Four-piece The Verve Experience are painstakingly recreating the original sound of Richard Ashcroft and his fellow band members.
The band, made up of vocalist Paul Southward, guitarist Kris West, bassist Dean Roby and drummer Stu Robinson, plan to showcase The Verve’s music in chronological order, starting with the classic tracks on albums A Storm in Heaven and A Northern Soul.
The group started by playing a few of The Verve’s early songs in rehearsal rooms but the musicians, who are all familiar faces on the Wigan scene, are now looking forward to performing live.
Kris said: “I've been a massive fan of The Verve’ since high school and I sort of fell into this by accident.
“When my last band finished there was a sense of wanting to do a bit more, and I started collating my own original guitar soundscape and loop recordings at home.
“I started to look for like-minded people to come down to a rehearsal room and we used to jam the early Verve tunes. “I’m not fond of the word ‘tribute’ but ultimately I suppose that is what it is.
“We prefer to see it as a celebration of The Verve’s music which we all love and have followed since our teens.
“You want to remain as faithful as possible to the band’s sound or else there is no point doing it.
“For a band like this a lot of sound matching goes on with amps and effects and this has taken a lot of thought to even get onto the same playing field.
“The Verve’s guitarist Nick McCabe and bassist Simon Jones were only about 20 or 21 when they tracked ideas and created that sound on A Storm In Heaven. That’s exceptional talent so young.”
Kris says the timing has been particularly apt to launch The Verve Experience as the first two albums celebrated recently their 20th anniversaries.
The group will play live for the first time at Preston’s 53 Degrees venue on October 22 before performing a hometown show at The Old Courts on December 2. Further live dates in Manchester and Newcastle are also set to be announced. For more information about the band, visit www.gspromotions.co.uk
- Source: Wigan Today, article by Adrew Nowell
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