Richard Ashcroft has been named as the support act for Oasis’s 2025 reunion tour in the UK and Ireland.
The former Verve frontman will appear at the 19 dates in Cardiff, Manchester, London, Edinburgh and Dublin between July and September, confirming earlier rumours of his appearance.
Ashcroft said in a statement:
As a fan from day one I was buzzing for many reasons when the news of Oasis’s return was announced. I can say with no exaggeration that the songwriting talent of Noel and Liam’s pure spirit as a lead singer helped to inspire me to create some of my best work. It was the perfection of Live Forever that forced me to try and write my own. They dared to be great, made the dreams we had real and I will always remember those days with joy. Now it’s time to create more memories and I’m ready to bring it. See you next summer. Music is power.
As lead singer with the Verve, Ashcroft wrote some of the defining songs of the Britpop era – though with a rather gloomier cast than Oasis’s hits – including Bitter Sweet Symphony and The Drugs Don’t Work. The Verve’s 1997 album Urban Hymns went 11 times platinum in the UK, the eighth-biggest seller that decade, and also went platinum in the US.
Ashcroft went solo, scoring top three singles with A Song for the Lovers and Break the Night With Colour, as well as six top five albums, plus a less successful LP in 2010 as RPA and the United Nations of Sound. The Verve reformed between 2007 and 2009, releasing their final album to date, the UK chart-topper Forth.
His relationship with the Gallagher brothers stretches back to 1993, when Oasis supported the Verve on tour prior to the release of their debut single Supersonic. The Verve later supported Oasis, and in the liner notes of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory, Cast No Shadow “is dedicated to the genius of Richard Ashcroft”.
Ashcroft can – barely – be heard singing backing vocals on maximalist nine-minute Oasis epic All Around the World, from 1997’s Be Here Now. Later, Liam Gallagher appeared on a version of Ashcroft’s single C’mon People (We’re Making It Now), recorded for 2021 acoustic album Acoustic Hymns Vol 1.