He also took time to make reference to the viral Shazam clip
19:52, 11 Jul 2025Updated 19:55, 11 Jul 2025
Richard Ashcroft gave a shout-out to a Manchester music legend during his Oasis Heaton Park support slot (Image: Kenny Brown / Manchester Evening News)
Richard Ashcroft paid tribute to a Manchester music legend as he took to the stage at Heaton Park for Oasis’ epic homecoming gig.
The musician, known for his work with The Verve, is one of two support acts handpicked by Liam and Noel Gallagher to open at the huge Live ‘25 shows.
Cast has the honour of being the first act to perform each night. At tonight’s show, the Liverpool band brought out a special guest as they performed a new song.
Having taken to the stage just before 7pm, Ashcroft found time during his set of solo and The Verve hits to mention The Stone Roses, with the band’s bassist Mani believed to be in attendance.
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Dedicating Space and Time, released in 2021 as part of the Acoustic Hymns Vol 1 album, the Wiganer said owed a lot to the Stone Roses. Led by Ian Brown, the band were a prominent fixture on the scene from 1983 until their split in 1996.
Richard Ashcroft at Heaton Park(Image: Kenny Brown / Manchester Evening News)
Despite only releasing two albums, the band has become regarded as one of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement and still remain popular today.
They also headlined Heaton Park themselves in July 2012 for their own reunion tour. All 150,000 tickets for the first two dates sold out within 14 minutes.
As Ashcroft performed the track at Heaton Park, dedicating it to Mani and Stone Roses, Richard said: “If it hadn’t been for that band I wouldn’t be here”.
Oasis fans arrive at Heaton Park for the first show in the hometown of Liam and Noel Gallagher(Image: Getty Images)
Later in his set, he also took time to make a light-hearted joke to a fan at last weekend’s Cardiff gig who went viral after being pictured using the Shazam app to identify The Verve’s biggest hit Bittersweet Symphony.
He also took the opportunity to ask the close to 80,000 fans at Heaton Park to join him in wishing his wife Kate a Happy Anniversary.. He then dedicated the track Lucky Man to her, and recalled how in ‘classic Northern man style’ how he hadn’t done much himself to mark the occasion yet.
The Oasis Live ’25 tour was announced last August, two days before the 30th anniversary of their debut album Definitely Maybe. It was the biggest concert launch ever seen in the UK and Ireland.
Some ten million people tried to secure tickets for their run of UK and Ireland shows, as fans came up against inflated ticket prices due to dynamic pricing and other sales issues.
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