The original band of Richard Ashcroft, Nick McCabe, Simon Jones and Pete Sailsbury have got together for the first time in almost a decade.
In a statement, the band have announced they were: "Getting back together for the joy of the music."
It is believed they will take a summer break and then return to the studio to complete their next album.
The band broke up in 1999, with the tumultuous relationship between Ashcroft and McCabe being well documented with the two exiting the band repeatedly since they began in 1993.
Amazon.com Something happens when the Verve are together that none of them experience when they are apart. Individually, the Verve are all highly-accomplished players. Singer Richard Ashcroft has been called "the greatest singer in the world" by no less a peer than Coldplay's Chris Martin. Liverpool-born Simon Jones' dub-informed bass takes the Verve's music far beyond rock and into space and dub; Peter Salisbury plays drums more like a jazz great than a conventional rock drummer and when the tag "guitarist of his generation" is thrown about it often lands at the feet of the hugely adventurous, psychedelic, exploratory Nick McCabe. However, when they are together a chemistry takes hold that transcends the four people onstage to blast the Verve somewhere else entirely and this chemistry and spontaneity has survived an absence of almost a decade. Already, since their typically unpredictable 2007 reunion, live shows have been running the gauntlet of everything from material so new that Ashcroft has been singing the words from scraps of paper to long-lost, hazy B-sides like Let The Damage Begin and A Man Called Sun, amid all manner of musical fireworks. When they take the stage, literally anything can happen.
After an absence of almost a decade, these songs are again being played, as they should be by the Verve themselves. The individual members have not been slouches. Richard Ashcroft has enjoyed a successful and prolific solo career. Simon Jones formed a band, the Shining, who were not altogether dissimilar to the Verve, and has played with Damon Albarn's Gorillaz. Nick McCabe has been remixing and playing with everyone from the Beta Band to John Martyn while Peter Salisbury has been playing with Ashcroft, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and has further diverted his musical obsessions into running a Stockport drum shop. However, all seem to have realized what their enormous fanbase has been telling them all along. That today, as much if not more than ever, music really needs the Verve.
However, a band like the Verve would never settle for easy nostalgia. Even before they'd set out on their initial comeback gigs last year, which sold out within an astonishing 20 minutes, they made public (via the NME website) the results of their very first jam session as a reformed band. The Thaw Sessions comprised 14 wondrous minutes of music, which signified their ability to spark off one another remained undimmed. Soon afterwards, the band debuted new song Sit And Wonder, a tune trimmed from a 25-minute jam, just as they would in the early days, a taste of things to come. Those comeback dates proved so successful and were so enthusiastically received that the band immediately embarked on a full-scale tour of arenas in December of 2007, playing bigger gigs in many cases than the first time around. In 2008, they look set to up the ante even further, by appearing at many of the major festivals and, in a turnaround that would have seemed unthinkable even a year ago, releasing their enormously-anticipated fourth album. The results will certainly be worth the wait. --Dave Simpson
1. Sit And Wonder 2. Love Is Noise 3. Rather Be 4. Judas 5. Numbness 6. I See Houses 7. Noise Epic 8. Valium Skies 9. Columbo 10. Appalachian Springs
Hear the first 14 minutes of music The Verve made after deciding to reunite for free on NME.COM from today (October 22).
Rather than kicking off their reformation with a band meeting, the Wigan legends met in a studio in Richmond and jammed out some musical ideas together.
The first fruits from that session can now be heard today for the first time from 10.30am (BST) in the form of the 'The Thaw Session' - the title a reference to 'Deep Freeze', an experimental bonus track on the band's last album 'Urban Hymns' - a 14-minute track you can get for free.
To download a free version of the band's first new music in over ten years, simply head to http://www.nme.com/verve from 10.30am. The download will be available for seven days only.
NME's download link has expired, but the recording has been archived here:
The Verve: 'We press record and what happens is The Verve'
Oct 25, 2007
The Verve have spoken to NME.COM about the recording of their new track 'The Thaw Sessions'.
As previously reported, NME.COM is giving you the opportunity to download the new track for free.
"We all decided, that rather than meeting for a cup of coffee or a beer or whatever, we should meet in a studio where we can do what we do," explained frontman Richard Ashcroft.
"The beauty of the jams is that we just don't know where we're going to go to next," he said. "It's exciting for the four of us to do that kind of thing again. That's the only reason I'm here really, to get the four people together to create this sound. That's the buzz."
Bassist Simon Jones added that the jam session echoes the band's early years, saying: "That's how we learnt to play music. Locked away in a room in Wigan just jamming, the fact that we did that for ten or whatever years, that's still there, man, that never disappears. So for this we literally just pressed record and saw what happens. What happens is The Verve."
This free download through http://www.nme.com/verve is likely to be the start of regular musical updates from the band as they work on a new album.
"Obviously we are aware of the power of [the Internet]," explained Ashcroft. "It's great for us as a jamming band, because we get so much material. I was saying to Nick earlier on today: 'A lot of our songs, there's about sixteen songs within them.' In the future, yeah, if we could go immediately to the fans, that would be fantastic, and we could release so much more stuff."
