Remember the Verve? Sure ya do. “Bittersweet Symphony”? Yep, that’s them. They were sued by the Stones for the use of sampling a symphonic version of “The Last Time”? Yeah, that happened. They had a few other decent singles off that album, 1997's Urban Hymns (co-produced by Killing Joke’s Youth), and then broke up. Guitarist Simon Tong later played with the Killing Joke side-project, Transmission, while vocalist Richard Ashcroft went on to pursue sort of middling solo career.
In any case, I was a quasi-fan of the band before they hit the Britpop big-time with Urban Hymns. Back in the early 90’s, I was steeped in fandom of legions of British indie bands of that very fertile era — from The Wedding Present, Lush and the Wonder Stuff through Swervedriver, James and the Senseless Things and all points in between. The Verve were arguably a part of all that, and were originally a much messier affair than the band that would go on to court legal action by the Stones. I was sent a promo copy of their odds-&-sods collection, No Come Down and developed a passive affinity for their shambolic psychedelic guitar-pop.
Around 1992, they apparently took another page from their litigious forebears in the Stones and shot a video of themselves playing while being driven around Manhattan on the back of a flatbed truck (ala this fabled Stones stunt). I stumbled upon that clip recently, and thought I’d share it here.
Somewhat annoyingly, the clip seems to be fairly hazy …. which may or may not have been on purpose, given the similarly hazy, fuzzed-out nature of their sound at the time (still light years from the comparatively crisp, introspective pop of Urban Hymns). In any case, if you wince close enough, you’ll see the Verve lads exiting the Chelsea Hotel and then being driven around town some evening. Those hungry for specific landmark-spotting won’t be too thrilled, but it’s still worth a viewing…
Despite changing their sound and their style later on, the Verve’s love affair with NYC, didn’t end with the video above, as several single sleeves from the Urban Hymns era found the band posing in and around SoHo, Greenwich Village and the then-still-endearngly-seedy Times Square.
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