Richard Ashcroft's performed a solo acoustic set at Latitude Festival on July 20th. The Guardian briefly mentioned his set (as part of their festival coverage) and had this to say:
'As for Richard Ashcroft, he got one of the most baffled responses. Playing a solo acoustic set, he struck a slightly unnerving note with his cropped hair and Edward Snowden T-shirt), ranting about "the Orwellian nightmare" that is our lives and berating other bands for being "fakers"'
FYI, one of the commenters on the Guardian piece called Ashcroft's performance "probably the best performance of the weekend" and pointed out that Ashcroft's t-shirt was about Bradley Manning, not Snowden. The t-shirt reads "Free Bradley Manning," so it's unclear where the Guardian went wrong with that, however in Ashcroft's July 9th interview with the BBC he said the following:
"I'd like to dedicate the whole performance to Mr. Snowden and I wish him good luck and a safe journey to somewhere potentially where he won't be hunted down and also Bradley Manning so basically anyone, any lovers of free speech, and freedom, and real art, come down and see me play."
The audio from the BBC interview (which also mentions new music coming in September) is posted below. As for video from Ashcroft's Latitude set, not much has appeared other than this FANTASTIC pro-shot video of "Lucky Man":
UPDATE: Pro-shot video of "The Drugs Don't Work" plus fan-filmed video of "Sonnet" and "Bitter Sweet Symphony" are posted below.
"Lucky Man"
"The Drugs Don't Work"
"Sonnet" (fan-filmed song clip)
"Bitter Sweet Symphony" (with Ashcroft commentary on the song, Google Glasses, & not being a robot)
BBC interview with Richard Ashcroft
'As for Richard Ashcroft, he got one of the most baffled responses. Playing a solo acoustic set, he struck a slightly unnerving note with his cropped hair and Edward Snowden T-shirt), ranting about "the Orwellian nightmare" that is our lives and berating other bands for being "fakers"'
FYI, one of the commenters on the Guardian piece called Ashcroft's performance "probably the best performance of the weekend" and pointed out that Ashcroft's t-shirt was about Bradley Manning, not Snowden. The t-shirt reads "Free Bradley Manning," so it's unclear where the Guardian went wrong with that, however in Ashcroft's July 9th interview with the BBC he said the following:
"I'd like to dedicate the whole performance to Mr. Snowden and I wish him good luck and a safe journey to somewhere potentially where he won't be hunted down and also Bradley Manning so basically anyone, any lovers of free speech, and freedom, and real art, come down and see me play."
The audio from the BBC interview (which also mentions new music coming in September) is posted below. As for video from Ashcroft's Latitude set, not much has appeared other than this FANTASTIC pro-shot video of "Lucky Man":
UPDATE: Pro-shot video of "The Drugs Don't Work" plus fan-filmed video of "Sonnet" and "Bitter Sweet Symphony" are posted below.
"Lucky Man"
"The Drugs Don't Work"
"Sonnet" (fan-filmed song clip)
"Bitter Sweet Symphony" (with Ashcroft commentary on the song, Google Glasses, & not being a robot)
BBC interview with Richard Ashcroft
