Rock’n’roll had other plans, however, and Cast has enjoyed a renaissance like no other. It was sparked by their brilliant 2024 record, Love Is The Call, a virtuoso of classy songwriting and playing, under the tutelage of super-producer Youth. That led to sell-out tours, an impending new album, and, of course, the invitation to join Oasis on this summer’s stadium tour of the UK and Ireland.
It’s not the first time. Cast famously supported Oasis at their record-breaking 1996 Knebworth show, which for many marked the zenith of Britpop.
And so, remarkably, fans who’ll this summer be paying a princely sum for the return the nation’s best Britpop bands, can see Power in intimate theatres and arts centres across the UK. Danke schoen, fate. You’ve played a blinder.
Power is looking forward to hitting the road, while probably also wondering when he’ll next get a day off. Such is the life of a bona fide rock star. In February, he’ll be in Spain recording Cast’s new record. In April and May he’ll be playing solo dates in intimate theatres and clubs. In late spring he’ll be rehearsing for the colossal gigs-of-the-year with Oasis, and only a fool would bet against there being a headline Cast tour once all that’s done.
“We’re pleased with the way things have gone,” says Power, ever the master of understatement, and the acme of humility. “We seem to have caught a wave, particularly since Love Is The Call. A lot of people thought that was a creative peak for the band. That’s certainly something we wanted to achieve. I think at this stage of our career, it was the album we needed to make. We wanted to capture the energy and the vibe of what I was intending.”
But we’ve skipped ahead and ought to look back – just as Power’s solo shows will. For when he hits the road with Cast, The La’s, and Me, John Power will be going back to the source: Liverpool. He grew up in a city where music was in the DNA of everyone.
“Whether it was hearing The Beatles on the radio or The Bunnymen, Liverpool was a remarkable place to grow up. Music’s in our blood, and that’s really how it all started for me.”
His solo show will start there, as Power tells stories about growing up in Britain’s most musical city. He was drawn to bass guitar, and Wild Thing was his first bass line. By 1986, he was on a course for unemployed musicians, where he met Mike Badger, an important mentor. Powers, Badger, and Lee Mavers became the core trio of The La’s, one of Britain’s greatest bands, and the rest, as they say…
“I was just a young kid and I was in a band with the greatest songwriter of his generation, Lee Mavers. Being around him was inspiring. I don’t think we had a fractious relationship. If you look at the people who came and went in The La’s, our relationship was pretty solid. I don’t know if Lee will like me saying this, but he was like a mentor. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have been writing songs or singing backing vocals – it was his idea. Lee was a master, his songs were lifechanging.”
Power stayed longer than anyone other than Mavers, including group founder. Recording The La’s debut album – a record the public loved but Mavers hated – was key. While the record remains a seminal 1990s album, it spelled the end of the band and Power moved on around 1992. He’d started to write – songs like Alright and Follow Me Down – and had switched from bass to rhythm guitar. He was living at Brucklay House, a near derelict squat in Mossley Hill, and began jamming with ex-Shack bassist Peter Wilkinson, before hooking up with drummer Keith O’Neill and guitarist Liam ‘Skin’ Tyson. The band secured support slots with Elvis Costello and Oasis.
“It was all still ahead of us when we formed Cast. There were no hang-ups. It was a very free and inspiring time. There were no hang-ups. All of a sudden, the dreams started to take care of themselves.
“Meeting Liam and Noel was a really important moment, and we’ve maintained those relationships. It was incredible to support Liam on his tour and we’re blown away to have been invited to support them this summer.
“It kind of reaffirms our legacy and authenticates the road and journey that we’ve been on as a band. And now us, Richard Ashcroft and Oasis – talk about Northern Soul! That’s some line-up. We’re about to play the biggest tour of our lives.
“We all go back years. The first time we met was when I’d just left The La’s and decided to go see them at this little club in Manchester, to show there were no bad feelings. That’s when I first met Liam. This young lad came up to me and asked me for a ciggy; it was a 16-year-old Liam.
“Then later, me and Cast were recording some demos. ‘Supersonic’ was really happening and Oasis were on this little club tour. I blagged my way into this little venue in Liverpool and I was talking to this NME journalist at the bar who recognised me from The La’s. Then Liam comes in, and this was a few days after the band had been on The Word, and tells me about me not giving him a ciggy!
“We’re backstage and I’m playing him and Noel the demos, and you could feel that there was something afoot. They gave us a show at The Venue in New Cross. That was really important for us, as the Polydor head of A&R was in the audience and he’d go on and sign us.”
Cast’s debut album followed, All Change, in 1995. The album shot to No. 7 in the UK charts, reaching double platinum and went on to become the fastest selling debut album in the history of the Polydor label, outselling the likes of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Who and The Jam.
Their sophomore record, Mother Nature Calls, repeated the trick, reaching No. 3 on the chart and again securing a platinum disc.
“Britpop was a fine time,” says Power. “It was like being in the eye of the hurricane. When Cast had the success that they had, I kind of missed it all. Maybe I was too intense, so some of my time in that so-called successful era wasn’t very enjoyable. But it taught me a lot. I know how quick it’s gone, and I know that if you don’t take notice of what’s happening in the now, it may as well not have happened at all.
“I think with time, like most things, the legends and myths grow – but it was certainly a great time to be in a band and to be a fan of music. There was also an optimism in the air after so long of Tory neglect, but you know, it’s all cycles and I wouldn’t want to spend my time looking back. We have to make today and tomorrow the place to be; the here and now has to be where it’s at.
“When you’re young and immortal, you think it’s going to last forever. But like everything in life, it’s a seasonal occupation.”
Cast were wilfully experimental and their 2001 record, Beetroot, was ahead of its time. It was Cast’s most adventurous work, though afterwards Cast split. Through the 2000s, Power released his three solo records: Happening For Love, Willow She Weeps, and Stormbreaker. After performing a Cast Acoustic Show, he decided to reform the band and start work on a new record, Cast’s fifth studio album, Trouble Times. By the middle of the decade- around 2016 – Cast had signed with Alan McGee, Britpop’s don and the man who founded Creation Records and signed Oasis.
Kicking Up The Dust followed in 2017 before last year’s remarkable return to form, with Love Is The Call.
Power says: “It felt like a debut album. I got that same energy from that that I’d had from All Change.
“I kept getting this feeling of a space that existed somewhere between the end of The La’s and the beginning of Cast – a space I hadn’t really explored – so Love Is The Call was that space. It had a vibe, a kind of psychedelic pop album, with a rock ‘n’ roll, punky beats and a bouncing bass, jumping acoustics and some blistering electrics.
“A lot of the songs were kicking but there was also a melancholy underside to some of the tracks. I also played bass again after all these years. The last album I played bass on was The La’s.”
And now it’s 2025 – a full 30 years on from such hits as Finetime and Alright, the tunes that announced Cast as major players in Britpop. It feels remarkable that Power still has the same energy, the same drive, the same determination to make timeless, iconic tunes.
And his new show – now crammed in between the recording of Cast’s next record and their dates with destiny, alongside Oasis, this summer – will showcase those.
“I’m looking forward to telling a few of the stories, to looking back and to looking forward, and to playing some of the songs that people know and love.”
And so are we, John. So are we.
Cast, The La’s and Me – An Intimate Evening with John Power
Join us at Queen’s Theatre on Sunday 29th March 2026 for this intimate show that mixes John’s best-loved songs with wild, funny, and tender stories.
Tickets available now!