Review of Earl's Court gig of 09-27-97 by Adrian Foley

Review of Brixton Academy gig of 01-16-98 by Adrian Foley

Review of Brixton Academy gigs by susan.woolridge@virgin.net

Review of Manchester gig of 01-14-98 by Neil Harnett

Hammersmith, August 14, 1997

If you knew good music and wanted to be in the place people will be talking about years from now, there was only one place to be on August 14, 1997 -- Hammersmith Palais, London.

Here was a band playing their first gig in London for a couple of years as part of a comeback tour. Not just any band, a band that are quite simply the best band in the world.

There was no support on the night, they didn't need it. The atmosphere inside built into a final climactic frenzy when the band finally appeared.

Outside, tickets were changing hands for up to £120 a piece. There was only one place to be and the whole of the UK new it.

Here was a band playing with more power and more meaning than any other. Whilst Oasis seem to be loosing themselves in a teeny pop market, The Verve are the band that really matter, and tonight every single person packed into the venue knows it.

They open traditionally with two rockers from "A Northern Soul," 'A New Decade' and 'This Is Music.' Every single member of the crowd seems to know the lyrics and frenetic moshing creates a crush at the front and an electric atmosphere.

The band concentrate on "The Northern Soul" material, playing just 'Slide Away' from their debut album. They also use the gig as a platform for their new material.

On 'The Drugs Don't Work,' Richard's voice confirms him as one of the truly great vocalists of our time. Its his power that really makes the Verve the most exciting and meaningful band around.

Whilst the new material sounds unbelievably fantastic, it's 'History' that captures a spirit and emotion that no one there will probably ever forget. Every single word sang by band and audience is felt so passionately that there's a genuine sense of togetherness.

If you were there, then you have the memories and you'll know what I mean. If you weren't, then just imagine the greatest band in the world having their finest moment.

- Contributed by Dave Dimmer

Earl's Court, with Oasis, September 27, 1997

Hello, everyone.
I am still on a real high.
Just to let you know that I saw Verve at Saturday's Earl's Court Oasis gig and they were bloody excellent.
I heard the strains of 'A New Decade' bellowing out of the hall as I was on my way in, I was getting severely pissed off as I had to show my ticket to stewards at almost every turn and thought I'd never get in on time - I wasn't as early as I'd liked to have been, but at least I did get there for the 1st song. They actually came on 10 minutes earlier than the 7.30 show time, but I'd already been warned of this from Thursday's show. I guess they wanted to play a longer set.

Well, they were amazing and were very well received by the crowd.
'Bittersweet Symphony' got a phenomenal reaction, but my highlight was 'History' - Fucking great!!

It was great to be able to actually sing to the new songs as well, before the album was out - They did 'Rolling People,' 'Sonnet' and 'Lucky Man' as well as 'ISSUE' and 'TDDW.' Oh, and of course COME ON!!!!

I was moving and a grooving all night long, loving every single minute of the whole event - to hear the sound of the BIG music in the cavernous hall was amazing,absobloodylutely amazing!!!!!

Oh, and Oasis were quite good too (only joking, they were awesome). Noel stated how lucky we all were to be able to see the 2 best bands around playing together and dedicated 'Magic Pie' to Richard - "This one's for Ashcroft".!!
Top one.
In short, The Best Gig I've ever been to, and I've been to quite a few. My voice is still not quite there and my hands are still aching from all of the applause. Come On you Rolling People!!!!

Cheers,
Ady

Oh, forgot to say that this girl from Glasgow came up to us wanting to buy an E - I don't know why she thought we'd be able to oblige, and she wouldn't believe us when we said we didn't have any!! She was quite a laugh though - If you are out there - here's a big cheers!!!

The Verve, Brixton Academy, Friday 16th January
Well, what can I say? Was it any good? Was it crap? Who are The Rolling People?

Read on......

The vibe was all set, and the anticipation was mounting....we left nice and early to ensure arrival at Brixton in good time.

Hit The Beehive at approx. 6.45 and the place was packed out, but anyway, managed to meet up with Steve and co. (nice one mate!) and headed up to the Academy at 8.15 to be greeted by one hell of a queue.

Eventually got through the Hare Krishna and E sellers, got the beers in and established ourselves down the front and got engrossed in Waynes set which was pretty wild - some nice jazz grooves, but it was very hard to keep up with the slide show - different one either side of the stage - well confusing!

