05 August 2007

Mojo Magazine interview with Jazz Summers, September 2007 issue

The Verve’s controversial manager Jazz Summers has been on the phone to MOJO with the inside skinny on the once-warring Wiganites’ shock reformation. Since the Verve have already split twice previously, we were especially keen to discover how durable the current bond appeared, and whether the arrangement was likely to last until the end of their slated programme of gigs, due to begin on November 2 at Glasgow Academy.

Jazz Summers Q&A...

The Verve reformed? How did this happen?
Jazz Summers: Basically, they all called each other, Richard [Ashcroft] called Nick [McCabe] and Nick called Pete [Salisbury] and Richard called Si [Jones] and they all decided yes, they’d like to give it a try.

What happened next?
Jazz Summers: We had to keep this very quiet between ourselves and them, and we arranged for them to go into a studio in West London with people that we trusted. They went in and got on fantastically. They said, ‘This is magic here, let’s get back together again.’ It was no more complicated than that. If they hadn’t been happy with it, they would have all gone their different ways and nobody would have known - that was the reason that we kept it quiet.

What does the new music sound like?
Jazz Summers: I can’t tell you because I haven’t heard it yet. All I know is that they are all very happy with it.

See the September issue of MOJO for the full interview with Jazz Summers, where he’ll talk about the band reverting to their ‘A Northern Soul’ line up, the future for the band and his relationship with the band around their split in 1999.

------

The Verve Enter Studio!

Wigan's Mightiest Group Bury The Hatchet, Tour.

The announcements of nostalgic tours by Dodgy, Shed Seven, and the Spice Girls gave a raised-eyebrow, 1997 flavour to July. But at the same time there was another, more pulse-quickening reformation of a group of similar vintage. Nine years on from an unhappy split, epic rockers, The Verve, in their original four-man line up, have recorded new material in an unnamed west London studio and will play a short, sold out UK tour in November.

"Richard [Ashcroft, singer] phoned me and said "We were a fantastic band and if we ever got back together I just want to do it for the love of the music," says manger Jazz Summers. "They all loved it in the stdio - I mean Nick McCabe is one of the best guitarists in the world in it's a shame that he was sitting down and not doing much."

Summers also answered those who feel he had a hand in the band's original dissolution. "It was one of the saddest days in my life when The Verve stopped," he says. "So , how fantastic is it to have this great band back together? And there is a lot of enthusiasm from within the band to make another record and do live dates. Beyond that?"

Speaking online, McCabe sounds bullish about the sessions, which will conclude next month. "Tunes are sounding great," he enthused. "It's going to be really, fucking, great. Seriously..."