Richard Ashcroft
Richard Ashcroft in 2005
Background information
Birth name	Richard Paul Ashcroft
Born	September 11, 1971 (1971-09-11) (age 35)
Origin	England
Genre(s)	Alternative Rock, Britpop
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter
Years active	1989 - present
Associated acts	The Verve
Website	http://www.richardashcroft.com

Richard Paul Ashcroft (born September 11, 1971 in Billinge Maternity Hospital in Billinge Higher End, Lancashire (now part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester) is an English singer-songwriter. He is the lead singer of The Verve, an English rock band that he helped form in 1989. The Verve suffered huge ups and downs in its first 10 years of existence, from great disappointment and lack of critical and commercial success on the band's first 2 albums (although they are now hailed and underrated by the music press) to and impressive popularity in the late 90's with the release of Urban Hymns in 1997. After problems within the members, the band demised in 1999, and Ashcroft embarked on a successful solo career. Richard released three solo albums. In June 2007 he and the rest of the four original members of The Verve announced their plans to get back together. They scheduled a short stadium tour for early November, which has already sold out and they started working in the new album in late July.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early Life: 1971-1989 1.2 The Verve years: 1989-1999 1.3 Solo Career: 1999-2007 1.3.1 Alone with Everybody 1.3.2 Human Conditions 1.3.3 Live 8 and Keys to the World 1.4 The Verve reunion: 2007- 2 Personal life 3 Controversy 4 Songwriting style and themes 5 Discography 5.1 Studio albums 5.2 Singles 5.2.1 From Alone With Everybody 5.2.2 From Human Conditions 5.2.3 From Keys to the World 6 Cameos 7 Live Recordings 8 See also 9 Trivia 10 External links

Biography

Early Life: 1971-1989

Ashcroft grew up in Skelmersdale, Lancashire. His father died when Richard was 11. Ashcroft soon fell under the influence of his stepfather, who belonged to the Rosicrucians. In 2006, Ashcroft confessed to taking Prozac to help him with depression, but said that they didn't help, referring to the pills as "very, very synthetic." Ashcroft has said that he's always been "a depressive, someone who suffers from depression", and that music and creativity help him cope with his illness. [1]

While in Skelmersdale, Ashcroft was an avid football player, and he still closely follows his favourite team, Manchester United. He has also admitted to cheering for Wigan Athletic, since he actually played for the youth team when he was young.

The Verve years: 1989-1999

Ashcroft formed The Verve (although until 1993 it was named simply Verve) in 1989 with his High-School friends. The band members shared a collective liking for the Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Raspberries, Funkadelic, and Krautrock, as well as a near-legendary appetite for psychedelic drugs. They were signed to Hut records and became a critical hit soon after. The band released the Verve EP in December 1992 before their first full-length album came out in mid 1993. It was a critical smash and extremely popular in the underground public, but it failed to match that kind of success in the mainstream. Around this time the band changed their name to The Verve due to legal reasons. Afterwards they released an album with outtakes and b-sides entitled No Come Down. 1995 saw the release of the awaited album A Northern Soul. Here the band departed from the neo-psychedelic sounds of A Storm in Heaven and focused more on conventional alternative rock. Although popularity increased album sales were disappointment for the band and Ashcrodt disbanded the band for a few weeks, when he tried to re-group them. Only to find an unwilling Nick McCabe. So a new guitarist was needed and after months of uncertainty finally, Simon Tong filled in. From autumn '96 to spring '97 the band worked on the third album. In 1997 McCabe returned, a bit more than a year after his departure. The five members finished the album and the release was in September. With the release of the first cut from the album the band saw never-imagined popularity. The single Bitter Sweet Symphony turned out to be one of the greatest songs of the decade and the album, a commercial and critical hit in both sides of the Atlantic. The band toured all over the world in the period 1997-8. Nick McCabe suddenly pulled out of the tour, but the band continued several months later. Until in April '99 the band decided to split up.

Solo Career: 1999-2007

Alone with Everybody

Richard Ashcroft had already been working in solo material as early as 1998. But it was not until after the dissolution of The Verve in 1999 that he dedicated entirely to his new career. In early 2000 he released his first single as a solo artist. "A Song for the Lovers" peaked at #3 in the UK charts in April. The album received mixed reviews, although mostly positive, and it gained incredible responses from the public. A few weeks before releasing his first album the single "Money To Burn" was out and entered the UK Top 20. Alone with Everybody was released in June and reached number 1 and received Platinum status in the United Kingdom. In September a third single was released. "C'mon People (We're Making It Now)" entered the charts just one position away from the Top 20.

Human Conditions

Richard started working on his next album in 2002. The single "Check the Meaning" was released just a few weeks prior to the release of Human Conditions and it peaked at #11. Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson performed on the song "Nature is the Law" in the album. The second single, "Science of Silence" was released in January 2003 and charted at #14. "Buy It in Bottles" was released afterwards and hit at #26. Human Conditions was at the time regarded as a weaker album compared to the previous one.

