Just when things were looking on the upside after last years comeback tour and new record, according to reports The Verve are done for good. This is such unfortunate news and coming off the heels of just reporting that guitarist Nick McCabe and bassist Simon Jones were forming a new band, The Black Ships, McCabe and Jones are done with singer Richard Ashcroft forever and have not spoken to the singer since the release of last year's Forth. With reports coming from UK'S Mirror, “As far as Nick and Simon are concerned the Verve no longer exists,” a source close to McCabe and Jones said. “They think Richard was just using the reunion as a vehicle to get his solo career on track.” The reunion was in shambles from the get go at the end of 2007 when Ashcroft was tired of McCabe's hard partying rock star ways, “Their management called Simon and Nick in for a crisis meeting in September. They were told that Richard refused to tour or work with them again as long as Nick continued to drink,” a source told Mirror.
This is the third time the seminal British band has called it quits, the first time the band broke up was in the mid 90's then got back together again to record one of the greatest albums in the history of modern rock, Urban Hymns, which featured the breakout single "Bittersweet Symphony." Once the band hit the mainstream highs they split again in 1998, nine years later they got back for reunion shows in the UK then a headlining slot at Coachella 2008 and a mini tour which I was fortunate enough to see. Little did I know it would be the last time The Verve play New York City together as a band. In between the nine year hiatus, Ashcroft released three solo albums and Simon Tong formed the band The Good, The Bad and The Queen with Blur's Damon Albarn and The Clash's Paul Simion in 2007.
Seeing the band at their final New York concert one would never guess they would never want to play again a few months later. They are a band that music needs and one music will miss, yet their legacy and what was will live on. Take a look at my Live Review of The Verve at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in April of 2008 HERE.
