Richard Ashcroft Doubts Beady Eye's Ability to Top Oasis

Richard Ashcroft doesn't believe Liam Gallagher's new band Beady Eye will come close to recreating the success his former outfit Oasis enjoyed, despite Gallagher's claims to the contrary.

Speaking to XFM the former Verve man said, "I'm really excited about Liam's stuff, and Noel [Gallagher]'s stuff too. They're both going to be great. Whether timing-wise, or culturally, anything is going to be as big as Oasis? I don't think so. I don't think anyone will."

Ashcroft explained his reasoning, "Because of the nature of Oasis when they arrived, there was a big vacuum, everyone was scared of rock 'n' roll. And Noel did it. Noel showed the way for a lot of people that there's still some great songs to be written."

The singer's remarks come on the back of Liam's claims that Beady Eye will be "bigger than Oasis," as previously reported by Spinner.

Although Ashcroft disagrees with his fellow frontman, he believes Gallagher's hyping of his new band is just part of who he is, and explained, "We all talk a little bit like that because we're all imbued with the sporting/boxing promoter way of doing interviews. That's the way we were brought up."