The Verve was founded in 1989 by Richard Ashcroft in the British town of Wigan. The band quickly gained fame, mainly thanks to Ashcroft's songwriting and Nick McCabe's guitar playing. Drug dramas, lawsuits and health problems came and went, but The Verve released four albums and had several major hits worldwide.
The Verve had already released two albums (A Storm In Heaven (1993) and A Northern Soul (1995)) when the band broke through to the mainstream with the single 'Bittersweet Symphony'. The song, inspired by 'The Last Time' by the Rolling Stones, was used in a Nike commercial. After success in England, the rest of Europe followed (in the Netherlands, 'Bittersweet Symphony' reached the Top 10). Then America had to take notice as well.
Solo
The next single, 'The Drugs Don't Work', was much less spectacular everywhere, but in England the ballad reached number 1. The singles 'Sonnet' and 'Lucky Man' also easily made the UK charts. In 1999, Richard Ashcroft put an end to The Verve. In 2000, his first solo album, Alone With Everybody, was released.
Reunion
After eight years, the band announced their reunion. They toured again in 2007 and at the end of the year they released new material: the album Forth, with the single 'Love is Noise'. They continued touring and played at major festivals in the summer of 2008, such as Pinkpop, Rock Werchter and Glastonbury.
On 8 August 2009, it was announced that The Verve was breaking up for the third time. Guitarist Nick McCabe and bassist Simon Jones accused Richard Ashcroft of using the reunion for his solo projects. In addition, a "source" in the Sunday Mirror further detailed the tensions between Ashcroft and the guitarist and bassist.
"As far as Nick and Simon are concerned The Verve no longer exists. They think Richard was just using the reunion as a vehicle to get his solo career on track. Their management called Simon and Nick in for a crisis meeting in September. They were told that Richard refused to tour or work with them again as long as Nick continued to drink. He quickly cleaned up his act. There have been too many problems to put behind them. If Richard came back with cap in hand they’d tell him to f*ck off."
Bitter Sweet Symphony
Bitter Sweet Symphony is The Verve's best-known song. However, it left the British group with a bitter aftertaste. The song contains a sample of the orchestral version of The Last Time by The Rolling Stones. The sample was used with the approval of Decca Records. When the song became a hit, Allen Klein (who owns the rights to The Last Time through his company) sued the band for infringing his rights. To avoid a long and costly process, the band gave 100% of the rights to the song to Allen Klein's ABKCO Music, which manages several Rolling Stones licences. In 2019, thanks to the Stones' new manager, Joyce Smith, the rights to the song were returned to The Verve.
Top 2000
In the 23rd edition of the Top 2000, The Verve has two entries:
Sunday Morning Classic
On Sunday 2 July 2023, it was The Verve's turn to take the stage on our Sunday Morning Classic podium with their 1997 album Urban Hymns.
Urban Hymns is the third studio album, released on 29 September 1997 on Hut Records. It received almost unanimous critical acclaim upon release and became the band's best-selling release and one of the best-selling albums of the year. Since 2019, Urban Hymns has been ranked as the 19th best-selling album in the history of the UK charts, with over ten million copies sold worldwide. This is the only Verve album featuring guitarist and keyboardist Simon Tong, who initially joined the band to replace their original guitarist Nick McCabe. However, McCabe rejoined the band shortly afterwards, and Tong remained in the band, considered the fifth member; this makes the album the only one the band recorded as a quintet.
The album includes the hit singles "Bitter Sweet Symphony", "Lucky Man" and UK number one "The Drugs Don't Work". Due to the album's critical and commercial success, the band won two Brit Awards in 1998, including Best British Album, and appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone in April 1998. "Bitter Sweet Symphony" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song. It was also one of ten albums nominated for Best British Album of the Past 30 Years by the Brit Awards.
"Bitter Sweet Symphony" is based on a sample of a 1965 orchestral version of the Rolling Stones' song "The Last Time" by the Andrew Oldham Orchestra. The Verve looped four bars and then added dozens of other parts, including guitar, percussion, extra strings and various layered vocals from Ashcroft. Allen Klein, who owned the copyrights to the early work of the Rolling Stones, refused permission for the sample; after a lawsuit, The Verve surrendered the songwriting credits and royalties. In 2019, Klein's son and the Rolling Stones returned the credits and royalties to Ashcroft.
Photo: Danny Lechanteur and Maxcoles135 Source: NPO and Wikipedia