The Verve have spoken about their forthcoming new album, which they are putting the finishing touches to now.
Speaking to NME.COM, bassist Simon Jones explained that he hoped the results would be “spectacular” on the belated follow-up to 1997's 'Urban Hymns'.
“There’s ‘Sit And Wonder’ – that’s the one we were doing at the gigs,” Jones explained.
“That was born out of a 25-minute jam, and we just edited it down into a song. That’s kind of the method we’ve always used, ever since the early days. We all take away the tracks, and make a note of all the bits that are good, then just put them together.
He added: “Then there’s ‘Appalachian Springs’, which is a song of Richard (Ashcroft, lead singer)’s, but one where there’s just three chords going round and round so we can still jam through it as a band. And ‘Mona Lisa’, that’s a much more strictly written, Richard-y type thing.”
These more structured Ashcroft moments will be balanced out by the likes of ‘Judas’ – a song born out of a full band jam, with Nick McCabe’s unique guitar playing leading the way.
Jones described ‘Rather Be’, a song set for the album, as having “a string line looping around three chords all the way through – kind of like ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ did, although it’s not really anything like that".
He said: “It needs arranging, but that’s a pretty strong one. It’s very vocally led that one, with loads of great intertwining vocal lines, kind of making a chorus even though the chords haven’t changed. Richard’s a bit of a master at that.”
The band, who are recording their first record in over a decade at the at State of The Ark studios in Richmond, Surrey, are aiming to get the record out towards the end of the spring, in time for the inevitable festival headline slots this summer.
“For us now it’s just a case of getting the balance between Richard’s songs and the more jam-based songs,” the bass player concluded. “If we can get the balance right, then it’s gonna be a spectacular record, without a shadow of a doubt.”
The Verve have announced a handful of dates in the US, kicking off at Coachella on April 25.
The band will then head for Las Vegas to perform at the Palms before crossing the country to the east coast for two shows at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Tickets for the New York shows go on sale this Saturday March 1 at 11am.
The band recently played a successful string of sold-out comeback shows in the UK.
The dates are:
Indio, CA Coachella (April 25) Las Vegas, NV The Pearl Concert Theater at the Palms (26) New York, NY WaMu Theater at MSG (28, 29)
The Verve have announced an intimate show in San Francisco to take place before their appearance at Coachella.
The band will launch their first North American tour in nearly a decade with a special show at The Warfield in San Francisco, CA on April 23 and will preview material from their forthcoming album.
Following their Coachella slot, the band will play shows in Las Vegas and Toronto as well as two shows at the WaMu Theatre at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
The dates are:
San Francisco, CA The Warfield (April 23) Indio, CA Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival (25) Las Vegas, NV The Pearl Concert Theater at Palms Casino Resort (26) New York, NY WaMu Theatre at Madison Square Garden (28, 29) Toronto, ON Ricoh Coliseum (May 1)
The Verve played a brand new song during the penultimate set tonight (April 25) on Coachella's main stage.
Opening with 'This Is Music', the band tore through a highly- atmospheric 80-minute set in Indio, which included some of their biggest hits, such as 'Sonnet', 'Lucky Man' and 'The Drugs Don't Work'.
In addition to 'Life's An Ocean' and 'The Rolling People', The Verve thrilled the desert crowd with uber-hit 'Bitter Sweet Symphony', which Ashcroft dedicated to legendary writer Hunter S. Thompson.
"I'm off to Vegas after this, you know” he told the audience “The place with gondolas and pyramids. This is for Hunter S. Thompson."
The biggest surprise of the night came when Ashcroft announced the band would perform a brand new track exclusively for the festival crowd.
"We're going to play a new song. Most bands when they reform don't make new music, but that's all this band's about, so we made some new music."
They then launched into the 90’s-style dance-tinged track before making way for Hawaiian headliner Jack Johnson.
They played:
'This Is Music' 'Space & Time' 'Sonnet' 'Life's An Ocean' 'Weeping Willow' 'Sit & Wonder' 'The Rolling People' 'The Drugs Don't Work' 'Lucky Man' 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' 'New Song'
The Verve gave their first US performance in 10 years at the Coachella Festival last night (April 25), and NME.COM caught up with guitarist Nick McCabe before their set.
Talking about the new album the newly reunited band have been working on, McCabe said that it is "tailor-made for stadiums" and has a lot in common with their 1997 album 'Urban Hymns'.
"It's the best thing we've ever done," McCabe said. The band, who reunited for a handful of UK shows late last year, have been hard at work on the follow-up to 'Urban Hymns' for the past few months.
McCabe said that they had originally intended to release the new album in May, but are now aiming for an August release due to some unexpected delays.
The Verve will likely announce additional US tour dates in September, McCabe said, adding that they've all grown as musicians and it feels better than ever to be playing together again.
