Long acclaimed as among the most innovative and spellbinding bands on the contemporary British pop scene, the Verve finally broke through to a mass international audience in 1997 with the instant classic "Bittersweet Symphony."
By no stretch a study in overnight success, the group's rise was
instead the culmination of a long, arduous journey that began at the
dawn of the decade and went on to encompass a major breakup, multiple
lawsuits, and an extensive diet of narcotics. Perfecting an oceanic
sound fusing the exploratory vision of '60s-era psychedelia with the
shimmering atmospherics of the shoegazer aesthetic, the Verve
languished in relative obscurity while waiting for the rest of the
music world to play catch-up, creating one of the most complex and
rewarding bodies of work in modern rock & roll long before most
listeners even learned of their existence - only to again fall apart
at the peak of their success.
Originally known simply as Verve, the group was formed in the small
Northern English city of Wigan in 1989. Led by the magnetic Richard
Ashcroft - a swaggering, shamanic figure in the classic rock star mold
- the original lineup also included guitarist Nick McCabe, bassist
Simon Jones, and drummer Peter Salisbury. Sharing a collective fondness
for the Beatles, Funkadelic, and Krautrock - as well as a legendary
appetite for psychedelics - the quartet signed to the Hut label within
months, debuting in March 1992 with the single "All in the Mind," the
first in a series of indie chart-topping efforts featuring the
eye-catching artwork of designer Brian Cannon. Subsequent efforts like
the brilliant "She's a Superstar" and "Gravity Grave" captured an
original musical identity growing by leaps and bounds, distinguished
chiefly by Ashcroft's elemental vocals and McCabe's echoing guitar
leads.
While Verve's long, liquid jams found favor on the British indie
charts, pop radio looked the other way - their majestic debut LP,
1993's A Storm in Heaven, was a critical smash, but the good reviews
failed to translate into strong record sales. The following summer,
Verve appeared on the second stage at Lollapalooza, a tour tempered by
a string of disasters - not only was Salisbury arrested for destroying
a Kansas hotel room, but Ashcroft was also hospitalized after suffering
from severe dehydration. Around that same time, the American jazz label
also dubbed Verve slapped the band with a lawsuit, forcing the quartet
to officially change its name to "the Verve." Sessions for the 1995
follow-up, A Northern Soul, proved to be the last straw - admittedly
recorded under the influence of a massive intake of Ecstasy, the
album's harrowing intensity was met with disappointing sales and little
media recognition, and just three months after its release, Ashcroft
exited.
Although Ashcroft quickly reassembled the Verve a few weeks later,
McCabe initially refused to return, and was replaced by
guitarist/keyboardist Simon Tong. Finally, in early 1997, McCabe came
back to the fold, and as a quintet they recorded Urban Hymns, their
breakthrough LP. Heralded by the smash "Bittersweet Symphony"
- a single built around a looped sample of a symphonic recording of the
Rolling Stones' "The Last Time" - Urban Hymns launched the Verve among
the U.K.'s most popular bands; still, even at their peak, the curse of
their past lingered on, as legal hassles awarded 100 percent of the
song's publishing rights to ABKCO Music, which controls the Stones'
back catalog. The second single from the album, the haunting "The Drugs
Don't Work," became the Verve's first U.K. number one smash; the hits
"Lucky Man" and "Sonnet" soon followed. However, when McCabe pulled out
of the group's 1998 U.S. tour, the group suffered yet another blow and,
after months of rumors, the Verve officially split the following spring
Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
On the Photo from left: Peter Salisbury, Simon Jones, Richard Ashcroft, Nick McCabe, Simon Tong
