Richard Ashcroft - London Astoria - 19/9/02
4/5
By: Andrew Future
Far from the maddening 'cunian crowd, London's two-thousand capacity Astoria is a distant cry from the rolling grounds of last week's cricket-ground Oasis shows. Gone is the sprawling millionaire cloak he stalked stages with on his last tour. Richard, it would seem, is back to his roots.
Lifting the two year London hiatus with 'Sonnet', a second glance towards the keyboard-player reveals that it is Kate Radley; (his wife and former Spiritualized keyboardist). Along with Pete Salisbury on drums, she remains the only familiar face of a backing band which includes a saxophonist and another guitarist who is, of course, heard but not seen.
Richard himself looks timeless - as thin as he is tall, adorning dark combat overalls, the same shades, the same smile and the same belief, a warm sincerity in his semi-shaven, eternally sunken cheeks.
'Nature Is The Law' is the first of the new songs: a slow-burner, and a bit of a test this early on. 'Lord I've Been Trying' does lift off beautifully though, again, displaying that ever-familiar chuggy manner that Ashcroft can only get away with because of his infinitely emotive song-craft. 'Song For The Lovers' becomes a huge anthemic singalong, before 'Buy It In Bottles' unfolds into a warm, blissfully beautiful acoustic ballad in league with 'Sonnet' itself.
Ashcroft's wondrous talent for the pure and simple has consistently borne some of the great songs of the last decade, thus, when he chooses to properly indulge in a huge extended version of 'New York', we oblige accordingly. Donning a T-shirt thrown on-stage, the song attains monstrous new heights, though these are not regions previous untapped by Ashcroft, and you even begin to wonder whether he really is looking round the stage for Nick McCabe amidst the extended outro. To get the message home then, a trio of acoustic Verve numbers follow. During 'The Drugs Don't Work' he breaks a string, during 'History' he forgets the words and during 'See You In The Next One' there's a sea of open-mouthed splendour which melds ecstatic silence with choral hysteria. This is the way these songs were meant to be played.
New single 'Check The Meaning', like old favourite, 'Lucky Man', is met with the kind of euphoric reaction normally reserved for World Cup victories, with set-closer 'Bright Lights' sharing some of the same psychedelic bassy underlay as the prior-played 'New York', his mercurial talent for the tragically perfect chord-changes remaining well intact.
He who says Ashcroft will never evolve is proved mistaken, when, at the end of a short two-song encore, he unveils the new incarnation of 'Bitter Sweet Symphony'. Sounding not unlike 'This Is Music' and replacing the famous strings with saxophone solos, it is nothing if not different.
Fittingly, he's all smiles, he has nothing to prove, and everything to indulge. Early listens to new LP 'Human Conditions' show it being a joyful step forward from 'Alone With Everybody' into the realms of a deeper, darker beauty attained by some of his previous work with The Verve. Indeed, we love the way it was, but certainly like the way it is now.
Artists in this article: Richard Ashcroft
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