Wayne left and as the stage darkened there was some reaction from the crowd as The Verve took to the stage at approx 9.10 almost immediately as Wayne left, and what was the first song? Well, it was a fucking loud noise, that's for sure! I knew that Verve were loud, but this was ear blistering. The sound was a total mess, just one loud, ear blistering dirge. Despite the eardrum buzz (© Wire), we could just make out Richards words and it was A Northern Soul - our journey had commenced...

Thankfully, after this, I think the sound evened out and the crowd began to get lost in the music....or so I thought...there were a few of us (Rolling People) getting well into it, but there were plenty of lifeless souls too.

Richard and Jonesy in particular were in fine form egging on the crowd with chants and gestures of "Come On", but Nick looked a bit pissed off all night, couldn't quite see Pete or Tongys reactions though.

I can't remember the exact set list (I'm not a trainspotter), but This Is Music (again a bit of a dirge but just about recognizable), Life's An Ocean (apparently Life is no longer a fuckin' Ocean, as it was last time I saw them!) Stormy Clouds (quality, but no Reprise), History (as awesome as ever, but no strings man!) and On Your Own (again truly awesome) were others played from A Northern Soul and the enthusiasm we were showing for these was not quite so forthcoming from other sections of the crowd, but I didn't give a shit what looks I got for clapping/cheering/grooving on down to these songs, that I know and love, from people who obviously had never heard them before.

Sadly, there was nothing from pre-ANS, not even Slide Away or Gravity Grave (which someone behind kept shouting for, but his demands fell on deaf ears). From UH, there was Sonnet, Catching The Butterfly, Neon Wilderness, Drugs Don't Work, The Rolling People (awesome, and there were a few of us ;-)), Space and Time, Lucky Man....... The greatest cheer of the evening, surprise, surprise, was for BSS, which was supposed to be played earlier in the set but was plagued by technical problems - "We were gonna play Bittersweet Symphony then, but as usual it fucked up!!". But when it was played, it was great, and had an interesting out-tro, which was unexpected as was Neon Wilderness - This for me is a pretty crap track on UH, but live it is barely recognizable, and proved to be one of the highlights, at least for me anyway.

Lucky Man was also very well received, and was quite stirring. Richard did Space and Time on his own with the acoustic, which was nice (© The Fast Show), but the band were definitely missed.

We knew it was the end of the evening, when Come On was played, which again was very loud, but the sound actually suited the vitality of this song, and quite a lot of the crowd actually woke up for this one - it was impossible not to move, the way Pete was pounding the drums and almost everyone went mental!!

When it was over at around 10:40 there was rapturous applause, and I don't think anyone wanted to leave, but we had to and it was a bit of a squeeze getting out, as everyone had to use the one main exit - for some reason the fire exits around the sides of the Academy were not to be used.

So there we have it - only an hour and a half, but not a bad gig, not by any means, but it could have been oh so much better...

The Rolling People?

The Rolling People My Arse!!!! *******

Don't get me wrong here fellow rollers - it's just that there weren't enough rollers there to make it happen!

Brixton x2 (contrasting emotions)

WELL, i've read the two separate posts that deal with the two different nights and to the most part i have to agree. sat saw the best contemporary band at their most majestic rocking and rolling the crowd sound and vision in beautiful harmony. However fri was different, i think richard summed it up when introducing bitter sweet symphony (which had to be aborted once)"it's fucking us up tonight". the sound was pretty poor, loud and harsh to begin with northern soul /this is music near unrecognizable. yet as the gig wore on your ears became attuned to the situation and sounds such as lucky man seemed to be coming off better. perhaps rich's statement "we're not showbiz" was aimed at the massing celebs i saw on friday as both zoe ball and half the seahorses (who are three musical half wits and a misguided individual...i am apologizing now for shouting in the lead singers face though he seemed to see the funny side to my unfavourable comparison of his band to my favourite on show) who were conspicuously absent on the second night .

