Been listening to early Verve

...and the final James album Pleased to Meet You is their most realized effort altogether. They manage to retain all their early exuberance and later ambient adventures into a very mature, yet far from boring, effort. Their musicianship is finely honed, the topics are real, and the whole package bubbles like a fine french saucier.

why did i ever stop listening to A Storm In Heaven? it's a freaking amazing record.

Nick McCabe's guitar always reminded me of Richard Thompson, something about the tone.
There's quite a few boots from 92-94 that are worth getting. Not sure if any are being torrented right now but watch out for them when they are.

Also the '98 live gig that was televised is very worth tracking down. Its after they became famous but Nick McCabe has returned after an absence and some of the spaciness has returned to the sound.
I'm not a big fan of their really popular stuff, the 3rd lp & surrounding singles but I think it may be thanks to his absence. Band sounds way less spacey without him.

nice Quietus piece about the debut.

http://thequietus.com/articles/13826-verve-a-storm-in-heaven

Is it possible to get hold of their first radio session for Hit the North (Mark Radcliffe) on BBC Radio 5 from Feb 1992? I believe the tracklisting is

She's a Superstar
All in the Mind
Slide Away
(plus another)

Can anyone help?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldFLTTVSCDs

i know that is not what you were looking for but i found it and posted it, though it's not very good. i do own everything this band did release so you have inspired some Verve listening for tomorrow. which i'm now looking forward to.

According to McCabe and Jones, there are 2CD deluxe editions of A Storm In Heaven and A Northern Soul ready to go but Ashcroft won't sign off and the record label doesn't believe the expense of doing it will be "viable"

i says here it was a peel session, but what i'm thinking of was definitely Hit the North

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOj6hj28LMc

it's really striking/eerie how much "see you in the next one" sounds like it could be on Lazer Guided Melodies...

Not normally my style of music, but I really like A Storm in Heaven. I only own it as an advance promo cassette, it soundtracked a number of great driving trips back then.

I listened to Storm in Heaven and A Northern Soul really loud in the car the other day. I have no idea what Nick McCabe is up to. He's astonishing.

There's something about NIck McCabe's guitar sound that always reminds me of Richard Thompson.
I need to get hold of that expanded box set of the first lp.
Still not got around to it.

the drop in quality from Storm in Heaven to A Northern Soul was so disappointing at the time

lol wrong

all the songs (except for the last one, which as pointed out sounds more like an early Spiritualized song) blur together for me, the similarity is just a wash. A Northern Soul is the transitional album, but it has more variety, actual songs qua songs etc.

A Northern Soul is wonderful too, albeit not quite for the same reasons. They all are, frankly – even Forth isn't half bad..

That said, the s/t EP is the one I've played the most.

I just realized R Ashcroft is married to Kate Radley! and she is very tall.

I've just 'found' the Voyager 1 live album which I'd not previously been aware of. It sounds fantastic and McCabe is on one.

I think A Northern Soul sounds like a 'younger' album in a number of ways. It might just be that Ashcroft's weird mix of saying thank you to girls and misplaced messianic fervour is more pronounced. Either way, it's still magnificent.

Didn't he, ah, pinch KR off Jason Pierce?

Yeah, I know they toured together in 92. Not sure if that's when it happened.
Spiritualised and Verve, like

Yep, that was the start of it. RA and KR were together by A Northern Soul.

Which I happened to listen to on Tuesday, and which is still awesome. Obsessed with dying alone and being grateful for sex. So adolescent. But so powerful. And the guitar, holy fuck. No one since.

pierce and ashcroft have a similar way with cliched/meaningless song titles

I wonder if Ashcroft wrote the So It Goes 'I'm just a poor little wifeless fella' coda for JP?

Didn't he, ah, pinch KR off Jason Pierce?

― Good cop, Babcock (Chinaski), Wednesday, August 7, 2019 9:38 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Yes, and I'm glad he did, because it lead to Pierce writing 'Broken Heart'