Ashcroft On The Verve

Richard Ashcroft has been talking to 6 Music about The Verve reunion and progress on their new album.

He says that writing new material was the most natural thing in the world:

"We just turned up and without going into too much psychology and ripping ourselves to peices, I think we met and within 20 minutes we were playing music.

"So I think we're just going to let the music do the talking and I'm very happy with the results we've got so far."

And he says relationships within the band are amicable:

"We've had a few fights but thats just the way it is - Nah - we're fine, we're cool, it's good. Y'know it's all about the healing process, it's about forgiveness and it's about moving on, it's all about love it's all about peace. No more fights."

He may have had success as a solo artist, since The Verve broke up, but Richard says there's nothing quite like being in a band when it's all going well.

"Certain bands have got certain combinations that a bit of magic happens and I'm very lucky to have been part of that before and looking forward to the future and doing it again so it's all very exciting."

The Verve kick off a winter tour at the Glasgow Academy on 02 November, and Richard says it will be hard to chose the setlist:

"Sometimes lyrically you feel uncomfortable with stuff you've done in the past, so lyrically it's got to be right for me now, and musically for the rest of the guys.

"But luckily we wrote some songs that had a timeless quality so we're not too fearful about it. Should be good concerts."