Live 8 and Keys to the World

In July 2005 Richard returned to the public after months of away from the media. He took part in the Live 8 concert in London where he sang along Coldplay his song Bitter Sweet Symphony. Chris Martin introduced him as "the best singer in the world" when he performed the song (which Martin called "probably the best song ever written"). This helped him gain attention. Ashcroft's third solo album, Keys to the World, was recorded with the co-operation of the London Metropolitan Orchestra, and released on January 23, 2006, by Parlophone. The first single from the album, "Break the Night with Colour", was released on January 9, 2006, and entered the UK Singles Chart at number 3. Around the time of the album's release, Ashcroft announced his largest UK tour for years for May 2006, culminating in three nights at London's Brixton Academy. He opened for the second half of Coldplay's tour, starting March 14, 2006, in Ottawa. The second single released was "Music Is Power", which charted at number 20. The next single, "Words Just Get in the Way", charted lower, barely making it into the Top 40 at the number 40 position after receiving barely any promotion or airplay. In December the double a-side single "Why Not Nothing?" / "Sweet Brother Malcolm" was released in limited size.

The Verve reunion: 2007-

It was announced on Richard's official site that after 8 years since their acrimonious split, The Verve have reformed. They are to release an album which will coincide with a tour in November 2007. The tour starts in Glasgow on the 2nd November, and will include 6 performances across the UK. At The Glasgow Academy, The Empress Ballroom and the London Roundhouse. In a statement the band stated they were "Getting back together for the joy of the music". The six shows sold out immediately.

Personal life

Ashcroft is married to Kate Radley, the former keyboard player for British shoegaze band Spiritualized. Together, they have two sons: Sonny, born in 2000, and Cassius, born in 2004. He is good friends with Oasis' Noel Gallagher and Coldplay's Chris Martin (whom Ashcroft once thanked for "letting me be myself again"), and occasionally plays as support at Oasis and Coldplay concerts, including the European and second UK legs of Coldplay's 'Twisted Logic Tour'. He recently described himself as "the best support act you'll ever see." The Oasis track "Cast No Shadow", included in the successful album 1995 (What's the Story) Morning Glory? is dedicated to him, and it is believed that Ashcroft dedicated The Verve's 1995 song "A Northern Soul" to Gallagher as a response.

Controversy

On more than one occasion, Ashcroft and his bandmates have run into trouble by borrowing words and ideas from other artists. The most notable of these conflicts spawned from The Verve's biggest hit, "Bitter Sweet Symphony", which uses the Andrew Oldham Orchestra recording of The Rolling Stones' 1965 song "The Last Time" as its foundation. In a well-publicized legal decision, the Rolling Stones' record company was awarded 100 percent of the royalties from "Bitter Sweet Symphony", and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were given songwriting credits along with Ashcroft. Legal ownership of the song created further controversy when Jagger and Richards gave Nike, Inc. license to use the song in one of its TV commercials, against The Verve's wishes. Another of Ashcroft's more well-known adaptations is found in the song "History". The first two verses of "History" are closely based on the first two stanzas of William Blake's poem "London".

Ashcroft is well known for his problems regarding drugs. These were evidenced serveral times since the nineties. Some examples of this are his 1994 summer tour collapses due to ecstasy overdose. He and the band were known for their heavy drug use, specially in the early and mid 90's. He is also known to have an erratic behavior. In 2006 he was was arrested in Wiltshire after coming into a youth centre and asking to work with the teenagers present at the club. He refused to leave and employees called the police, resulting in Ashcroft being arrested and fined £80 for disorderly conduct. [2]

Songwriting style and themes

During his early years in The Verve Richard was popular for writing lyrics about the band's drug use. Other typical themes on his lyrics, more present during his solo albums, are the topics regarding the figure of God, loneliness, religion, modern life, uncertainty and others.

Discography

Studio albums

• Alone with Everybody (June 26, 2000) (Hut Records) (#1 (UK) (Platinum))
• Human Conditions (October 21, 2002) (Hut Records) (#3 (UK) (Gold))
• Keys to the World (January 23, 2006) (Parlophone) (#2 (UK) (Platinum), #6(GER))

Singles

From Alone With Everybody

• "A Song for the Lovers" (April 3, 2000) (#3 UK)
• "Money to Burn" (June 12, 2000) (#17 UK)
• "C'mon People (We're Making It Now)" (September 11, 2000) (#21 UK)
• "You On My Mind In My Sleep" (December 18, 2000) (Promo release only)

From Human Conditions

• "Check the Meaning" (October 7, 2002) (#11 UK)
• "Science of Silence" (January 6, 2003) (#14 UK)
• "Buy It in Bottles" (April 7, 2003) (#26 UK)

From Keys to the World

• "Break the Night With Colour" (January 9, 2006) (#3 UK, #3 ITA)
• "Music Is Power" (April 17, 2006) (#20 UK)
• "Words Just Get in the Way" (July 10, 2006) (#40 UK)
• "Why Not Nothing?" / "Sweet Brother Malcolm" (December 4, 2006)

Cameos

• "The Test" ~ The Chemical Brothers, on the album Come With Us.
• "Lonely Soul" ~ UNKLE, on the album Psyence Fiction.

Live Recordings

Richard Ashcroft recorded a live performance for Live From Abbey Road on 11th December 2006. The episode that he shared with Norah Jones and John Mayer was aired in the UK on Channel 4 in March 2007 and in the USA on the Sundance Channel in June 2007.

See also

• Live from London (iTunes)

Trivia

• Ashcroft was nicknamed "Mad Richard" by the UK press.

• In June 2006, Ashcroft told the crowd at his Isle of Wight Festival performance that he had considered suicide the previous week. He also criticised Conservative Party leader David Cameron and Prime Minister Tony Blair, urging the latter to bring UK soldiers home from Iraq.

External links

• NORTHERN SOULS unofficial VERVE/ASHCROFT FORUM
• Richard Ashcroft Online (unofficial website for Richard Ashcroft/The Verve)
• Purevolume Richard Ashcroft