However, the legendary guitarist did admit to some pre-show jitters before taking the stage at the California desert festival.
"My knees might go a bit wobbly when I see a few thousand people out there," he said.
The Verve are offering fans a chance to download an exclusive free song over six weeks before the release of their forthcoming album.
The track, 'Mover', is available to download from http://www.vervedownload.com for a few days and will not appear on their new album, Forth due for release on August 18.
Fresh from their headline performance which closed Glastonbury, The Verve will play T in the Park and V festival this summer.
The dates are: T In The Park Kinross (July 11) V Festival Weston Park (August 16) V Festival Hylands Park (17)
The Verve has christened its reunion album "Forth" and will release it before the end of the summer.
The set is due Aug. 18 via EMI internationally and a day later in North America, where it will come out on the Verve's On Our Own imprint with distribution via MRI/Megaforce/RED.
The album's first single, "Love Is Noise," was premiered on BBC Radio One today (June 23) and is now streaming from the band's MySpace site.
"This is a very special band, with four incredibly talented people," the Verve's manager Jaz Summers told Billboard in February. "They made three great albums before. And they're going to make another great album now. There's a bit of magic when the four of them come together."
The Verve got back together in 2007 following a nine-year hiatus. The band's last album was 1997's "Urban Hymns," which launched the U.K. combo to worldwide stardom on the strength of the single "Bittersweet Symphony." Since then, frontman Richard Ashcroft has recorded three solo albums.
The Verve has a dozen summer festival dates on tap, including a co-headlining slot at Glastonbury later this month.
The Verve have made the video to their forthcoming single 'Love Is Noise' available to watch on the internet.
The first single to be released from the band's album 'Forth', their first since 1997's 'Urban Hymns', 'Love Is Noise' is out on August 4.
The video mixes up shots of the band performing in a dimly-lit room, with frontman Richard Ashcroft sitting on the floor, with montages of other images, including snow-capped mountains, a dancer and a woman with a falcon.
You can watch the video now on The Verve's MySpace page.
The Verve played an epic headline slot at the T In The Park festival tonight (July 11), bringing 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' to the masses in Scotland.
During the set, frontman Richard Ashcroft slammed critics of the band, referring to an article in a newspaper published earlier today that had criticised them.
The show included old favourites such as 'The Drugs Don't Work' and 'History' as well as two new songs.
Shortly into the set, frontman Richard Ashcroft declared the T In The Park crowd to be the greatest audience on earth.
Ashcroft was wearing blue jeans, a yellow t-shirt and a leather jacket. He sank to his knees and gestured to the crowd as he took to the stage at 10.15pm (BST), leading his band through opener 'This Is Music'.
The singer then donned a semi-acoustic guitar to play 'Sonnet' with the band, making a hugging gesture as the song ended.
"Thank you, greatest live audience in the world," he said before playing 'Space And Time'. "That's something Guardian writers don't understand."
He was referring to an opinion column that appeared in the newspaper today, in which the band's relevance was questioned.
Later in the set, Ashcroft mysteriously asked the crowd: "Which lead singer of a '90s band told me he was now a mod? 'I've been baggy but now I'm a mod.' Any guesses?"
The band then played 'Sit And Wonder', the opening track from the band's forthcoming album, 'Forth'.
Ashcroft later dedicated 'The Rolling People' to "['Scarface' character] Tony Montana, ['The Sopranos' character] Tony Soprano and all the haters."
He then shouted, "it's Friday night at T In The Park, let's have it!" before leading into the song and upping the ante of the set.
A large cheer erupted from the crowd as the singer later announced 'The Drugs Don't Work', while similar applause was heard for 'Lucky Man', which Ashcroft dedicated to his wife, Kate Radley.
"Do you know what it's like to write a classic?" he then said, triggering screams from the crowd as they guessed which song was coming next.
"Some of you in this crowd are going to write a classic tune," he added, before playing 'Bitter Sweet Symphony', which had fans in hysterics as they waved their hands in the air and sang along.
The song bled straight into new single 'Love Is Noise', which saw Ashcroft dancing down the wings of the stage then dropping to his knees and roaring, before heading off backstage.
The Verve played:
'This Is Music' 'Sonnet' 'Space And Time' 'Sit And Wonder' 'History' 'Come On' 'Life's An Ocean' 'The Rolling People' 'The Drugs Don't Work' 'Lucky Man' 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' 'Love Is Noise'
The Verve's Simon Jones has stated that the band are not set to split up again, despite rumours of rifts between the band members.
It was rumoured that The Verve were set to cancel their V Festival headline slot last month after a spat, although they continued and played a well-received set.
Bassist Jones has since told the Daily Star that the band have no plans to call it a day yet.
"I don't think any of us would be that careless [to split up] again," he said. "If we have a disagreement, we'll work through it. It won't be, 'Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you'.
"I'm not going to lie and say that every thing's all of a sudden easy in this band. We still do have our disagreements about things but we're a but more mature and better able to deal with it."
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot post attachments in this forum
