Richard Ashcroft to release an acoustic album of greatest hits

1 September 2020, 12:41 | Updated: 18 February 2021, 13:18

Richard Ashcroft sings Song For The Lovers (Live For Radio X)

The Verve legend has revealed his next record will be a stripped-back collection of some of his best works.

Richard Ashcroft has revealed his plans to release a stripped-back acoustic album consisting of some of his greatest hits.

The Verve legend - whose Bitter Sweet Symphony track topped Radio X's Top 100 of the 90s - confirmed his next record will be an acoustic retrospective of some of his best works, which he hopes to take to the stage in the future.

Asked by Radio X's George Godfrey if he had any plans in the works, Ashcroft replied: "Yeah, at the moment I'm set to start on an acoustic set of some of the best tunes [...] and stripping them back and laying them bare basically, so that will be my next thing. I'm excited about that."

The Drugs Don't Work singer added: "I'll be recording, I'm carrying on, moving on. So that will be my next record and from there when that comes out, that mythical night in my mind will take place."

Richard Ashcroft performs in 2018. Picture: Press/Robin Pope,

This Monday (31 August) saw The Verve's Bitter Sweet Symphony beat out stiff competition from the likes of Oasis and Travis to come out at Number 1 in Radio X's Top 100 Of The 90s.

Oasis' Don't Look Back In Anger came in at second place, while Travis came in third with Why Does It Always Rain On Me? and The La's followed in fourth with their classic love song There She Goes.

"It's amazing," Ashcroft told George Godfrey when he heard the news. "The fans, then your peers - they're the two things that count."

He said of the song: "I wanted to make it totally universal. That's the thing about it. You don't write imagining a crowd at a stadium. This was written before any of that. The culture wasn't the same. I honestly believed it was done in a different mindset. The people make it an anthem, because they're the ones that sing along to the words."

"It's a very fresh piece of music," he explained talking about the song's longevity. "It could easily be a soundtrack to what the world's going through right now. It chimes now just as it did back then."