Richard Ashcroft has announced two concerts at the London Palladium in 2021.

The 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' hitmaker has revealed plans to make a return to live shows with two nights at the iconic venue on May 21 and 22 next year, which will mark his first gig since he headline 'Immersed Festival' for the Teenage Cancer Trust in January.

He commented: "It’s time to take back the stage. Music is power.”

Tickets for the performances - priced at £35, £45 and £55 - will go on general sale on December 11, and will be available from www.gigsandtours.com and www.lwtheatres.co.uk.

Meanwhile, The Verve star has been busy working on his next album, and in September he confirmed plans for an acoustic 'greatest hits' collection as he revealed he would be recording stripped back versions of "some of the best tunes" from his career.

He said: "Yeah, at the moment I'm set to start on an acoustic set of some of the best tunes... and stripping them back and laying them bare basically, so that will be my next thing.

"I'm excited about that... I'll be recording, I'm carrying on, moving on.

"So that will be my next record and from there when that comes out, that mythical night in my mind will take place."

Richard, 48, didn't reveal whether the record will feature any material from The Verve's back catalogue, or whether it will be focused on his solo career.

Meanwhile, last year he finally regained the rights to 'Bitter Sweet Symphony', which he wrote almost 20 years ago and featured a four second sample of an Andrew Loog Oldham orchestral cover of The Rolling Stones song 'The Last Time'.

Whilst permission for the recording was obtained, permission for use of the song was not, and so at the time of its release in 1997, Richard was forced to give up all the rights to the iconic track, including the total lyrical content.

He has finally regained the rights to the track after his team appealed to Rolling Stones members Sir Mick Jagger and Keith Richards directly, and his manager John Kennedy has insisted that he and fellow manager Steve Kutner "nearly cried".

He said: "He has endured it, not always patiently or in silence, but it has been terrible for him."

"Steve and I nearly cried because we knew what this would mean: absolute affirmation that 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' was wholly Richard's creative work."