Richard Ashcroft
Richard Paul Ashcroft is an English musician, singer, and songwriter. He formed the alternative rock band the Verve in 1990 and served as the sole songwriter, lead singer and rhythm guitarist throughout the band's lifetime. Following the Verve's disbandment in 1999, Ashcroft embarked on a successful solo career, releasing six UK top-three solo albums, including Alone with Everybody, Keys to the World and These People. The Verve reformed in 2007 and disbanded again in 2009.
Ashcroft's songwriting has been commended by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors twice with an Ivor Novello Award. The Verve's Urban Hymns is one of the UK's best-selling albums of all time. Ashcroft's work has influenced artists such as Oasis, Coldplay, and the Britpop and indie rock genres. Noel Gallagher of Oasis described Ashcroft as a "genius", and Chris Martin of Coldplay called him "the best singer in the world".
On 10 October 2025, Ashcroft released his seventh studio album, Lovin' You.
Early life
Ashcroft is the eldest child of office worker Frank and hairdresser Louise Ashcroft. He has two younger sisters. In his childhood, Ashcroft was very shy, to the point that he had to be replaced in a school nativity play because of stage fright. However, he was also known for wanting to make his classmates laugh.Ashcroft was adamant about recording songs from the radio, an alternative to the five-album collection his mother could afford. The first record Ashcroft bought was "Just Like Starting Over", and following John Lennon's death in 1980, he played "Imagine" on a loop.
In 1982, when Ashcroft was 11, his father died of a brain haemorrhage. He used music to deal with the tragedy. He recalled "questioning" the nature of life while other children occupied themselves with age-appropriate activities, thinking at the time "You're not supposed to feel this bad as a kid".
Ashcroft attended Up Holland High School in West Lancashire with future band mates Simon Jones, Peter Salisbury and Simon Tong. He enrolled in Theatre Studies, English Literature, and Philosophy and Religion at Winstanley College. His teacher remembered him as "incredibly intelligent" but too dedicated to music to care about his grades. There, he met future band mate Nick McCabe.
Ashcroft was an avid football player. He is listed in the 1998 Playfair Football Who's Who as having been on the books of Rotherham United playing junior football for Wigan Athletic. For some time, Ashcroft wanted to be a professional football player, idolising George Best, but as he grew older he lost interest in this, turning to music instead.
The Verve
Ashcroft formed the Verve in 1990 with Simon Jones and Pete Salisbury. When attending Winstanley College, he heard Nick McCabe playing guitar. Without knowing his physical appearance, he waited outside the cubicle to ask whoever was behind the sound to join his band. The band went through several name changes such as Raingarden until it finally settled on Verve. Their recording of the first album, A Storm in Heaven, consisted mainly of jam sessions with improvised lyrics, upon which Ashcroft then took and edited the usable parts and structured them into songs. Ashcroft has said that the band was under the influence of LSD when they recorded the album.The band signed to Hut Records, during which time Ashcroft gained the sobriquet "Mad Richard". They also became a part of the Britpop movement. The band split in 1995, and around this time Ashcroft wrote a collection of songs he intended to release as his first solo album. However, by 1997 he had changed his mind and asked McCabe to return, reforming the Verve and releasing the very successful album Urban Hymns. Ashcroft was at the forefront of the band's popularity, receiving an Ivor Novello Award for his songwriting and being referred to by the press as "the unmistakable face of the Number One rock band in England". The band's single "Bitter Sweet Symphony" reached number 12 on the US charts in 1998. At the 1998 Brit Awards, The Verve won the awards for Best British Group and Best British Album. The band appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone in March 1998. At the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards, "Bitter Sweet Symphony" was nominated for Video of the Year, Best Group Video, and Best Alternative Video. In February 1999, "Bitter Sweet Symphony" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song. In April 1999, it was announced that The Verve had again split up.
In early 2007, Ashcroft made peace with McCabe and Jones and the Verve's reunion was announced in June. The band played gigs later that year and continued touring in 2008, headlining at several festivals around the world. A new album, Forth, was released in August.
In August 2009, the Verve broke up for the third time, as McCabe's drinking problem generated tensions within the group.
