Comebacks are always about one of three things: money, sentimentality, or unfulfilled promise. Sometimes it's a combination: the most famous comeback of all, Elvis Presley's 1968 Lazarus-like, temporary resurrection — Vegas style — was an audacious cocktail of unrequited titillation and religious symbolism, calculatingly designed to prick both middle America's libido and buckle it's bible belt. At the other end of the spectrum is The Police's unlikely recent coming together for the first time since their acrimonious divorce more than twenty years ago. Sting spelled out the raison d'etre of their worldwide tour; "There will be no new album, no big new tour, once we're done with our reunion tour, that's it for the Police" leaving the trio an estimated $192 million dollars better off before parting ways.
Since The Verve imploded for a second time in May 1999 the possibility of reformation had been remote in the extreme. The band's core - singer and lyricist Richard Ashcroft and guitarist Nick McCabe - had enjoyed a massively fractious relationship even during their heyday, and whilst the former had gone on to pursue a solo career of greater commercial than critical impact, the latter had practically retired from music.
Paradoxically the success of their final album, 1997's Urban Hymns appeared to be a big part of the problem. Released in the unedifying final days of Brit pop at which point most observers seemed to have finally got the joke, it's melancholy spirituality proved an appealing foil to Oasis' coke-bore paean Be Here Now. It would go on to sell more than six million copies whilst spawning the modern classics "Bittersweet Symphony", "Sonnet" and "Lucky Man".
The subsequent creative tensions between the group's leadership would eventually signal their downfall. McCabe felt that Urban Hymns had strayed too far from the band's roots, a philosophy christened in the cosmic psychedelia of their first two albums A Storm in Heaven and A Northern Soul, decrying "Bittersweet Symphony" as "Up there with the best Bon Jovi record". For his part Ashcroft revealed that he had been working on solo material since 1996. Eventually, Dear John letters were sent.
It was two days after the conclusion of 2007's Glastonbury that Ashcroft announced to the world that he, McCabe, and fellow protagonists Simon Jones and Pete Salisbury had rebuilt their bridges and were planning to entering the studio for an exploratory session. Brushing off questions about the remarkable number of hatchets which had been swiftly buried, the singer then went on to prove that he was still as confident in the band's skin as his own, claiming that "We're one of the few bands who can jam and not sound like Lynyrd Skynyrd" and postulating that it would be a "Travesty" if a reformed Verve weren't allowed to headline the following year's festival.
Article comments