kids who had never seen them.
“It’s been a full-circle moment.
“We’ve lost parents, we’ve lost friends, we’ve lived the dream and seen the dream disappear — so there are thousands of people bringing that emotion with them and the songs are the catalyst to express that emotion.
“It’s been a beautiful thing.”
We didn’t really understand what was happening back then. Oasis supported us, then we supported them — we had magical times
He says both he and the Gallaghers were “in a bubble” back in the day.
He explains: “We didn’t really understand what was happening back then.
“Oasis supported us, then we supported them — we had magical times.
“Seeing songs like Wonderwall and Don’t Look Back In Anger were loved again this year was special.”
“You forget they always had a great work ethic.
“Liam’s been really good, looking after himself with his voice and stuff.
“I’ve had a chance to see a bit more of the places we’ve been to — I was down the beach in Edinburgh, and I met this great guy with these Irish wolfhounds in Dublin.
“I had people loving that stuff on my social media, but the photo that had most viewers was me having a pint at Edinburgh airport.
“When it’s my tour, I will be in Liam mode, too — no pints for me.”
He adds: “I’ve always had total respect for Noel as a songwriter and admiration for Liam as a frontman, but watching it all unfold now feels like a real re-appreciation of that era.
“It’s not nostalgia — it’s real and happening right now.”
That bond between the two bands runs both ways — Noel Gallagher even wrote Cast No Shadow in tribute to Ashcroft, and Ashcroft admits Oasis’s early songs helped shape his own musical path.
“If it wasn’t for Live Forever and Noel’s approach to songwriting, I might not have picked up that acoustic guitar and tried to form my own little pieces of perfection,” he admits.
“Like History, On Your Own and Urban Hymns.
“There is a new generation of kids coming to see us play these.”
When Ashcroft played Bitter Sweet Symphony in Cardiff in July, a woman in the crowd was spotted using music identification app Shazam to figure out what song it was.
Ashcroft says: “When the video of the girl Shazaming Bitter Sweet went viral, I loved it.
“We all had a first time hearing Hey Jude or Whiter Shade Of Pale, so I didn’t want a young person jumped on by millions.
“She’s welcome on board and if I find her at some point, I’ll be inviting her to a gig.”
‘Seems of gold’
It’s been a while since Ashcroft put out an album of new songs — Natural Rebel was released in 2018.
When we spoke for the release of Acoustic Hymns Vol 1 in 2021, he said he had been toying with the idea of making an album of samples.
Lover, the first single from Lovin’ You, uses a loop of Joan Armatrading’s Love And Affection.
Ashcroft calls Lover one of those “seams of gold” — a track he says he could “loop forever” for the feeling it captures.
“You have to get it right as you’re messing around with people’s big moments — you want to do something great with it,” he says.
“I’ve never met Joan Armatrading but we heard back that she’s happy with the song, which is great.
“It’s such a positive song.”
The album’s title track opens with a sample of Mason Williams’s 1968 Grammy-winning Classical Gas.
“That song was in the backdrop of our youth, and I always wanted to sample it.
“I am really happy with how it turned out.
“And Mason Williams is still alive, in his late 80s, so I’m glad that track is out now.
“I’m a fan of eclectic music so I wanted an album that showed my different sides as a singer, as I like to test myself.
“I wanted to include some more stripped-down songs, too.
The singer in a publicity shot for his new eclectic album, Lovin’ You[/caption]
“In the past, I’ve loved albums like (Primal Scream’s) Screamadelica, as you’d have Higher Than The Sun — a track The Orb worked on — then a Stonesy ballad.
“So, on this album, you have different styles — it focuses on the voice and is a wide emotional sound.
“I’m excited when I’m making something that defies genres.
“On I’m A Rebel, I sing falsetto.
“I’ve gone falsetto a couple of times before, but I don’t often do a whole tune that way.”
The electro-dance of I’m A Rebel is a departure and sees Ashcroft nod to the beat-driven sound he explored with UNKLE on Lonely Soul from the 1998 album Psyence Fiction.
It was made with French dance music producer, Mirwais, known for Madonna’s 2000 album Music.
He says: “We had Rebel in our back pocket for years and I thought it should come on this project as it makes it even more eclectic.
“I could have reflected doom and worries about the future that we are all sharing or reflect on the ecstatic feelings that I still get in life.
“I have Heavy News, which is a song about how we are being bombarded with this heavy news, but Live With Hope is an important song with the message to motivate you.
