New Musical Express (NME) is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. As part of their ongoing celebrations, they've put together a panel of NME experts and musicians to select the greatest songs of each decade. Recently, they assembled their list of 100 best tracks of the 90s. The Verve scored two nominations. See NME's commentary below.
#25
"History" Released: September 1995
Released as a single after Richard Ashcroft and his long-suffering
troops first decided to call it quits, ‘History’ would have made a
fitting epitaph: a suitably grandiose affair that pillaged its opening
lines from visionary poet William Blake’s work ‘London’. Instead, when
they reformed, its use of strings proved to be something of a catalyst
for future hits such as ‘Bittersweet Symphony’.
#11
"Bitter Sweet Symphony"
Released: June 1997
The Verve’s triumphant return after one of their myriad splits was marked by a new ‘The’ in front of their name and a whole heap of Allen Klein-baiting cowbells. Klein owned the rights to Andrew Oldham’s arrangement of The Rolling Stones’ ‘The Last Time’ from whence they were lifted, and he sued Richard Ashcroft and co to within an inch of their royalties. But it was all worth it, wasn't it?
That's how Richard Ashcroft described Nick McCabe's guitar playing as sounding like in the early days of Verve. This picture of Nick McCabe was taken in Winstanley College in 1989 (at around 18 years of age), the same year Verve officially formed.
Also, check out this older post with a school picture of Richard Ashcroft.
Richard Ashcroft will be playing the Hop Farm Music Festival in Paddock Wood, Kent (UK) on Sunday, July 1. The festival, headlined by Suede, Bob Dylan, and Peter Gabriel, will run from from June 29 to July 1.
For more details on the festival and lineup, visit the Hop Farm Festival website. According to NME, this will be Ashcroft's only UK appearance of the year.
Description: Steve Lamacq is joined by Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft as he assesses the legacy of the band's 1997 reunion LP Urban Hymns, which is our Classic Album of the Day. The Verve's 3rd LP remains one of the top 20 best selling British albums of all time and walked away with the Brit for Best Album and a nomination for the Mercury Prize. It also spawned the mammoth singles, "Bitter Sweet Symphony," "Sonnet," "The Drugs Don't Work" and "Lucky Man."