Solo career
''Alone with Everybody'' and ''Human Conditions'': 2000–2004
Ashcroft's first solo single, "A Song for the Lovers", peaked at No. 3 in the UK chart in April 2000. It was followed by the single "Money to Burn", which reached the UK Top 20 at No. 17. The album Alone with Everybody was released in June, reaching number 1 and receiving platinum status in the UK. Album reviews were generally positive. In September, a third single was released, "C'mon People ", entering the charts at No. 21. Richard does not publish his song lyrics in the inlay cards of his albums or singles, as he feels they are personal to him.Ashcroft began work on his second album, Human Conditions, in 2002. The lead single, "Check the Meaning", was released in early October, and peaked at No. 11 on the UK Singles Chart. The album was released later that month and reached No. 3 in the UK Album Chart. Reception to the album was generally positive. Review aggregating website Metacritic reports a normalised score of 61% based on 15 reviews. In response to negative reaction to the album, Coldplay's Chris Martin – a fan of both Ashcroft and the Verve – defended the album's merits which "made an impression" on Ashcroft. The appreciation shown would later result in a support slot for Ashcroft, serving as the opening act for Coldplay during a European tour. The album's second single, "Science of Silence", was released the following January and charted at No. 14 in the UK. On 26 March, Ashcroft made his first live appearance of 2003 at London's Royal Albert Hall as part of the third annual Teenage Cancer Trust charity fundraising event, before "Buy It in Bottles", the third and final single to be taken from the album, was released on 7 April, charting at No. 26.
Aside from a limited number of appearances in 2003, Ashcroft was absent from the music business for about two years. He later explained this in 2006, stating that "veryone got it into their heads over the last few years that I was in my ivory tower like Lennon, baking bread all day. The fact of the matter was that I was bringing up kids".
Live 8 and ''Keys to the World'': 2005–2007
Ashcroft began playing shows again in mid-2005, and, on 2 July at the Live 8 concert in Hyde Park, Coldplay invited him to perform with them. They performed the Verve's hit "Bitter Sweet Symphony", after having rehearsed the song in Crystal Palace. Chris Martin introduced Ashcroft's performance of the song as "probably the best song ever written, and here's the best singer in the world", helping to renew interest in Ashcroft. At Christmas 2005, a documentary entitled Live 8: A Bitter Sweet Symphony was aired on the BBC, featuring a portion of Ashcroft's performance as the show's opening soundtrack.After the disintegration of Hut Records in 2004, Ashcroft signed to Parlophone, where he released his third solo album, Keys to the World, on 23 January 2006. The first single from the album, "Break the Night with Colour", was released on 9 January 2006, and entered the UK Singles Chart at number 3. Following his performance at Live 8, Ashcroft was booked as a support act for Coldplay's Twisted Logic Tour throughout North America and the UK, which started on 14 March in Ottawa, Canada. Ashcroft saw the support slot as "a good chance to play to a significant amount of people and say, 'I’m back. And this is what I do'".
The album's second single, "Music Is Power", charted at number 20. On 18 April 2006, he recorded the Live from London EP, the ninth in a series of EPs released exclusively as digital downloads from Apple's iTunes Store. The EP was released six days later on 24 April. With the release of Keys to the World, the general consensus was that Ashcroft was "back at the top of his musical game". He announced his largest UK tour for years for May 2006, culminating in three nights at London's Brixton Academy. Following the tour, Ashcroft had hoped to perform two "Homecoming" shows at Wigan Athletic's 25,000-seater JJB Stadium in June 2006, but was unable to do so as the proposed venue lacked the "appropriate licence". As a consequence, he played at Lancashire County Cricket Club in Old Trafford, in his biggest solo show up to then. He was supported by acts such as Razorlight and the Feeling, while DJ Shadow joined Ashcroft on stage to perform "Lonely Soul", their UNKLE collaboration from 1998's Psyence Fiction LP. Another UK tour followed five months later, culminating in a show at Manchester's M.E.N. Arena on 30 November. Ashcroft did not tour Keys to the World outside Europe.
Ashcroft hinted at the possible release of a new version of "C'mon People " for the Bobby Moore Cancer Fund, which would coincide with England's participation in the 2006 Football World Cup, but the single never materialised. Instead, his next release was "Words Just Get in the Way", which charted lower than his previous single, peaking at No. 40 in the UK Singles Chart. On 4 December, the double a-side "Why Not Nothing" / "Sweet Brother Malcolm" was released on limited edition 7" vinyl.