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RICHARD ASHCROFT IS ALIVE!

May 22, 2025

SHARES FIRST SINGLE SINCE 2018 AND GOES ON TOUR WITH OASIS

Richard Ashcroft, vocalist of The Verve, returns to share “Lover,” his first single since his 2018 album Natural Rebel. Debuted on BBC Radio 2 with Vernon Kay, “Lover” arrives ahead of the rocker’s big summer where he will be joining Oasis on their highly-anticipated reunion tour for the UK and Ireland dates.

Written by Richard and co-produced alongside Emre Ramazanoglu, “Lover” incorporates elements of one of Richard’s all-time favorite works, “Love and Affection” by Joan Armatrading, whom he approached before recording the arrangement.

The track represents his first new material since his 2018 album Natural Rebel debuted at #4 on the UK Official Album Chart. Since then, Richard also released the career-spanning Acoustic Hymns Vol 1 set, which hit #2 and became his highest charting record in fifteen years.

Richard’s vision for an immersive project was realized with a mobile LED virtual production courtesy of CUBE StudioX. It matched the emotion of Richard’s songwriting and performance by surrounding him with striking visuals displayed on an 18 x 4 meter led volume in a large studio space. The video was co-produced by Roy Kimani, CUBE Studio’s co-founder and Director of Innovation.

A two-time Ivor Novello Award winner (Songwriter of the Year and Outstanding Contribution To British Music), Richard Ashcroft has become one of the most accomplished and influential songwriters around over the course of a career that spans three decades. His first chapter with The Verve reached a remarkable peak with Urban Hymns, a hit-laden set (“Bitter Sweet Symphony,” “The Drugs Don’t Work,” “Lucky Man,” “Sonnet”) which is one of the biggest selling albums in UK history with 11 x Platinum certifications. The band achieved a second #1 album with Forth and won three BRIT Awards.

– did you know? –

“Bitter Sweet Symphony is one of the definitive British singles of the 1990s: a moody, existential anthem driven forward by a distinctive string motif. Those four seconds of strings were sampled from an orchestral recording of the Rolling Stones song The Last Time, but the rights were not fully cleared before the song was released.”

Back in the day, The Verve’s dreamy hit “Bitter Sweet Symphony” hit a sour note when ABKCO, the publishing company owned by Rolling Stones manager Allen Klein, claimed the band had sampled more of an orchestral Rolling Stones riff than they’d agreed to. A legal battle ensued, ending in a behind-the-scenes settlement where frontman Richard Ashcroft was forced to hand over the song’s royalties and slap on a new songwriting credit: Jagger/Richards/Ashcroft. Ever the cheeky poet, Ashcroft famously joked, “This is the best song Jagger and Richards have written in 20 years.”

Fast forward a couple of decades, and in a twist worthy of a rock ballad, Ashcroft’s management reached out—and Mick and Keith didn’t miss a beat. The rock legends “immediately, unhesitatingly and unconditionally agreed” to give the royalties back to Ashcroft. In a moment of pure gratitude, he gave shout-outs all around: “Big thanks to my managers Steve Kutner and John Kennedy, the Stones’ manager Joyce Smyth, and Jody Klein for actually picking up the phone. But most of all, massive love and respect to Mick and Keith. Music is power.”

In 2019, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones ended one of the most bitter copyright battles in British pop history by handing over all future royalties from Bitter Sweet Symphony to Richard Ashcroft

The Verve broke up in 1999, though they reformed in 2007 and released one further album, Forth. As well as one album with his band RPA & the United Nations of Sound, Ashcroft has also released five solo albums, the most recent, Natural Rebel, in 2018.

His solo career continued that acclaim with his debut Alone With Everybody shooting to #1 and all five subsequent studio albums landing between #2 and #5. Between The Verve and his solo work, he has achieved three UK #1 albums and another five Top 10 records, plus a #1 single and five Top 10 hits.

News of Richard’s special guest set on the upcoming Oasis tour continues a long-term mutual admiration between the two. The Verve and Oasis played shows together both before Oasis’s breakthrough and at their absolute peak, leading to a continuing friendship between Richard and the Gallagher brothers. Noel dedicated “Cast No Shadow” from (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? to Richard, before Richard provided backing vocals on All Around The World from 1997’s Be Here Now. In 2021 Liam featured on a reworked version of Richard’s “C’mon People (We’re Making It Now).”