Still Bittersweet after a decade

Every generation has a band that revolutionizes the music industry, has a significant impact on pop-culture and is highly influential both as musicians and as leaders of a movement.

The Verve is one band that had all of the ability to be one of these bands but managed to fall through the cracks and implode under their own weight, due to struggles with personalities, drug addiction, lost financial earnings and lawsuits, as well as a few bands breaking up on a few occasions.

During the explosion of grunge in the early 90's, The Verve was able to blend their influence of 60's psychedelic rock, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and The Smiths to create their own definitive sound. By utilizing drug-influenced ambient/sonic production techniques, soaring guitars, smooth bass lines, and unique song structures, The Verve were able to produce solid albums with timeless songs and along with Oasis were highly influential in revamping the British music scene.

Ever since the release of their debut album, A Storm In Heaven, the band had been plagued with personality conflicts between guitarist Nick McCabe and singer Richard Ashcroft, not to mention a lawsuit that forced the band to change their name from it's original name “Verve.”

The follow-up to A Storm In Heaven was the critically acclaimed release A Northern Soul. Although the album was well received by critics, the band was unable to achieve significant sales, yet gained credibility and respect within the British music scene. A Northern Soul brought the band in a slightly more experimental direction, especially since it was well known that a large amount of the album was created under the heavy influence of ecstasy.

A Northern Soul featured a more modern sound and atmospheric sound than their previous effort. Songs such as “This Is Music” and my personal favourite, “On My Own” helped round out this incredibly deep and talented record. This is the kind of album that should be heard with headphones on to truly get the full effect.

While touring A Northern Soul in the United States as part of the Lollapalooza festival the band faced many obstacles, which eventually led to yet another breakup. There was a date missed due to dehydration caused by too much ecstasy, drummer Peter Salisbury was arrested for trashing a Kansas hotel room, singer Ashcroft was hospitalized for dehydration, while personality conflicts caused Nick McCabe to leave the band.

In 1997 McCabe reunited with The Verve to record the bands North American breakthrough Urban Hymns, which included the massive hit “Bittersweet Symphony.” Richard Ashcroft joined Coldplay on stage at Live 8 to perform the song and was welcomed by Chris Martin saying “this is probably the best song ever written, and here is the best singer in the world, Mr. Richard Ashcroft.” That performance ended up being one of the highlights of the one-day global music festival.

Urban Hymns was initially going to be a solo release for Richard Ashcroft, but the band reformed in 1997 with the return of McCabe. Greater depth was put into the writing on the album and set more focus on Ashcroft's vocal abilities. Song's such as “Lucky Man,” “The Drugs Don't Work,” and “One Day” show the bands ability to blend various genres together to create a style all their own. In 1997 the band was forced to pay ABKCO Music 100 per cent of the royalties from the song “Bittersweet Symphony,” which featured a looped sample of The Rolling Stone's song “The Last Time.” This lawsuit was one of the key issues involved with the breakup of the band in 1998.

Richard Ashcroft has gone on to release three solo albums, his most recent being 2006's Keys To The World. Guitarist Simon Tong has started a new project called “The Good, The Bad and The Queen” with Paul Simonon of The Clash and Damon Albarn of Blur and are going on tour starting March 11 in Toronto.