Black Submarine Debut Album Now Complete

According to a recent Facebook update, Black Submarine (formally The Black Ships), featuring former Verve members Simon Jones and Nick McCabe, have completed their debut album.

The band also includes Davide Rossi (Goldfrapp/Coldplay) on vocals and strings, drummer Mig Schillace (Portishead/Goldfrapp), and Amelia Tucker on vocals.

In the coming weeks, the band will be teasing new material and releasing a free download from one of the album's tracks.

Beyoncé Makes Nod to The Verve at London's O2 Arena

Beyonce brought her Mrs Carter tour to London’s O2 Arena in spectacular fashion last night (April 29), making a surprising reference to The Verve during her set. 

The nod came during her ballad 'If I Were A Boy', which featured the string motif from The Verve’s 1997 single 'Bitter Sweet Symphony', itself taken from an orchestral version of The Rolling Stones' 'The Last Time'.


Beyonce also covered her former band Destiny's Child's 'Survivor' and sang part of Dolly Parton's 'I Will Always Love You' before closing with ‘Halo' and a brief medley of 'Green Light' and 'Suga Mama'.

Richard Ashcroft To Perform In Dubai

Former Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft will perform in Dubai at the one-off gig on March 15, the first in a series of ‘Live at Atlantis’ events, as will Zane Lowe.

Noel Gallagher will also be performing with his current band the High Flying Birds, whose eponymous debut album was released to critical acclaim in 2011.


Ashcroft, who is a friend of Gallagher, will perform solo acoustic at the gig, relieving the memorable set he performed at Sandance in October 2011 which featured Verve hits including ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ and ‘Lucky Man’. A regular on Sandance Beach, Radio One DJ Zane Lowe will play out the night after Gallagher’s set.

While the gig has been put together by the team behind the popular Sandance festival, organisers have made clear this is part of new series of ‘Live at Atlantis’ gigs which promise to bring more massive stars to Dubai throughout 2013. Meanwhile the first Sandance of 2013 has been set for Friday May 10.

The Verve Documentary Space And Time

For those that have never seen it (me included)

Richard Ashcroft: New Album to Be "Song Orientated"

Ahead of his performance at Hop Farm later this month the singer has been updating Xfm on his solo stuff... 



The former Verve frontman admitted to us that he's hoping to release a new solo album before the end of the year.


"I'm hoping it to be quite a quick process," he explained. "Hoping to go in with all the songs written, everything mapped out and go for performances and make it quite a stripped down, song orientated record really."


Richard Ashcroft plays Hop Farm Festival in Kent at the end of this month and told us he's looking forward to his first time there.


"I've never been to Hop Farm but it just seems a lot of the bull has been cut out of it," he told admitted.


"I've just been sorting out a small band for it. I'm gonna get Pete - who's been in the Verve with me from the start - I'm getting a great guy over from America playing guitar. I'm just getting it together a little idea of what I'm doing."


He's playing the Sunday night of the non-corporate festival in Kent  - ahead of headliners Suede.

Verve In NME's Best Tracks Of The 90's

The decade that brought us Britpop, grunge, superstar DJs - and a whole lot of crappy boy bands. Here are the best tracks according to the NME, The Verve have two entries in at 25 and at number 11:


25 - History - Released September 1995


Released as a single after Richard Ashcroft and his long-suffering troops first decided to call it quits, ‘History’ would have made a fitting epitaph: a suitably grandiose affair that pillaged its opening lines from visionary poet William Blake’s work ‘London’. Instead, when they reformed, its use of strings proved to be something of a catalyst for future hits such as ‘Bittersweet Symphony’.


11 - Bittersweet Symphony - Released June 1997


The Verve’s triumphant return after one of their myriad splits was marked by a new ‘The’ in front of their name and a whole heap of Allen Klein-baiting cowbells. Klein owned the rights to Andrew Oldham’s arrangement of The Rolling Stones’ ‘The Last Time’ from whence they were lifted, and he sued Richard Ashcroft and co to within an inch of their royalties. But it was all worth it, wasn't it?

Urban Hymns Voted 30th Best Album Of All Time

In a recent Absolute Radio listener's poll to discover the 'Best Albums Of All Time'.  The Verve album 'Urban Hymns' finished in 30th place. You can read more about the poll at Absolute Radio.