The Verve

Originally known simply as Verve, the group was formed in Wigan a town midway between the two cities of Manchester and Liverpool in 1990. Wigan Pier, a wharf on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, was made famous by the writer George Orwell in his 1937 book The Road to Wigan Pier.

The founding members of the Verve met at Winstanley Sixth Form College, in Wigan. Richard Ashcroft led the band, whose original lineup included guitarist Nick McCabe, bassist Simon Jones, and drummer Peter Salisbury. Sharing a appetite for psychedelics the band signed to the Hut label within months of forming.

In his childhood, Ashcroft was known to be very shy, getting to the point that he had to be replaced in a school nativity play because of on-stage fright. In 1982, when Ashcroft was 11, his father died suddenly of a brain haemorrhage. To deal with the tragedy, he used music as a refuge.

Their first studio releases in 1992, “All in the Mind”, “She’s a Superstar”, and “Gravity Grave” (along with the December 1992 EP Verve) saw the band become a critical success with all three singles topping the UK Indie charts.

1993’s A Storm in Heaven was the band’s full-length debut, produced by record producer John Leckie. “Blue” was released as the lead single and reached No. 2 in the Indie charts. The album was a critical success, but was only a moderate commercial success, reaching No. 27 in the UK album chart that summer. The second single from the album, “Slide Away”, topped the UK indie rock charts. During this period the band played a number of gigs with Oasis who, at the time, were relatively unknown.

Oasis guitarist and friend of Ashcroft Noel Gallagher dedicated the song “Cast No Shadow” on the album (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? to Ashcroft, who returned the gesture by dedicating the song “A Northern Soul” to Gallagher.

In 1994, the band released the album No Come Down, a compilation of B-sides plus a live version of “Gravity Grave” performed at Glastonbury Festival in 1993. It was the band’s first release under the name “The Verve”, following legal difficulties with jazz label Verve Records. The band then played on the travelling US alternative rock festival Lollapalooza in the summer of 1994.

Their second album, 1995’s A Northern Soul, produced by Owen Morris saw the band breaking from the experimental psychedelic sounds of A Storm in Heaven and focused more on conventional alternative rock. The album peaked at number 13 on the UK Albums Chart.

The sessions for A Northern Soul gained notoriety for the stories that emerged from the time, including Ashcroft going missing for five days and him allegedly totalling a car on the studio’s lawn. The situation soured as guitarist Nick McCabe grew exhausted from dealing with the other members frequently partying and taking ecstasy.

Ashcroft broke up the band a few months after the release of A Northern Soul. They were later reunited with Jones and Salisbury just a few weeks after the break-up, but McCabe did not rejoin them. The band then chose Simon Tong, a school friend credited with originally teaching Ashcroft and Jones to play guitar. In early 1997, Ashcroft asked McCabe to return, McCabe obliged and with the new line-up in place (Tong remained on guitar alongside McCabe), the group went ahead to finish their third album, Urban Hymns.

The band’s commercial breakthrough was the 1997 album Urban Hymns, one of the best-selling albums in UK history. It features the hit singles “Bitter Sweet Symphony”, “The Drugs Don’t Work”, “Sonnet” and “Lucky Man”. The first single, “Bitter Sweet Symphony”, entered the UK charts at number 2 in June 1997.

“Bitter Sweet Symphony” is based on a sample from a 1965 version of the Rolling Stones‘ song “The Last Time” by the Andrew Oldham Orchestra; Allen Klein, who owned the copyright, refused clearance for the sample, and took control of the songwriting credits and royalties.

In late 1997, The Verve settled with Klein; the band gave Jagger and Richards songwriter credits on “Bitter Sweet Symphony” and gave its publishing royalties to ABKCO Records, Klein’s company.

Oldham, meanwhile, separately sued The Verve in 1999 for about $1.7 million in mechanical songwriter royalties. As a result of the two suits against The Verve, all royalty payments on “Bitter Sweet Symphony” went to Oldham, Jagger and Richards for many years. The Rolling Stones and The Verve resolved the dispute over the authorship of the song in 2019.

The next single, “The Drugs Don’t Work”, gave the band their first UK number one. Urban Hymns reached the top of the UK Albums Chart knocking off Oasis’ highly anticipated album Be Here Now. The Verve saw an overwhelming increase in popularity overseas; it reached the US top 30, going platinum in the process, and “Bitter Sweet Symphony” reached number 12 on the US charts, their highest-ever American position. The album spent a total of 162 weeks on the UK chart.

At the 1998 Brit Awards, The Verve won the awards for Best British Group and Best British Album (Urban Hymns). Ashcroft, and bandmates, appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in March 1998. At the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards, “Bitter Sweet Symphony” was nominated for Video of the Year, Best Group Video, and Best Alternative Video. In February 1999, “Bitter Sweet Symphony” was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song.

A post-show fight at Düsseldorf-Philipshalle left McCabe with a broken hand and Ashcroft with a sore jaw. After this, McCabe decided he could not tolerate the pressures of life on the road any longer and pulled out of the tour, leaving the band’s future in jeopardy. In April 1999, it was announced that The Verve had again split up.

Ashcroft launched a solo career in the early 2000s and enjoyed success with a number of singles. His first solo album, Alone with Everybody, reached number 1 in the UK album charts.

In 2007 Ashcroft learned that Salisbury was in contact with McCabe over a possible side project, Ashcroft contacted McCabe and Jones, making peace with them, and the band re-formed. Tong was not asked to rejoin, so as to keep the internal issues that split the band up a decade ago to an absolute minimum. Tickets for their six-gig tour in early November 2007 sold out in less than 20 minutes.

The band’s fourth and final studio album Forth, was released in the UK on 25 August and the following day in North America and reached No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart.