Individuality and the breakups of The Verve. The Verve's personality and breakups

Richard Ashcroft decided to create his own band when he was already a college student. In the starting lineup of Verve, his interests were shared by his schoolmates - bassist Simon Jones (Simon Jones) and drummer Peter Salisbury (Peter Salisbury). The fourth to join was guitarist Nick McCabe, also a college student. A high profile pro, McCabe has played a huge role in creating Verve's unique sound. Owen Morris, producer of Oasis, later called him the most talented musician with whom he had to work. In their musical tastes, Verve members were extremely unanimous: The Beatles came first, then Funkadelic and Can, and then all kinds of psychedelia. Only the tastes of McCabe differed, who fanatically listened to Joy Division, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.

Several years have passed in rehearsals and grinding to each other. During this time, the musicians managed to conjure a completely original sound, which was difficult to find an analogue on the then rock scene. Long before the first release, journalists who heard Verve's performances called their sound "giant" and "immortal". In 1991, the band signed a recording contract with Hut Recordings, which saw the band's records as a "fluid extract of rock and roll". The debut single "All In The Mind" appeared in March 1992. It marked the beginning of a series of releases, originally designed by designer Brian Cannon (Brian Cannon) and confidently conquered the independent charts. Everything about them was unusual - starting from the magical music, with its oceanic overflow of guitars, and ending with the drawings on the covers of discs. The live performances of the group were also non-standard. A rather strange audience gathered to listen to them, to match the musicians, who could easily interrupt the concert at any place if something did not happen the way they thought it should have happened. When the singles "She's a Superstar" and "Gravity Grave" were released, it became clear that in the person of Verve a very peculiar team with a specific attitude to sound came into rock music. The most appealing elements of their sound were Richard Ashcroft's strong, impetuous vocals and Nick McCabe's resonant lead guitar.

In May 1993, the team went on their first concert tour of America as an opening act for The Black Crowes, and at that time another single "Blue" was released in their homeland. Indie music lovers appreciated Verve's fast, artful breaks, while advanced critics commended their 1993 debut album A Storm In Heaven. Although this ambitious record soon became known as the psychedelic classic of the 90s, the management of pop radio stations was not impressed. Sufficiently sluggish promotion of the disc on the radio did not contribute to the growth of sales. And the musicians themselves were too preoccupied with their own vision of music, too deep in their ideas, to immediately join the rather standardized show business machine. However, for all his idealism, Ashcroft was by no means blind to what was happening: “I don’t think that we will ever be able to achieve what we want. I think it’s impossible at all, but this is the goal to which it is worth going.”

In the summer of 1994, Verve received a new invitation to the United States - on the small stage of the Lollapalooza festival. It would seem that musicians have more than enough reasons for joy. But the festival tour resulted in a series of scandals and troubles. Drummer Peter Salsbury was arrested in Kansas for vandalizing his hotel room, and Ashcroft was hospitalized with severe dehydration. Another surprise was prepared for the British by one of the American jazz labels - under the threat of a court they were required to officially change the name, since the Verve group already existed in America. It was then that the article The appeared in the name of the team.

In 1995, The Verve began recording sessions for their second album, A Northern Soul. The situation in the team has long inspired fear, in a certain sense, this record was a straw that drowning people clutched at. The disc was not created in the best conditions. As the participants themselves admitted, ecstasy and heroin were not translated during the studio sessions. The bulk of the work took place in Wales, with the finishing touches being done at the famed Abbey Road Studios under the tutelage of producer Owen Morris. Creatively extraordinary, and therefore probably underestimated, this work was greeted with skepticism - both by the press and music lovers. The three singles that preceded the release of the album, "This Is Music", "On Your Own" and "History", were noted in the British Top 40, but their achievements were exhausted by this. The Verve again emphasized the traditional psychedelic sound, saturating it with youthful energy and seething emotions, spiral guitar passages and shamanic vocals. Richard Ashcroft described "A Northern Soul" as an exploration of the soul "experiencing pain, elation, loss, romance, love and a host of other feelings that are melted into these songs."

The Verve had a great performance at T in the Park in Glasgow, and then, after a series of negative press and the same lackluster commercial return, Ashcroft decided to part ways with his team.

Although the frontman's lonely wanderings lasted only a few weeks and he safely returned to his comrades, during this time the band managed to say goodbye to guitarist Nick McCabe. He was in no hurry to return, and guitarist and keyboardist Simon Tong, a school friend of the musicians, took his place. McCabe only changed his mind when The Verve started rehearsing new material for a future LP. Five of them recorded their culminating album Urban Hymns (1997). The standard rock sound for the second half of the 90s was created under the tutelage of producer Chris Potter (Chris Potter), but the group itself put all their efforts into arranging and mixing the recording. The bulk of the material consisted of compositions written by the frontman for his hypothetical solo project, which he did not dare to do. Nevertheless, the LP "Urban Hymns" sounded cohesive and whole, like the work of a single team that managed to create grandiose acoustic landscapes and, relying on old rock traditions, sound quite relevant.

The first blow to the music lovers came with the promotional single "Bitter Sweet Symphony", equipped with a beautiful string section and built on a sample from the symphonic version of "The Last Time" by The Rolling Stones. The composition became a hot hit in the summer of 1997. She started in the British charts from the second line and did not leave the pop chart for three months. Interest in the band skyrocketed after The Verve's brilliant performance (already headlining) at the Reading Festival, so that the new single from the same album, "The Drugs Don't Work", became The Verve's first number one hit in the UK. The third album was awaited with undisguised impatience. Is it any wonder that the long-play "album artist=the verve] Urban Hymns" released in the fall of 97 became one of the fastest selling albums in the history of British music.

It is only now that The Verve is truly interested in the United States. The beautiful composition "Bitter Sweet Symphony" in 1998 was noted in numerous American charts, finishing at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. Thanks to good promotion on the radio, the album "Urban Hymns" climbed to number 23 in the US chart, and entered the Top 20 in Canada After the publication of Urban Hymns, The Verve automatically became one of the most popular British rock bands in the world. But this did not save the team from problems. Ironically, yet another litigation was linked to the biggest hit of the team's career. ABKCO Music, which controls the back catalog of The Rolling Stones, has secured through the court that all rights to the publication of the song "track artist=the verve] Bitter Sweet Symphony" belong to it. Musicians this song did not bring a penny.

Despite the success and a clear sense of the great prospects that open up before the team, the mood of the musicians was not the most rosy. They successfully rolled with concerts in the United States (tickets were sold out in advance at an enviable rate) and completed a large tour of the UK.

However, in the midst of a new American tour in 1998, McCabe left the group. This was the last blow from which the team actually did not recover. After months of vague rumors and uncertainty, in early 1999 The Verve officially announced they were disbanding. “The decision to disband the band was not an easy one for me personally,” commented Richard Ashcroft. - I gave the team all my strength and was not going to change anything, but the circumstances were such that it became impossible. And yet I'm glad that the decision is finally made, that I can move on, write new songs with new energy and prepare a new album.

In 2007, information appeared about the reunion of the group. On November 2, 2007, The Verve played their first concert in 9 years since the breakup of the group. The music show was held at Glasgow Academy. The composition of the rock team has not changed - Richard Ashcroft, Nick McCabe, Simon Jones and Pete Salisbury.

The Verve's one-and-a-half-hour setlist consisted of 17 tracks, among these compositions there were both classic hits Bitter Sweet Symphony and The Drugs Don't Work, as well as rare songs This Is Music and Let the Damage Begin.

Story
Richard Ashcroft decided to create his own band when he was already a college student. In the starting lineup of Verve, his interests were shared by his schoolmates - bassist Simon Jones (Simon Jones) and drummer Peter Salisbury (Peter Salisbury). The fourth to join was guitarist Nick McCabe, also a college student. A high profile pro, McCabe has played a huge role in creating Verve's unique sound. Owen Morris, producer of Oasis, later called him the most talented musician with whom he had to work. In their musical tastes, Verve members were extremely unanimous: The Beatles came first, then Funkadelic and Can, and then all kinds of psychedelia. Only the tastes of McCabe differed, who fanatically listened to Joy Division, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.

Several years have passed in rehearsals and grinding to each other. During this time, the musicians managed to conjure a completely original sound, which was difficult to find an analogue on the then rock scene. Long before the first release, journalists who heard Verve's performances called their sound "giant" and "immortal". In 1991, the band signed a recording contract with Hut Recordings, which saw the band's records as a "fluid extract of rock and roll". The debut single "All In The Mind" appeared in March 1992. It marked the beginning of a series of releases, originally designed by designer Brian Cannon (Brian Cannon) and confidently conquered the independent charts. Everything about them was unusual - starting from the magical music, with its oceanic overflow of guitars, and ending with the drawings on the covers of discs. The live performances of the group were also non-standard. A rather strange audience gathered to listen to them, to match the musicians, who could easily interrupt the concert at any place if something did not happen the way they thought it should have happened. When the singles "She's a Superstar" and "Gravity Grave" were released, it became clear that in the person of Verve a very peculiar team with a specific attitude to sound came into rock music. The most appealing elements of their sound were Richard Ashcroft's strong, impetuous vocals and Nick McCabe's resonant lead guitar.

In May 1993, the team went on their first concert tour of America as an opening act for The Black Crowes, and at that time another single "Blue" was released in their homeland. Indie music lovers appreciated Verve's fast, artful breaks, while advanced critics commended their 1993 debut album A Storm In Heaven. Although this ambitious record soon became known as the psychedelic classic of the 90s, the management of pop radio stations was not impressed. Sufficiently sluggish promotion of the disc on the radio did not contribute to the growth of sales. And the musicians themselves were too preoccupied with their own vision of music, too deep in their ideas, to immediately join the rather standardized show business machine. However, for all his idealism, Ashcroft was by no means blind to what was happening: “I don’t think that we will ever be able to achieve what we want. I think it’s impossible at all, but this is the goal to which it is worth going.”

In the summer of 1994, Verve received a new invitation to the United States - on the small stage of the Lollapalooza festival. It would seem that musicians have more than enough reasons for joy. But the festival tour resulted in a series of scandals and troubles. Drummer Peter Salisbury was arrested in Kansas for vandalizing his hotel room, and Ashcroft was hospitalized with severe dehydration. Another surprise was prepared for the British by one of the American jazz labels - under the threat of a court they were required to officially change the name, since the Verve group already existed in America. It was then that the article The appeared in the name of the team.

In 1995, The Verve began recording sessions for their second album, A Northern Soul. The situation in the team has long inspired fear, in a certain sense, this record was a straw that drowning people clutched at. The disc was not created in the best conditions. As the participants themselves admitted, ecstasy and heroin were not translated during the studio sessions. The bulk of the work took place in Wales, with the finishing touches being done at the famed Abbey Road Studios under the tutelage of producer Owen Morris. Creatively extraordinary, and therefore probably underestimated, this work was greeted with skepticism - both by the press and music lovers. The three singles that preceded the release of the album, "This Is Music", "On Your Own" and "History", were noted in the British Top 40, but their achievements were exhausted by this. The Verve again emphasized the traditional psychedelic sound, saturating it with youthful energy and seething emotions, spiral guitar passages and shamanic vocals. Richard Ashcroft described "A Northern Soul" as an exploration of the soul "experiencing pain, elation, loss, romance, love and a host of other feelings that are melted into these songs."

The Verve had a great performance at T in the Park in Glasgow, and then, after a series of negative press and the same lackluster commercial return, Ashcroft decided to part ways with his team.

Although the frontman's lonely wanderings lasted only a few weeks and he safely returned to his comrades, during this time the band managed to say goodbye to guitarist Nick McCabe. He was in no hurry to return, and guitarist and keyboardist Simon Tong, a school friend of the musicians, took his place. McCabe only changed his mind when The Verve started rehearsing new material for a future LP. Five of them recorded their culminating album Urban Hymns (1997). The standard rock sound for the second half of the 90s was created under the tutelage of producer Chris Potter (Chris Potter), but the group itself put all their efforts into arranging and mixing the recording. The bulk of the material consisted of compositions written by the frontman for his hypothetical solo project, which he did not dare to do. Nevertheless, the LP "Urban Hymns" sounded cohesive and whole, like the work of a single team that managed to create grandiose acoustic landscapes and, relying on old rock traditions, sound quite relevant.

The first blow to the music lovers came with the promotional single "Bitter Sweet Symphony", equipped with a beautiful string section and built on a sample from the symphonic version of "The Last Time" by The Rolling Stones. The composition became a hot hit in the summer of 1997. She started in the British charts from the second line and did not leave the pop chart for three months. Interest in the band skyrocketed after The Verve's brilliant performance (already headlining) at the Reading Festival, so that the new single from the same album, "The Drugs Don't Work", became The Verve's first number one hit in the UK. The third album was awaited with undisguised impatience. Is it any wonder that the long-play "album artist=the verve] Urban Hymns" released in the fall of 97 became one of the fastest selling albums in the history of British music.

It is only now that The Verve is truly interested in the United States. The beautiful composition "Bitter Sweet Symphony" in 1998 was noted in numerous American charts, finishing at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. Thanks to good promotion on the radio, the album "Urban Hymns" climbed to number 23 in the US chart, and entered the Top 20 in Canada After the publication of Urban Hymns, The Verve automatically became one of the most popular British rock bands in the world. But this did not save the team from problems. Ironically, yet another litigation was linked to the biggest hit of the team's career. ABKCO Music, which controls the back catalog of The Rolling Stones, has secured through the court that all rights to the publication of the song "track artist=the verve] Bitter Sweet Symphony" belong to it. Musicians this song did not bring a penny.

Despite the success and a clear sense of the great prospects that open up before the team, the mood of the musicians was not the most rosy. They successfully rolled with concerts in the United States (tickets were sold out in advance at an enviable rate) and completed a large tour of the UK.

However, in the midst of a new American tour in 1998, McCabe left the band. This was the last blow from which the team actually did not recover. After months of vague rumors and uncertainty, in early 1999 The Verve officially announced they were disbanding. “The decision to disband the band was not an easy one for me personally,” commented Richard Ashcroft. - I gave the team all my strength and was not going to change anything, but the circumstances were such that it became impossible. And yet I'm glad that the decision is finally made, that I can move on, write new songs with new energy and prepare a new album.

In 2007, information appeared about the reunion of the group. On November 2, 2007, The Verve played their first concert in 9 years since the breakup of the group. The music show was held at Glasgow Academy. The composition of the rock team has not changed - Richard Ashcroft, Nick McCabe, Simon Jones and Pete Salisbury.

The Verve's one-and-a-half-hour setlist consisted of 17 tracks, among these compositions there were both classic hits Bitter Sweet Symphony and The Drugs Don't Work, as well as rare songs This Is Music and Let the Damage Begin.

Verve was born in the northern English town of Vigan in 1989. It included vocalist Richard Ashcroft, guitarist Nick McCabe, bassist Simon Jones and drummer Peter Salisbury, who were united by their love for the Beatles, kraut rock, psychedelia like Pink Floyd and... drugs. A few months after the founding, the team signed a contract with the label "Hut Records" and started releasing singles and EPs. "All In The Mind", "She's A Superstar" and "Gravity Grave" were met with positive reviews and took high places in the indie charts, but there was no need to talk about major success. "Verve" toured a lot in their homeland, and in 1993 they released their debut full-length "A Storm In Heaven" Produced by John Leckie, the work caused a flurry of underground applause, which, unfortunately, could not grow into confident sales of the record.

The subsequent American tour turned into a number of problems for the group. Salisbury ended up in jail for vandalizing a hotel room, and Ashcroft was hospitalized for dehydration caused by excessive use of ecstasy.

On top of these misadventures, the overseas label "Verve Records" raised a fuss over the rights to the name, claiming the palm in this matter. The guys were offended and wanted to be renamed "Verv", and the 1994 B-sides album was dubbed "Dropping E For America", but later the case was managed by adding the prefix "The", and the record was released as "No Come Down". The turmoil continued even after the team returned home. The sessions for the new album began in a favorable environment, but within three weeks the narcotic atmosphere led to a serious deterioration in relations between Ashcroft and McCabe. By the way, on "A Northern Soul" the band moved away from the neo-psychedelia of "A Storm In Heaven" towards traditional alt-rock.

Despite the fact that the accompanying singles "This Is Music", "On Your Own", "History" landed in the UK Top 40, the album itself did not generate much interest and its sales were extremely poor. Three months after the release, dissatisfied with the current state of affairs, Ashcroft disbanded his gang, but less than three weeks later, the Verve got back together, albeit without McCabe.

