Welcome to the first AND ONLY thread dedicated to the solo oeuvre of Wigan’s Wilde, Mr. Richard Ashcroft (born '71).
What we’re looking for here is full and frank discussion of any and all of Dick’s work under his own name. This includes Alone with Everybody, Human Conditions, Keys to the World, These People, Natural Rebel and Acoustic Hymns Vol. 1, as well as his deeply misunderstood magnum opus, United Nations of Sound.
Discussion of Richard’s time as leadal singerizer with The Verve is encouraged only where it provides colour and punctuation to broader dialogue around his solo work. Please refer to this thread for specific Verve discourse.
Tasteful exchange around Richard’s personal life is also acceptable, especially where we mught aim to unwrap the engima surrounding the man. Is he really a COVID conspiracy theorist or has he simply been spending too much time with fellow dishevelled frontman Ian ‘King Monkey’ Brown? How must he have felt turning thirty on 9/11? And where is this chippy? The possibilities, whilst not endless, are varied and many. I look forward to a thoughtful reappraisal of Richard’s place in the rock pantheon.
I’ll get the ball rolling with this classic from Human Conditions. How many other artists would have the stones to open a record with an eight-minute reminder that we are all brothers and sisters bonded together by soul love? Genuinely can’t think of any.
30 year reunion tour, all of northern soul, 6 off a storm in heaven, Come on from Urban hymns then Sonnet, Lucky Man and Bittersweet for the encore so that i can leave after come on and beat the traffic
I love The Verve. I don’t rate Richard’s solo material. At all. Apart from maybe that one sprightly number off the third album that he released as a single.
He’s the only thing that’s stopping The Verve being an active band. Nick and Simon went on record saying that, so it aggravates me to no end that he’d rather push his flaccid solo material than bury the hatchet with Nick and (in a perfect world) get back to making the ethereal space-rock opera of yore.
He used to be a regular visitor to the branch of Starbucks that my girlfriend worked at in London, and used to give a different fake name every day despite the fact that
a) he was quite obviously Richard Ashcroft
b) by using a different fake name rather than a consistently fake name he drew attention to himself from those who didn’t know he was Richard Ashcroft.
