By the way, about naming people after celebrities, yesterday I was saying Noel Gallagher wanted to call his son "Carlitos"... (then Sonny). Imagine calling one (forever) after the name of a traitor. I laughed when I read Noel was introduced to a little dog called "NOEL", who had been "…named after you, man!!!!!!", the owner said by shouting at him… (the traitor). I believe the man's best friend is not the dog but the cat, but not the scaredy cat as Noel is.
Let's go back to Ashcroft. It's such a pity that The Verve split, this time probably forever, they really can't get on well together. I enjoyed very much their last ("Forth") album in 2008 ("Valium skies", "Judas", "I see houses", etc.), it should've been more successful.
Their best one was of course "Urban Hymns" (1997, Liam Gallagher shouting "this is big fuck you!" lol at 5:00 of "Come on"), but one of my favourites albums ever is also the first of his solo cds, "Alone with everybody" (2000, "Brave new world", "On a beach", "You on my mind in my sleep", etc., I remember I had learnt to play those songs by guitar all "by my ear", without chords written - also because I "bought" internet in 2001 (Noel in 2011), on September 11 - Richard's birthday - I was in a computers shop when they told me what happened). Good also his 2nd solo ("Buy it in bottles", "Check the meaning" - video that always made me think, I even wrote some posts about it, etc.)
I don't like his new project, RPA & The United Nations of Sound (being a Manchester United fan, he couldn't give a different name :), you remember the video "Are you ready?", looks like a big advertisement of Adidas... Liam wouldn't appreciate, lol. And in only 2 words written in Italian language, there was a mistake (probably also in some other languages).
Their best one was of course "Urban Hymns" (1997, Liam Gallagher shouting "this is big fuck you!" lol at 5:00 of "Come on"), but one of my favourites albums ever is also the first of his solo cds, "Alone with everybody" (2000, "Brave new world", "On a beach", "You on my mind in my sleep", etc., I remember I had learnt to play those songs by guitar all "by my ear", without chords written - also because I "bought" internet in 2001 (Noel in 2011), on September 11 - Richard's birthday - I was in a computers shop when they told me what happened). Good also his 2nd solo ("Buy it in bottles", "Check the meaning" - video that always made me think, I even wrote some posts about it, etc.)
I don't like his new project, RPA & The United Nations of Sound (being a Manchester United fan, he couldn't give a different name :), you remember the video "Are you ready?", looks like a big advertisement of Adidas... Liam wouldn't appreciate, lol. And in only 2 words written in Italian language, there was a mistake (probably also in some other languages).
He was definitely one of my favourite artists, but I don't appreciate much when he speaks about politics, I think musicians should make music only.
You can see he's the opposite of Noel Gallagher, as the Oasis man never played in Live Aids and those things, and hates Bob Geldof. I also remember Noel saying he was in favour of war in Iraq, and of course Ashcroft wasn't. Besides, Ashcroft believes music can change people and things, while Noel always said it can't happen.
The only one time when Noel (without Liam) played for a kind of "social cause" gig was to perform a few songs at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in New York (7 June 1997) and this thing banned him from playing in communist China with Oasis even 12 years later (you know, the monks story). You remember him writing on his blog "fuck me them communists..."
This Ashcroft show was totally communist, as Mtv is here. In the interview below, you can hear him speaking about "fascism", "right wing" and "conservatives" as if they were the disgrace of the world (he says when he supported Coldplay - how can you support Coldplay? - he's afraid of getting arrested in the U.S.A., because of smoking). At first, the woman (Paola Maugeri) avoids to translate some of those things, to avoid controversies. Man, just to remind you that communism in history made at least 10 times more of dead people, so if you wanna be "on the right side of history", you should at least choose the "less worse" one...
This was one month before the general election here, when then communists "won" (thanks to cheating on votes) and of course was a complete disaster, failing from the beginning and lasting something like one year, of confusion.
As you can see, Paola puts him in some difficulty when she recalls musicians having champagne and crabs in the Live 8 backstage (he laughs... nothing to laugh about... in fact she's very serious), and he's a bit confused, talking about mobile phones.
I hated the video for "Words just get in the way"... it shows how hypocrite "Mad Richard" is... (his nickname). The communist Picasso appears there, and maybe Ashcroft feels close to poor people 'cause in that video he didn't shaved his beard eh... I don't get the link between poor desperate people shown there and Ashcroft rich and happy on a Formula 1 circuit and on a helicopter... Maybe he wanted to underline this... But hey poor people, don't worry, "IF YOU WANT IT" (as annoyingly repeated), you can become rich... And with a stupid face he indicates a poor man with his finger, but no problem, as he says, you can call him... Richard always had an attitude of victim: oh he cries, oh he's in despair... what's wrong in his life? He's got everything. Which were all those pains, problems? Maybe how to manage millions? A girl not interested in him? Look at yourself in the mirror... He just acted as the "bloody poet", with the weight of the world on his shoulders. The only problem was given by himself : the drugs. Then, "the drugs don't work"... when he (almost) stopped moaning about his condition (he didn't at all), he began to feel the saviour of Earth... (probably he thinks to be Jesus... and here he said people should stop speaking about religion... while he can). Classic of communists: despising richness. Of other people. Not theirs.
In a really beautiful song I adore to sing ("World keeps turning", great song for the music), he sings: "all my blocks every night I try to figure out what's wrong and right...oh here, a hypocrite, yeah I did..."
