A Bittersweet History: The Verve

Posted by: j_john | From: October 13, 2005

The 2005-2006 English Premier League season began a couple months ago with newly promoted Wigan Athletic F.C. giving champions Chelsea an early season endurance test, narrowly losing 1-0 in the last minute. Normally a match with a small side like Wigan wouldn't have meant much to me, but this time it was different--I had a frame of reference. "Wigan, huh? That's where The Verve were from."

Lost in the shuffle between big northern cities Liverpool and Manchester, Wigan wasn't ever known for producing much besides factory workers, and were it not for The Verve seizing their small window of opportunity in 1997 it might have stayed that way. Formed in 1989, the early days of the then simply "Verve" were spent exploring their psychedelic sounds. Led by the iconic Richard Ashcroft, they released a number of quality singles, (one of which "All In The Mind" features a b-side "A Man Called Sun" that inspired the name of a former Portland band). With a subsequent, eponymous 1992 E.P. that compiled a few of these tracks and continued to build their fanbase the group was poised to break through with their debut LP a year later, A Storm In Heaven.

Easily my favorite album of theirs, A Storm In Heaven settled on my ears like a warm, gentle breeze. Not terribly concerned with making proper "hits", they layered their sounds in true shoegazer fashion to create a beginning-to-end classic that I have yet to get tired of. Produced by John Leckie (who also handled duties on one of my other all-time faves, The Bends) and featuring blissful art design by Brian Cannon and photography by Michael Spencer Jones (who later gained greater attention for their work with Oasis). The album cover nailed the embodiment of their paradoxical esthetic--how can this be the after-life if there is still inclement weather? From the noisy opening "Star Sail", featuring Nick McCabe's signature guitars, to the more stripped down "Make It Till Monday" and the piano-based goodbye "See You In The Next One (Have A Good Time)" ASIH represents their pure embodiment of youthful ambition.

Even though they were well received by critics, the band didn't exactly take off in popularity. As with so many British bands, they were set on capturing the States, and they joined up with the second stage on Lollapalooza 1994, only to be done in by health problems and the first of two famous legal troubles. It seems the well-known jazz label of the same name took notice and forced the group to add the not-so superfluous "The." Heading into the studio to record their second proper album, the group was on edge and brought in producer Owen Morris (another Oasis association---actually, I believe in the early days of the 'sis they played some opening gigs for The Verve) to help them sort things out. There are some legendary stories about massive drug use and destruction at the studio that seemed to seal their fate, and when they released the material as A Northern Soul in 1995 it was met with mixed reviews. More health problems (I missed seeing them play First Ave. in Minneapolis due to Ashcroft's supposed sore throat) and a growing feud between Ashcroft and McCabe saw the band split up that fall.

Convinced that I had heard the last of the group, I was left trying to make sense of A Northern Soul, as it contained little of what I had loved about their early work. Sure, there were some trippy jams, but bringing in the string section for "History" seemed forced (I was always kind of annoyed by those that claimed the group knew it would be their swan song), and the single "On Your Own" was just so clean and perfect. The album gets better towards the end, with the combined weight of "Life's An Ocean" and "Stormy Clouds", but it was hardly the cohesive whole I had hoped for. I suppose the group had taken the idea of their region's dedication to American soul music to heart, and hoped they could recreate the sound for a new generation, while I just wanted more shoegaze.

About a year after their breakup, and now with the information overload of the Internet, I was following stories about new Ashcroft projects with Verve drummer Pete Salisbury, and wondering if I would ever hear the results. Eventually it became clear that the band were more-or-less reforming, convincing McCabe to re-join and bringing in an additional member, Simon Tong, to handle some of the guitars and add keyboard to compliment the original four (Ashcroft, McCabe, Salisbury, and bassist Simon Jones). Knowing their difficult history I wasn't exactly holding my breath in anticipation, but I will never forget the moment in the summer of 1997 when I picked up the import single of "Bitter Sweet Symphony" from Let It Be Records in Minneapolis. Putting the disc in the car stereo and hearing those now-infamous strings kick in I felt a mixture of disappointment and anticipation--I wondered if they would break-through with this new, Britpop sound, and was unsure if I'd accept it as their natural sonic progression. (On a strange legal sidenote, the royalties for "BSS" were eventually taken away from the group, since they used a looped sample of a symphonic recording of the Rolling Stones' "The Last Time" they made the song the property of Mick and Keith.)

It wouldn't take long for me to get my answer as it soon seemed like they were everywhere, even to the point where I was no longer answering the confused question about the difference between them and The Verve Pipe. I was admittedly kind of excited, since I thought that perhaps the album would turn out different from this first single -- I have a pretty weird memory of waking up terribly hungover on the day I turned 21 and putting Urban Hymns (released the day before) in the stereo for its first play. I kind of liked bits more than I expected to, but ultimately found it pretty unmemorable--besides "BSS", singles "The Drugs Don't Work" and "Lucky Man" are the only songs that stood out.

Following another attempt to tour the States (I half-heartedly tried to see them in Seattle), McCabe left again and the group eventually imploded for good. Soon after Richard Ashcroft began making awful solo records. However, I still remember the time when The Verve were The Greatest Band Of All Time.

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