The Verve: Whatever Happened To The Band Behind 'Bitter Sweet Symphony?'

The Verve: Whatever happened to the band behind 'Bitter Sweet Symphony?'
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I cite my sources and they may differ than other people's accounts, so I don't guarantee the actual accuracy of my videos.

montages or remember from the late 90’s nike commercial the British band the Verve’s tumultuous history is full of ego, litigation, drug addiction, in-fighting and bad luck. To some outside the UK, the Verve were simply a one hit wonder, but was that case? Today, let’s take a look at the volatile history of the Verve

Rolling Stone

Early Life

Hailing from the english town of Wigan located in the greater Manchester Area, town was Economically depressed. The Verve frontman Richard Aschroft was no fan of his hometown telling the alternative press "If I hadn't made the decision to be in a band looking back on what was on offer in that town, it's a quite frightening prospect,"

The son of a part-time clerical worker and hairdresser mother, Ashcroft’s family didn’t have much money and struggled to make ends meet. Ashcroft couldn’t afford to buy albums so instead he taped songs from the radio and rifled through his parents record collections made up mostly of Pink Floyd and Beatles albums. Ashcroft would go through a few phases in his life first wanting to be a footballer dreaming of playing for manchester united. He would eventually change his dream to be a rockstar after witnessing a live gig by The Stone Roses. Side note guys i’ve done a whole video on the stone roses career the link is down below. Ashcroft would tell Select Magazine"Seeing them play Warrington in 1989 basically changed my life," "These guys looked and dressed like me and they were from the same background, yet they were on-stage, being adored. Seeing them made me realize that I could do that as well. I could do better."

But Ashcroft didn’t have a lot of supporters in his dream or had to deal with obstacles in his life. He would tell a career councillor that he wanted to be a rockstar only to be offered a position as a lifeguard. On top of that he was told by a doctor prior to becoming a teenager that he had the lung capacity of a collapsed flea with the doctor telling him he would likely have a cold for the rest of his life. . It did little to dampen his spirits as his mother would reveal her son was cocky from a young age with one schoolmate of his telling select magazine he was nicknamed Jesus because he loved being the center of attention. Ashcroft would admit to Spin Magazine he knew he was destined to be a rockstar adding “ i could sing the lord’s f**** prayer when i was five years old so I knew.”

It was at the age of 11 Ashcroft’s father would pass away from a brain hemorrhage that was the result of a dormant brain clot that eventually expanded. The tragic event would change his outlook on life with him telling melody maker in 1993.

“My father died when I was really young. He'd worked nine to five all his life, and he suffered and got nowhere. And I was 11 at the time and I immediately realized that this wasn't the life for me. Immediately I found out how quickly someone can die just be wiped out. So I thought, F*** this, I'm gonna do something positive, I can do something positive, I can do something great, I'm gonna make something of myself.' He would add how the event resulted in him losing some of his innocence in life telling select magazine "Other kids were playing with their Action Men and I was questioning life and society,"

Ashcroft’s mother would remarry and he would soon fell under the influence of his step father who was a big believer in a 17th and 18th century movement named rosicrucanism (rosie- crushianism)"Select magazine would write about his step father and i quote “Richard firmly believed his step dad could bend light rays around people to make them disappear, or raise the temperature in the room by thought alone.” Ashcroft who was still coming to terms with the death of his father and figuring out adding "It's difficult for people to understand that – they doubt it, calling you a lunatic,