Twitter has been pretty good to Britpop stars.
Rick Witter of Shed Seven keeps fans in the loop on the daily, Liam Gallagher puts it to good use (even if sometimes all we get is a well-timed “shitbag” on the same day Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds announce their debut album), Menswear frontman Johnny Dean is thoroughly entertaining on the regular. Even Suede bassist Mat Osman fires off some interesting tweets every now and again. Hell, just earlier this week Bernard Butler was detailing the school bullying his young daughter was dealing with. We all feel closer to these musicians via Twitter.
But it looks like former Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft just didn’t jive with the social media phenomenon. In what we assume is — was? — his actual profile (it is not verified, obviously), we see Mad Richard join up in July 2008 before providing the world two lonely tweets that while filled with promise and intrigue, fail to live up to the hype. Make your own joke about Forth here.
Let’s look back. On July 4, there was the debut tweet, and it was strong:
Getting a new website.
— richardashcroft (@richardashcroft) July 4, 2008
Alright man, sounds good! We all looked forward to it, surely. Then, three short days later, on July 7, Ashcroft embodies us all with a rare showing of anxietal humility, opening up about the difficulties of the ever-evolving world of social media and the complexities that come with life in 140 characters:
learning about twitter — richardashcroft (@richardashcroft) July 7, 2008
Right on. Takes a bit to get used to, mate, and rarely does anyone win Twitter with Tweet #2. And as we all learned, once you’ve got the hang of it, you’ll be tweeting like an angry Luke Haines in no time.
Unfortunately — that was it.
Silence from then on out. No more tweets. The lesson has ended.
Ashcroft would go on to release his latest solo record, United Nations of Sound, exactly two years later, but apparently felt no need to hype the album via Twitter.
So here we are, more than seven years after Ashcroft’s last tweet. It feels cold, shallow, and hopeless. It feels like “History.”
In other news, we’re told a new solo album from Ashcroft could soon be on the way. Maybe then, just maybe, Mad Richard will re-connect.