Sat was magnificent and triumphant as everything came off and the sound was note perfect. a fluffed catching the butterfly ("we're gonna start with a nice easy one") became startling. Who here who went to both noticed any difference in the technical aspects of the performance...(mock audience participation)...yep that's it pete changed his right hand part from a swing orientated rhythm to straight fours.Easier to pull off, beautiful.

those who went on fri may have thought that the screen and lighting was under employed, well compared to sat it was . the lights were all over the shop moving with the times. the fact that the played the reprise with stormy clouds led to more showing of the sorrowful young man running away with his kite. history was great on both nights despite what anybody may say. come on / lucky man sat lovely.

i had tickets for the balcony both nights and sat their all through fri and half of sat(i went down for the encore COME ON!!!). those who may have been sitting near the middle near the front on fri may have seen a prat in a kappa top (it may have been you i don't know),but what was he doing . he kept standing up holding a mock microphone to his mouth bouncing up and down, oh we behind him did have some fun. sat saw much more participation as rich beckoned to us punching his fists. yet there were so many forty+ round where i was sitting (no offence those on the list but really you could at least nod your head or something). A lot fewer people went down on sat as well (though i don't know why) and the toilets upstairs were not flooded.

great fun was had at both nights (stop whining its a better than going to the pub). I put the differing quality down to the human aspect of the band. every one has good days and bad days , not every day can be a triumph.

Manchester review 14/01/98

The first thing that hit me as I walked into the bar at The Apollo last night was the complete diversity of the people that were there. At the august comeback gigs it was mostly a trendy indie type crowd or people 'in the know', so last night was a complete shock. Everyone and anyone was there...so we take our seats, listen to a few of wayne's tunes and wait...the lights go down, the screen at the back shows 12,11,10 counting down just like the old films used to. One by one The Verve appear and I'm waiting for everyone to jump out of their seats and hail our heroes..but no-one moves. *BOOM BOOM* It's 'The Rolling People', maybe everyone will get up now that one of the best songs from UH is starting up, but no...no-one moves. So what I initially thought would be a good idea (get a seat, have a good view, my own space to dance without knobheads bumping into me every other second) is turning into a nightmare...I'm left bobbing in my seat while the vast majority around me are not even moving! Not even tapping their feet, or nodding their heads to the beat...'This is THE VERVE, you're not watching a film!!' I'm thinking...(so the advice to anyone going to Brixton who has a seat - unless the crowd is vastly different, blag your way into the stading bit - just say you've lost your ticket to the bloke by the door, its worked before for me at the academy)...

So anyway, back to the gig...'Catching the Butterfy' was next and then an ear defeaning, mad 'This is Music'...then the suprise of the night...the next song started and I was trying to work out what it was, thinking maybe it was a new song but then "In a Neon Wilderness..." and it was excellent...really eary and a bit scary...a film was shown on the screen...looked like the streets of New York at night...excellent..then without a break, straight into 'Weeping Willow', another rasper.

I may be mixing up the order from now on, but 'Sonnet' was definitley played then 'The Drugs...' to great applause, and everyone was singing along. Then 'A Northern Soul' and according to Richard "another lost gem" 'History'. Then 'A Man Called Sun' - someone threw a pair of flip flops onto the stage at this point, so Richard put them on saying that they were a perfect fit! A great version of 'Life's an Ocean' followed with Nick in full effect. Then another highlight for me - a brilliant, different, extended version of 'Bittersweet Symphony'. Unlike previous gigs, the strings were right up front (I think this is due to them being on tape whereas Tong played them before...he just plays the background stuff (The Stones bit to anyone who's heard the sample)). The song seemed to end then start up again and I couldn't help thinking that this version is gonna slay the States when they tour there next.

Then 'Stormy Clouds', I think, to close the set - no 'Reprise' though.

For the encore, Richard came on alone and did a great 'Space and Time' - his guitar playing was excellent, and he was smiling all the way through as he sang "Oh can you just tell me it's alright" and the whole place sang back "It's alright!!"...then the others came back on for 'On Your Own' and 'Lucky Man'. Then the shows closer, 'Come On'...it was so loud, the band seemed to lose the song amidst the noise, then what sounded like the last few bars of the song, turned out to be a prelude to this mad jam at the end...it was almost like a reprise of 'Come On'...by this point Richard was on the drum riser (it looked as though he was hitting the symbals with his chin!)...then loads of screams of 'Come On!' and it was over. (Nick could barely bring himslef to raise his arm at the end in salute, before he sneeked off around the back - not sure if he enjoyed it...).

It was a good gig, some of the songs were amazing..but sitting down added nothing to it...sometimes it was almost like watching someone else's party...everyone down in the standing bit going mad...but it was never going to have the same excitement as the comeback gigs anyway. I'll be standing at Brixton on Friday...

Setlist from what I can remember:

R People
Catching the B
This is Music
Neon W
Weeping W
Sonnet
DDW
ANS
History
Man called Sun
Life's an O
BSS
Stormy Clouds
--------------
Space + Time
On your Own
Lucky Man
Come on + jam

and still no 'Gravity Grave!

Cheers for staying with me!

Neil.