Ashcroft full of Northern Soul

Noel Gallagher calls him "Captain Rock", and wrote Cast No Shadow in his honour, but even so, the mercurial rise and transformation of this Wiganite crooner from dark northern rock type to all-round entertainer is still hard to believe.

Ashcroft didn't get where he is today by living a squeaky clean lifestyle either. His old Verve anthems like Bittersweet Symphony and The Drugs Don't Work remain necessary fuel in his show. But sometime, somewhere, he evidently saw the light, the glint of gold that enables him to turn his anthem-packed album, Alone With Everybody, into a celebratory call to that vague coat of arms that pop myth thrives upon.

Fronting a huge and anonymous group, almost the Ashcroft Orchestra, complete with flute, gospel singers in the Spiritualised vein and lashings of string synths, the man in white renewed his vows to Motown, Northern Soul and crystalline Sixties-inflected pop. Brave New World, the ballad Slow Was My Heart and the obviously uplifting I Get My Beat kept a huge crowd on full beam.

Therein lies the reason for Ashcroft's monumental solo success, post-Verve. Among the original camo and Parka crews, the scallies and the crestfallen types, he has now amassed an even bigger set of daytime radio pals who put his music on heavy in-car rotation, à la Robbie Williams. In personal terms, King Richard's ascent may not be so seamless, but looked at in the marketplace of ticket sales and discs flogged, he must think he's discovered the Holy Grail. He's the wonder of Wigan.

Richard Ashcroft And The United Nation of Sound