Richard Ashcroft

Richard Ashcroft (born September 11, 1971) is an English singer-songwriter best known as the frontman and lead vocalist of the alternative rock band The Verve. Ashcroft co-founded The Verve in Wigan in 1990. After building a reputation for sprawling psychedelic rock in the early 1990s, the band achieved global commercial success with their multi-platinum 1997 album Urban Hymns. Propelled by Ashcroft's songwriting on tracks like "Bitter Sweet Symphony," "The Drugs Don't Work," and "Lucky Man," the album became one of the defining records of the Britpop era. Following internal tensions, the band split in 1999, briefly reunited to release the album Forth in 2008, and disbanded again in 2009. Ashcroft launched a successful solo career with his debut album Alone with Everybody (2000), which topped the UK Albums Chart and featured the hit single "A Song for the Lovers". He went on to release several solo studio albums, including Human Conditions (2002), Keys to the World (2006), These People (2016), and Natural Rebel (2018). In 2021, he released Acoustic Hymns Vol. 1, featuring rearranged acoustic takes of his catalog alongside guest vocals from Liam Gallagher. In 2027 Richard Ashcroft is touring extensively as a supporting act for Oasis.