The resulting gap was plugged by the ex-member of "Suede" Bernard Butler, but he was quickly replaced by a friend of Ashcroft and Jones, guitarist-keyboardist Simon Tong. In this composition, the group completed the next tour, and at the beginning of 1997, McCabe also returned to his native land. With the new album "Urban Hymns" the team finally managed to achieve commercial success, not only in Europe but also overseas. The main hero of the occasion was the single "Bitter Sweet Symphony", which took the second line in the British charts, and the twelfth - in the American ones. Tour in support of "Urban Hymns" was held with great success, but soon "The Verve" again found themselves on the verge of collapse. First, the drugs knocked Jones down, and after the bassist recovered a bit, McCabe announced his resignation.

They tried to replace the guitarist with BJ Cole, but nothing good came of it, and in the spring of 1999 the group published the news of self-dissolution. For several years, the musicians were engaged in various other projects, and only in the summer of 2007 did Verve fans learn the good news that the original line-up of their favorite team had reunited and even intended to release a fresh album.

Richard Ashcroft decided to create his own band when he was already a college student. In the starting lineup of Verve, his interests were shared by his schoolmates - bassist Simon Jones (Simon Jones) and drummer Peter Salisbury (Peter Salisbury). The fourth to join was guitarist Nick McCabe, also a college student. A high profile pro, McCabe has played a huge role in creating Verve's unique sound. Owen Morris, producer of Oasis, later called him the most talented musician with whom he had to work. In their musical tastes, Verve members were extremely unanimous: The Beatles came first, then Funkadelic and Can, and then all kinds of psychedelia. Only the tastes of McCabe differed, who fanatically listened to Joy Division, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.

Several years have passed in rehearsals and grinding to each other. During this time, the musicians managed to conjure a completely original sound, which was difficult to find an analogue on the then rock scene. Long before the first release, journalists who heard Verve's performances called their sound "giant" and "immortal". In 1991, the band signed a recording contract with Hut Recordings, which saw the band's records as a "fluid extract of rock and roll". The debut single "All In The Mind" appeared in March 1992. It marked the beginning of a series of releases, originally designed by designer Brian Cannon (Brian Cannon) and confidently conquered the independent charts. Everything about them was unusual - starting from the magical music, with its oceanic overflow of guitars, and ending with the drawings on the covers of discs. The live performances of the group were also non-standard. A rather strange audience gathered to listen to them, to match the musicians, who could easily interrupt the concert at any place if something did not happen the way they thought it should have happened. When the singles "She's a Superstar" and "Gravity Grave" were released, it became clear that in the person of Verve a very peculiar team with a specific attitude to sound came into rock music. The most appealing elements of their sound were Richard Ashcroft's strong, impetuous vocals and Nick McCabe's resonant lead guitar.

In May 1993, the team went on their first concert tour of America as an opening act for The Black Crowes, and at that time another single "Blue" was released in their homeland. Indie music lovers appreciated Verve's fast, artful breaks, while advanced critics commended their 1993 debut album A Storm In Heaven. Although this ambitious record soon became known as the psychedelic classic of the 90s, the management of pop radio stations was not impressed. Sufficiently sluggish promotion of the disc on the radio did not contribute to the growth of sales. And the musicians themselves were too preoccupied with their own vision of music, too deep in their ideas, to immediately join the rather standardized show business machine. However, for all his idealism, Ashcroft was by no means blind to what was happening: “I don’t think that we will ever be able to achieve what we want. I think it’s impossible at all, but this is the goal to which it is worth going.”

In the summer of 1994, Verve received a new invitation to the United States - on the small stage of the Lollapalooza festival. It would seem that musicians have more than enough reasons for joy. But the festival tour resulted in a series of scandals and troubles. Drummer Peter Salsbury was arrested in Kansas for vandalizing his hotel room, and Ashcroft was hospitalized with severe dehydration. Another surprise was prepared for the British by one of the American jazz labels - under the threat of a court they were required to officially change the name, since the Verve group already existed in America. It was then that the article The appeared in the name of the team.