“Crimson Fire has a beauty to it, too.
“Life is the ultimate love affair and I wanted to capture the wonderful energy that you get at the beginning of a love affair.”
Years ago, certain radio stations were telling the plugger they wouldn’t play mine or a Gallagher song — and we were only in our thirties. So, this summer has been liberating.
That mix of hope and emotion is rooted in the music that first inspired him, from Brian Wilson to Sly Stone.
“The chorus of Lover has a kind of futuristic Beach Boys feel,” he says.
“I was lucky to make Nature Is The Law with Brian Wilson — I only met him once, but it was an honour.
“When he died this year, it made me look back at his incredible body of work.
“Sly Stone too, who mixed so many influences together — these are the giants who still inspire me.
“I take great comfort knowing I’ve shared this planet with them.
“I remember how Elvis affected everyone, and John Lennon’s (Just Like) Starting Over was the first single I bought, with my mum.
“And, of course, there’s Mick (Jagger) and Keith (Richards), who signed over their rights of Bitter Sweet Symphony to me in 2019.”
After a summer back in the spotlight and clearly relishing it, Ashcroft, 54, reflects on where he is now — older, wiser, but still pushing forward.
“There is this idea that you get to 40 and it’s game over, but Johnny Cash was still making real, relevant, amazing music near the end of his life.
“Van Morrison still churns out what he wants from his albums.
“Years ago, certain radio stations were telling the plugger they wouldn’t play mine or a Gallagher song — and we were only in our thirties. So, this summer has been liberating.
He says: “Ceilings are always put on us in life. Even when you start your band, there are people who want to put a ceiling on you.
“When I was in The Verve and we were starting out, it was difficult to have any light shining on us.
“Finding places to rehearse and travelling up and down to London in a transit van, it was difficult.
“But even though I left, going back to play shows over the years and talking to people from the area, I hear how proud people are.
“When The Verve played Haigh Hall in Wigan in 1998, and last year when I played two nights at Robin Park there, it was good to bring it back to the area where you’re from.
‘Different dynamic’
“Then it becomes a place where other people play — like Noel played Robin Park the same week as me, and The Lathums are from there.
“You’re helping the town as it fills hotels and bars.
“It brings a buzz.”
Today, Ashcroft says he has mellowed compared to his younger self. “When you’re young, you can’t help but react to what everyone says.
“There might be a hundred people saying lovely things about you, but it’s the negative stuff you remember.
“You obsess about it as you’re so fragile.
“That’s why I feel for the younger ones with social media.
“But, today, I’m as free as I was when I didn’t have a clue.
“When I was called Mad Richard, it was by people not expecting me to still be here in music today.
John Lennon was called mad — and so were some of our best artists and people like William Blake and Spike Milligan. I’m glad to be labelled with people I admire.
“I was embarrassed for the band at the time as it made me a cartoon figure.
“But today, because I told a guy I could fly, which was a metaphor, I see it as a compliment.
“I came back after The Verve ended, after having a break when my kids arrived, and the greatest thing you can do to someone who dislikes you is make sure you’re on the radio or on TikTok for the rest of their lives.
“John Lennon was called mad — and so were some of our best artists and people like William Blake and Spike Milligan. I’m glad to be labelled with people I admire.”
Being part of the Oasis reunion story has inevitably sparked talk about another comeback, with some fans calling for The Verve to reform. Is that something Ashcroft would consider?
“We’ve already played that hand,” replies Ashcroft, referring to reforming twice — first in 1997 and then in 2007, when they released the album Forth.
With a rousing and emotional support set, Richard Ashcroft made sure each Oasis show began on a high for fans[/caption]
“I don’t think it would work.
“The Verve’s situation was a tougher one than Oasis — it was a different dynamic to Oasis.”
Next month, as well as supporting Oasis in South America, he will play Manchester Co-op Live. And next year, he will take to the road for a full UK tour.
“I wanted to do something to finish the year off here on an epic scale,” he explains.
“We got lucky this summer with Oasis, but in the past few years, I’ve done shows wishing there was a roof on the show.
“At one of my Wigan shows, I felt so sorry for the crowd because it was p***ing down.
“So, it’s getting my fans together to celebrate the release of the album.
“Some of them have only seen me for the first time this year and now want to come and see the full monty.
“It’s going to be a special night to top off a fantastic year.”
- The album Lovin’ You is out today.
Richard Ashcroft’s new album Lovin’ You is out today[/caption]