He's really desperate about poverty (but his money is always raising...). It's a pity that this wonderful music is ruined by those ideas... He's so full of himself... I think musicians obtain the opposite of what they want (e.g. Bruce Springsteen and company against Bush, then he was the most voted president in the USA history). Richard's just an (ex?) drug addict.
Anyway, Noel appreciates his music, as I do, and you remember him dedicating Oasis' "Cast No Shadow" to the genius of Richard Ashcroft. In that same album, What's the story Morning Glory, Noel seemed to reply to him years before: "Some might say that sunshine follows thunder...go and tell it to the man who cannot shine / who lives in hell.."
Of course I can't write Richard's (and Noel's) songs, respect (but not always) for their songwriting. But I have some doubts about Ashcroft voice too. First of all, I can reach every low and high note of his voice, and I am nobody, it's really easy for me to sing his songs (while some Oasis old songs sung by Liam were not really easy), so this tells me there are probably better voices than Richard's around. Besides, his voice doesn't really "scratch" as for example Kelly Jones, it's different, I rather take his rough voice as model to imitate.
Of course all this criticism towards Richard, as I do with Noel, it's love, lol.
interview part 1
part 2 - part 3 - part 4 - part 5 - part 6 - part 7
Lucky man
Music is power
Bitter sweet symphony, I don't like this version, I used to play an acoustic one that sounded better (the video was the famous one in Hoxton street, bumping into passers-by)
Science of silence, I loved the video at the seaside in the winter, I found myself in a similar situation that year, 2003, when the video came out
Break the night with colour (this was the video inside a jail - maybe they arrested him because of smoking)
This Ashcroft show was totally communist, as Mtv is here. In the interview below, you can hear him speaking about "fascism", "right wing" and "conservatives" as if they were the disgrace of the world (he says when he supported Coldplay - how can you support Coldplay? - he's afraid of getting arrested in the U.S.A., because of smoking). At first, the woman (Paola Maugeri) avoids to translate some of those things, to avoid controversies. Man, just to remind you that communism in history made at least 10 times more of dead people, so if you wanna be "on the right side of history", you should at least choose the "less worse" one...
This was one month before the general election here, when then communists "won" (thanks to cheating on votes) and of course was a complete disaster, failing from the beginning and lasting something like one year, of confusion.
As you can see, Paola puts him in some difficulty when she recalls musicians having champagne and crabs in the Live 8 backstage (he laughs... nothing to laugh about... in fact she's very serious), and he's a bit confused, talking about mobile phones.
I hated the video for "Words just get in the way"... it shows how hypocrite "Mad Richard" is... (his nickname). The communist Picasso appears there, and maybe Ashcroft feels close to poor people 'cause in that video he didn't shaved his beard eh... I don't get the link between poor desperate people shown there and Ashcroft rich and happy on a Formula 1 circuit and on a helicopter... Maybe he wanted to underline this... But hey poor people, don't worry, "IF YOU WANT IT" (as annoyingly repeated), you can become rich... And with a stupid face he indicates a poor man with his finger, but no problem, as he says, you can call him... Richard always had an attitude of victim: oh he cries, oh he's in despair... what's wrong in his life? He's got everything. Which were all those pains, problems? Maybe how to manage millions? A girl not interested in him? Look at yourself in the mirror... He just acted as the "bloody poet", with the weight of the world on his shoulders. The only problem was given by himself : the drugs. Then, "the drugs don't work"... when he (almost) stopped moaning about his condition (he didn't at all), he began to feel the saviour of Earth... (probably he thinks to be Jesus... and here he said people should stop speaking about religion... while he can). Classic of communists: despising richness. Of other people. Not theirs.
In a really beautiful song I adore to sing ("World keeps turning", great song for the music), he sings: "all my blocks every night I try to figure out what's wrong and right...oh here, a hypocrite, yeah I did..."
He's really desperate about poverty (but his money is always raising...). It's a pity that this wonderful music is ruined by those ideas... He's so full of himself... I think musicians obtain the opposite of what they want (e.g. Bruce Springsteen and company against Bush, then he was the most voted president in the USA history). Richard's just an (ex?) drug addict.
Anyway, Noel appreciates his music, as I do, and you remember him dedicating Oasis' "Cast No Shadow" to the genius of Richard Ashcroft. In that same album, What's the story Morning Glory, Noel seemed to reply to him years before: "Some might say that sunshine follows thunder...go and tell it to the man who cannot shine / who lives in hell.."
Of course I can't write Richard's (and Noel's) songs, respect (but not always) for their songwriting. But I have some doubts about Ashcroft voice too. First of all, I can reach every low and high note of his voice, and I am nobody, it's really easy for me to sing his songs (while some Oasis old songs sung by Liam were not really easy), so this tells me there are probably better voices than Richard's around. Besides, his voice doesn't really "scratch" as for example Kelly Jones, it's different, I rather take his rough voice as model to imitate.
Of course all this criticism towards Richard, as I do with Noel, it's love, lol.
interview part 1
part 2 - part 3 - part 4 - part 5 - part 6 - part 7
Lucky man
Music is power
Bitter sweet symphony, I don't like this version, I used to play an acoustic one that sounded better (the video was the famous one in Hoxton street, bumping into passers-by)
Science of silence, I loved the video at the seaside in the winter, I found myself in a similar situation that year, 2003, when the video came out
Break the night with colour (this was the video inside a jail - maybe they arrested him because of smoking)