In 1995, The Verve began recording sessions for their second album, A Northern Soul. The situation in the team has long inspired fear, in a certain sense, this record was a straw that drowning people clutched at. The disc was not created in the best conditions. As the participants themselves admitted, ecstasy and heroin were not translated during the studio sessions. The bulk of the work took place in Wales, with the finishing touches being done at the famed Abbey Road Studios under the tutelage of producer Owen Morris. Creatively extraordinary, and therefore probably underestimated, this work was greeted with skepticism - both by the press and music lovers. The three singles that preceded the release of the album, "This Is Music", "On Your Own" and "History", were noted in the British Top 40, but their achievements were exhausted by this. The Verve again emphasized the traditional psychedelic sound, saturating it with youthful energy and seething emotions, spiral guitar passages and shamanic vocals. Richard Ashcroft described "A Northern Soul" as an exploration of the soul "experiencing pain, elation, loss, romance, love and a host of other feelings that are melted into these songs."

The Verve had a great performance at T in the Park in Glasgow, and then, after a series of negative press and the same lackluster commercial return, Ashcroft decided to part ways with his team.

Although the frontman's lonely wanderings lasted only a few weeks and he safely returned to his comrades, during this time the band managed to say goodbye to guitarist Nick McCabe. He was in no hurry to return, and guitarist and keyboardist Simon Tong, a school friend of the musicians, took his place. McCabe only changed his mind when The Verve started rehearsing new material for a future LP. Five of them recorded their culminating album Urban Hymns (1997). The standard rock sound for the second half of the 90s was created under the tutelage of producer Chris Potter (Chris Potter), but the group itself put all their efforts into arranging and mixing the recording. The bulk of the material consisted of compositions written by the frontman for his hypothetical solo project, which he did not dare to do. Nevertheless, the LP "Urban Hymns" sounded cohesive and whole, like the work of a single team that managed to create grandiose acoustic landscapes and, relying on old rock traditions, sound quite relevant.

The first blow to the music lovers came with the promotional single "Bitter Sweet Symphony", equipped with a beautiful string section and built on a sample from the symphonic version of "The Last Time" by The Rolling Stones. The composition became a hot hit in the summer of 1997. She started in the British charts from the second line and did not leave the pop chart for three months. Interest in the band skyrocketed after The Verve's brilliant performance (already headlining) at the Reading Festival, so that the new single from the same album, "The Drugs Don't Work", became The Verve's first number one hit in the UK. The third album was awaited with undisguised impatience. Is it any wonder that the long-play "album artist=the verve] Urban Hymns" released in the fall of 97 became one of the fastest selling albums in the history of British music.

It is only now that The Verve is truly interested in the United States. The beautiful composition "Bitter Sweet Symphony" in 1998 was noted in numerous American charts, finishing at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. Thanks to good promotion on the radio, the album "Urban Hymns" climbed to number 23 in the US chart, and entered the Top 20 in Canada After the publication of Urban Hymns, The Verve automatically became one of the most popular British rock bands in the world. But this did not save the team from problems. Ironically, yet another litigation was linked to the biggest hit of the team's career. ABKCO Music, which controls the back catalog of The Rolling Stones, has secured through the court that all rights to the publication of the song "track artist=the verve] Bitter Sweet Symphony" belong to it. Musicians this song did not bring a penny.

Despite the success and a clear sense of the great prospects that open up before the team, the mood of the musicians was not the most rosy. They successfully rolled with concerts in the United States (tickets were sold out in advance at an enviable rate) and completed a large tour of the UK.

However, in the midst of a new American tour in 1998, McCabe left the group. This was the last blow from which the team actually did not recover. After months of vague rumors and uncertainty, in early 1999 The Verve officially announced they were disbanding. “The decision to disband the band was not an easy one for me personally,” commented Richard Ashcroft. - I gave the team all my strength and was not going to change anything, but the circumstances were such that it became impossible. And yet I'm glad that the decision is finally made, that I can move on, write new songs with new energy and prepare a new album.

In 2007, information appeared about the reunion of the group. On November 2, 2007, The Verve played their first concert in 9 years since the breakup of the group. The music show was held at Glasgow Academy. The composition of the rock team has not changed - Richard Ashcroft, Nick McCabe, Simon Jones and Pete Salisbury.

The Verve's one-and-a-half-hour setlist consisted of 17 tracks, among these compositions there were both classic hits Bitter Sweet Symphony and The Drugs Don't Work, as well as rare songs This Is Music and Let the Damage Begin.