The Verve was formed in 1990 in Wigan, Lancashire, by schoolfriends Richard Ashcroft (vocals), Nick McCabe (guitar), Simon Jones (bass) and Peter Salisbury (drums). The band signed to Hut records in September 1991 and their first three singles topped the indie charts, gaining the band a reputation for classic B-sides like One Way To Go and Man Called Sun.
In summer 1993 they released their debut album, A Storm In Heaven, made their first first Glastonbury appearance, and declared their intent to become "the biggest group in the world". They played Lollapalooza in the US, toured Europe with The Smashing Pumpkins, and added "The" to their name, following legal action from jazz label Verve. On their 1993 UK tour, The Verve were supported by a young Manchester band called Oasis, and the two bands began a mutual admiration society.
No Come Down was an album of Bsides, outtakes and curios, and their second Lollapalooza tour in Summer 1994 was marked by excessive drinking and frequent hotel room-trashing. Ashcroft broke up with his girlfriend of six years, and the sessions for their second album began in an atmosphere of depression and drug abuse. A Northern Soul was released in June 1995, by which time Ashcroft had secretly married his new girlfriend, Kate Radley from Spiritualized, and relations between Ashcroft and McCabe had dropped to an all-time low. After playing the T In The Park festival in Glasgow, the band split, releasing a "final" single, History, whose cover featured the words, "all farewells should be sudden".
Ashcroft started writing new songs during the band's hiatus, and The Verve re-formed with new guitarist Simon Tong, but without Nick McCabe. The band rehearsed with ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler for a week, and Ashcroft also approached ex-Stone Roses guitarist John Squire, but eventually McCabe was persuaded to rejoin. Bitter Sweet Symphony, which sampled an instrumental version of the Rolling Stones' The Last Time, reached number two in June 1997, but The Verve were forced to hand over all the songwriting royalties to Allen Klein, who owns the publishing rights to the original Rolling Stones song. The Verve played Dublin's SFX Theatre on August 22nd, and had their first UK number one with The Drugs Don't Work.
Their third album, Urban Hymns, also went to number one, becoming the fifth fastest-selling album in UK music history. In February of this year, The Verve swept The 1998 Brit Awards, winning Best Group, Best Album for Urban Hymns, and best producer. Sonnet, the fourth single from Urban Hymns, was released in March as part of a limited edition 12-inch set, making it ineligible for the charts. The single was subsequently released on CD in Ireland to celebrate Urban Hymns going 10 times platinum here.
The band played two sold-out shows in Dublin's Point Theatre on May 19th and 20th, followed by a massive outdoor concert in Wigan's Haigh Hall; all 33,000 tickets for the show sold out in just one hour. In June, the band were forced to cancel some European festival dates, and an appearance at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in New York, when bassist Simon Jones collapsed with a viral infection. In July, the band announced Nick McCabe would not be performing on the remaining live dates, and would be replaced on tour by pedal steel player B.J. Cole. Urban Hymns was nominated for a Mercury Music Prize, becoming 2-1 favourite to win the coveted award.
