The Verve, The Verve

Soon after this commercial peak, the band broke up in April 1999, citing inner conflicts between band members. By then, The Verve had become one of the most influential British alternative rock acts in years. The band's original line-up reunited in June 2007. The band embarked on a tour later that year and released the album Forth in August 2008.

This single was particularly new for The Verve as it was a soulful ballad. The album reached the UK Top 20 upon its release in July, but Ashcroft broke up the band three months later, just before the release of the third single "History", which reached #24 in September. Ashcroft later stated: "I knew that I had to do it earlier on, but I just wouldn't face it. Once you're not happy in anything, there's no point living in it, is there? But my addiction to playing and writing and being in this band was so great that I wouldn't do anything about it. It felt awful because it could have been the greatest time of our lives, with "History" doing well, but I still think I can look myself in the mirror in 30 years time and say, 'Yeah man, you did the right thing.' The others had been through the same thing. It was a mixture of sadness and regret, and relief that we would have some time away." http://www.musicsaves.org/verve/interviews/33.shtml Ashcroft reunited with Jones and Salisbury just a few weeks after the breakup, but McCabe did not rejoin them. The band hired former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler, but he spent only a couple of days with the band. Thus, as a replacement, the band chose Simon Tong, a school friend of Ashcroft and Jones, to fill in the lead guitar duties. Tong is credited with originally teaching the two to play guitar. The band made no live appearances for all of 1996, apart from a solo performance from Ashcroft supporting Oasis in New York http://www.the-verve.info/gigs/Mar.13.1996.htm . The rest of the year was spent playing and recording songs for an album likely to be released under Ashcroft's name.

The band played another American tour, which was riddled with problems as venues were downsized http://www.the-verve.info/gigs/Aug.5.1998.htm and the support act Massive Attack dropped out http://musicsaves.org/verve/98news.shtml . The band then returned to England for two headline performances at the V Festivals, which received poor reviews, with NME stating "where songs used to spiral upwards and outwards, they now simply fizzle tamely." http://www.the-verve.info/gigs/Aug.23.1998.htm The band played their last gig at Slane Castle in Ireland on 29 August. A long period of inactivity followed. Finally, in April 1999, it was announced that The Verve had split up.

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