Richard Ashcroft announced as special guest for Oasis’ 2025 UK and Ireland shows

Oasis have announced that Richard Ashcroft, the former lead singer of The Verve, will be joining them as a special guest on all of their UK and Ireland shows next year.

In August, brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher confirmed the Britpop band’s long-awaited reunion with a worldwide tour in 2025, saying “The great wait is over.”

“Buzzing”

Ashcroft, who wrote 1997 hit Bitter Sweet Symphony, said in a statement: “As a fan from day one, I was buzzing for many reasons when the news of Oasis’s return was announced.

“I can say with no exaggeration that the song-writing talent of Noel, and Liam’s pure spirit as a lead singer helped to inspire me to create some of my best work.

“It was the perfection of Live Forever that forced me to try and write my own.

“They dared to be great, made the dreams we had real and I will always remember those days with joy.

“Now it’s time to create more memories and I’m ready to bring it.

“See you next summer. Music is power.”

Details regarding the rest of the support line-up for Oasis’s UK and Ireland shows – their only European shows in 2025 – will be revealed in due course.

Cast

Cast are also rumoured to be another support act, but the band have yet to confirm either way.

Cast were formed in Liverpool in 1992 by John Power and Peter Wilkinson and had hit records in the Nineties with All Change and Magic Hour.

Cast – who supported Oasis at Knebworth in 1996 – split in 2001 before reforming in 2010. Their seventh album Love Is the Call was released in February.

Liam Gallagher has teased the news on X in recent weeks. On September 13, a fan asked: ‘Ashcroft supporting the UK shows?’ He replied: ‘That would be BIBLICAL.’

Then, 52-year-old Gallagher tweeted on October 4: ‘Just spoke to the CHEF here it is OASIS RICHARD ASHCROFT CAST you are welcome see you next year.’