RICHARD ASHCROFT

Bittersweet

Last month when Richard Ashcroft introduced his new band RPA & The United Nations Of Sound to Paris as part of a quick European run, he was nervous. He had expected his new album to have been released a few weeks before, so that the 500 fans at the Le Trabendo would have known the songs. But it wasn’t. CHRISTIE ELIEZER finds out what went awry ahead of Ashcroft’s gig at Metro City on Wednesday, August 4.

Ashcroft took a risk by showcasing ten new songs, kicking off with the soaring Are You Ready? and Born Again. Very quickly the new band - guitarist Steve Wyreman, bassist Paul ‘DW’ Wright, drummer Derrick Wright and Ashcroft’s wife and former Spiritualized band member Kate Radley, on keyboards - proved what fine chops they had. The crowd went wild.
At that French show, the only Verve song to get a workout was Lucky Man although he did do Sonnet and The Drugs Don’t Work as part of a solo acoustic encore. It would be the last show on the European tour before Bitter Sweet Symphony made an appearance - and only because Wright, who loved the song, wanted to play it. Sure enough, a reviewer castigated him for falling back on Symphony. Ashcroft wailed, “I could have told them that would happen!”
But he wasn’t concerned. “This band was phenomenal in the studio so I was dying to hear them live. They’re all great players; they’ve got the humility to play the beat where they should, and the riff where they should. It’s like Neil Young’s Crazy Horse: it’s a solo record but the band is so wonderful it deserves its own spotlight because they’re out of their comfort zone too, playing with a guy who comes from a rock background. We’re turning each other on to new things, bleeding new things into each other, and hopefully coming up with a new sound.”
When they’re not on tour, Ashcroft, Radley and their kids move between their English estate in Gloucestershire (where he communes with nature and surrounds himself with dogs, hens and peacocks), a place in London and a chateau in the south of France. It was at the latter where last year Radley came across Ashcroft sitting so still that she thought he’d passed out. He was working out where to go with the next record. The Verve had split up again and his new songs were in a different mindspace. He wanted to create a fresh mix of rock, soul and R&B. The name No ID kept coming up as the producer; Ashcroft was a fan of the tribal grooves he whipped up on Jay-Z and Common records.
No ID was in heavy demand, so Ashcroft only had ten days to record. The producer got in some hot R&B players. The sessions also included engineer Reggie Dozier who’d worked on Motown classics, Benjamin Wright who arranged the strings for Aretha, the Temptations and Michael Jackson’s Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough came in to work on the album’s epic closer Let My Soul Rest.
As the sessions went on, Ashcroft saw his vision come alive, “I wanted future rock, not retro rock.” He’d express his excitement by shadow boxing, punching his fists in the air, and once falling on the floor worshipping guitarist Wyreman’s wah-wah pedal as he nailed the solo on Are You Ready? in the first take.
“He arrived in New York to play with Mary J. Blige on a TV show,” Ashcroft recalls. “He came in to do one song. I explained briefly how Keith Richards came into Sympathy For The Devil by semi-introducing himself. I knew I wouldn’t have to talk to him about Jimi Hendrix and Funkadelic, I knew it was in him.  He just did it. That moment was a life change for Steve, he went on to play guitar on the rest of the record.”
At what point did he realise that a number of the songs lyrically seemed to be about the need for rebirth?
“After recording, I’d go back to the hotel late at night, and there’d be 68 religious channels, all deep in discussion. I like reading the Bible, I read the theology, but I don’t belong to a church and I don’t like the dogma. I’m interested in the dichotomy of words like Judas and Jesus coming from something so pure. But I also have a lot of respect for Darwinism. To me, Isaac Newton is as inspiring as St. Francis of Assisi.”
Given that the Verve never made it to Australia, how many songs will we get at his shows?
“On the European tour, Bittersweet Symphony didn’t make it until the last show and that’s because the bassist wanted to do it. But I know Australians who loved Urban Hymns have been waiting a long time to see the man who wrote it sing it. So that’s when I make the decision to play it. I’m realistic, gigs are not cheap.”
What was his reaction when he heard Allen Klein (Rolling Stones publisher who took all the royalties for Bittersweet because of its Stones sample) had died?
“That’s a great question! I was blind to his passing, it didn’t register. I’ve compartmentalised that whole thing somewhere else in my brain. To me, the best thing to do is to do a documentary on that song, from the Staples Singers to the Rolling Stones. It is after all one of the greatest pieces of pop art.”
And yes, even now, when people see him walk down a street, they still yell out, “’Ere mate, the video’s finished!”