Beginning with a psychedelic, shoegaze sound with their debut LP, A Storm in Heaven, by 1997 the band had released three EPs and three albums.

[4] It features the hit singles "Bitter Sweet Symphony", "The Drugs Don't Work", "Sonnet" and "Lucky Man".

[8] According to Billboard magazine, "the group's rise was the culmination of a long, arduous journey that began at the dawn of the decade and went on to encompass a major breakup, multiple lawsuits, and an extensive diet of narcotics".

"[8] The band's original line-up reunited in 2007, embarking on a tour later that year and releasing the album Forth in 2008, which spawned the hit single "Love Is Noise".

[12] Fronted by Ashcroft, the band caused a buzz in early 1991 for their ability to captivate audiences with their musical textures and avant-garde sensibilities.

The group were signed by Hut Records in 1991[13] and their first studio releases in 1992, "All in the Mind", "She's a Superstar", and "Gravity Grave" (along with the December 1992 EP Verve) saw the band become a critical success, making an impression with freeform guitar work by McCabe and unpredictable vocals by Ashcroft.

[15] In 1994, the band released the album No Come Down, a compilation of B-sides plus a live version of "Gravity Grave" performed at Glastonbury Festival in 1993.

The tour became notorious for the events of 11 July – Ashcroft was hospitalised for dehydration after a massive session of drinking[17] and Salisbury was arrested for destroying a hotel room in Kansas in a drug-fuelled delirium.

"[20] The Verve's physical and mental turmoil continued into the chaotic recording sessions of their second album, 1995's A Northern Soul, produced by Owen Morris.

The band departed from the experimental psychedelic sounds of A Storm in Heaven and focused more on conventional alternative rock, with Ashcroft's vocals taking a more prominent role in the songs, although reminiscent of some of the early work.

Around this period, Oasis guitarist and friend of Ashcroft Noel Gallagher dedicated the song "Cast No Shadow" on the album (What's the Story) Morning Glory?

[22] The band then chose Simon Tong, a school friend credited with originally teaching Ashcroft and Jones to play guitar.

The band made no live appearances in 1996, apart from a solo performance from Ashcroft supporting Oasis in New York;[23] the year was spent playing and recording songs for a new album.

[25] The music video, which received heavy rotation on MTV, sees Ashcroft walking down a busy London pavement, oblivious to what is going on around and refusing to change his stride or direction.

[5] The band's singles were given extensive airplay on US rock stations and Ashcroft, and bandmates, appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in March 1998.

[33] On 24 May 1998, The Verve played a homecoming concert in front of 33,000 fans in the grounds of Haigh Hall & Country Park, Aspull, supported by Beck and John Martyn.

The band then played gigs in mainland Europe, but, on 7 June, a post-show fight at Düsseldorf-Philipshalle left McCabe with a broken hand and Ashcroft with a sore jaw.

After this, McCabe decided he could not tolerate the pressures of life on the road any longer and pulled out of the tour, leaving the band's future in jeopardy, with rumours of a split circulating in the press.

The band continued with session musician B. J. Cole replacing McCabe, whose guitar work was also sampled and triggered on stage.

The band played another American tour, which was riddled with problems as venues were downsized[34] and support act Massive Attack dropped out.

[35] The band returned to England for two headline performances at V Festival, which received poor reviews; NME wrote that "where songs used to spiral upwards and outwards, they now simply fizzle tamely".

"[38] During his solo career, Ashcroft expressed regret at having asked McCabe to return for the album instead of releasing it under his own name, saying: "Imagine being the guy that's written an album on his own, bottles it near the end, feels like there's unfinished business, rings Nick McCabe up who adds some guitars, puts it out as the Verve and the same problems arise again.

Paradoxically, McCabe would state years later on his Twitter account, that he intended to include the electric violinist and arranger Davide Rossi as a new member of the group.

They played at most of the biggest summer festivals and a few headline shows all over North America, Europe, Japan and the UK between April and August.

[52] They performed at the coveted Sunday night slot on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury on 29 June, closing the show with the new song.

In August 2009, The Guardian speculated that The Verve had broken up for a third time,[54] with Jones and McCabe no longer on speaking terms with Ashcroft as they felt he was using the reunion as a vehicle to get his solo career back on track.

[59] In April 2019, the Rolling Stones agreed to return the royalties and songwriting credits for "Bitter Sweet Symphony" to Ashcroft.

"[62] Jason Ankeny of AllMusic described the Verve's sound as "oceanic", saying that it fused the "exploratory vision of '60s-era psychedelia with the shimmering atmospherics of the shoegaze aesthetic".