The Verve

This is the one I’ve been waiting for. Not only since I’d heard they had regrouped and managed to get my hands on a ticket but also, like many others, almost for a decade in waiting! You see, I first missed my chance back at the Phoenix festival in 1995 when they headlined one of the smaller stages. The fact that Nitzer Ebb did not turn up in the line up before them, meant in the drift of festival madness, I ended up somewhere else! Then they split up!!

They reformed and released their third album 'Urban Hymns’ so next up was their homecoming event at Haigh Hall, and for some reason or another like poor communication between mates (no internet or mobiles, remember?) I missed out again. When I finally got my chance at V98, this was it!! But then guitarist Nick McCabe had bust his hand (in a fight on Ashcroft) and walked out of the tour. Although they were still good, it wasn’t my Verve and then they were no more. Now this is my chance to see the band in their original line up,.Come oonnn leettttss haavvee iittt!!

First time in the Roundhouse, I knew this was the best venue for their comeback gigs. Intimate enough to be close to the band and to be completely surrounded by the sound. Potential obstacles in view are the posts that circular around the venue but these can be avoided by moving about. Opting to stand at the back by the bar, after being surrounded by the tallest people in the gig (why does that always that jinx always happen?), then the only obstacle is that lone blockheaded man that can’t be avoided. There was no support act but 2 screens at each side of the stage flashing photographic images against the music the DJ played.

Opening with 'This Is Music’ got the old timers in the crowd howling to the majestic words of self belief and set the mood for the night. Bassist Simon Jones lunging forward towards the crowd taking it all in, Richard Ashcroft in trance state and Nick McCabe totally absorbed with his guitar work. The band don’t seem to have aged much apart from drummer Peter Salisbury who looks like the earlier days may have caught up with him A setlist of mainly tracks from A Northern Soul and Urban Hymns but also 'Already There’ from debut album 'A Storm In Heaven was in there; along with single 'Gravity Grave’ and the B-side 'Let The Damage Begin’. There were times that felt like they were more Ashcroft moments, when he donned his acoustic for ballads like 'Sonnet’, 'The Drugs Don’t Work’ & 'History’. The more McCabe moments came with spacey extended jams of feedback and effects psychedelia on the more heavy Verve tunes. One of these was the new track 'Sit & Wonder’, which has a bass loop and had Richard Ashcroft reading his lyrics from a sheet of paper. The finale of 'Come On’ was proper Verve like an ongoing jam out that you could just keep having it to.

The definite comeback of the year, and quite possibly a contender for gig of the year. Truly amazing.

Here's the setlist:

1 This Is Music
2 Space And Time
3 Gravity Grave
4 Weeping Willow
5 Life's An Ocean
6 Sonnet
7 Sit And Wonder
8 Velvet Morning
9 Already There
10 Stormy Clouds
11 Let The Damage Begin
12 On Your Own
13 The Rolling People
14 The Drugs Don't Work
15 Bittersweet Symphony
~
16 A Northern Soul
17 History
18 Lucky Man
19 Come On

Pic: Any Willsher