Aragon Ballroom Chicago, Il, US (Jul/28/1998)
Notes: Supported by DJ Wayne

From: Fawaz Azeem

Verve Fans,

I went to last nights show in Chicago and I have to say that I missed Nick, there was something missing in their sound, the guitar flourishes that Nick adds to many song in UH just weren't filled up by BJ Cole, Richard played guitar in most songs to fill up the sound and he did an admirable job, but it just wasn't enough. After saying all this, I still did enjoy the show, but when I saw them in Nov, with Nick it was much much better.

We got to the Aragon Ballroom about 4:30 an tried to get in, to see if we could get in a hear the soundcheck since we knew there Verve were in there because they had their vans parked on the side of the building. But we didn't get in, so we decided to just stand in the quickly forming line. Some promotions people were handing out free posters, my cousin got one of the Verve in a field, a picture taken from the inside of the UH CD booklet, and I got a cool as hell foil poster with the picture from UH CD, you know the one with Richard in the middle and the rest of the band forming a V behind him.

At about 6:00 or so they let us in, the stage was set up for the Verve so I knew they would be no opening band. My wife and I got our seats in the balcony and my younger cousin took his spot in front of the stage. We had a nice view of DJ Wayne as he started to spin some records, songs I remember, 'Come Together' and 'Burning Wheel' by Primal Scream, something from the Happy Mondays, some Funk, some Rolling Stones, the song Sly and the Family Stone sing 'I wanna thank you for letting be myself, again' a song that goes ' Thanks to the people', 'She bangs the drums' by the Stone Roses, (excited as hell to hear it), and other stuff that I hadn't heard before. The show must have sold all 4,500 tickets because it looked very full from my vantige point.

Thee Verve took a long time coming on, they came on about 8:15 after the ticket had said 7:30. Richard was wearing his 'Who the fuck is Mick Jagger' Kieth Richards t-shirt, a Reni hat, and sunglasses. I was thinking more in the line of 'Where the Fuck is Nick Mcabe. I was totally expecting Rolling People, but they started off with 'Space and Time' with Richard playing guitar. Simon Jones stood right up at the front of the stage with Richard, he looked very tanned. Richard was really belting it out, but right away I noticed the abscence of Nick in the sound. I was totally excited to see how the band sounded with BJ Cole, but he just didn't do it for me. They did an electified version of Sonnet with some cool lights draping the background. Then they did 'This Time' starting off with some cool dance beats.. For Weeping Willow they lowered some projection screens to the sides of the stage and one behind the band, this added some cool effects. Good version of 'weeping willow', Richard had taken off his Reni hat by now that his hair had molded to the shape of it rather well. The next two songs were done rather well, they all sounded different but still good.

By this time, I was asking myself, are they going to play just the new album, but then I heard those sweet history strings. Good version of a great song, the lyrics are so powerful.

Bitter Sweet Symphony was a belter, Richard started by playing it on guitar, but I think he thought that he'd rather just groove to it so he laid his guitar down behind him and started dancing. Great version, sounded alot like the Haigh Hall one, at the ending jam sess Richard picked up his guitar once again and started fidling with some knobs. Afterwards the band thanked the audience and walked off.

After about 5 minutes Ricahrd came back, and said this is written for my wife and said he was going to play 'See you in the next one' damn, me and my wife were surpirsed as hell, she loves the song and I was happy as hell to hear something from ASIH, (I love the song too) but did richard even know Kate Spiritualized back when he wrote it? Next the band joined him and we were treated to On Your Own. and a kind of different version of Come On, Richard didn't sing a lot of the lyrics, he missed the 'Come on, let the spirit inside you, don't wait to be found, come along to our sound' he did add the ' I wanna thank you for letting me be myself, again' The whole song was mostly done without lyrics, but had a great jam session at the end with great freakout lighting.

Richard did more talking then when I saw them before, but to honest with you I couldn't understard most of it.

So no Rolling People, no new songs, and only 3 old ones. Missed Nick a hell of a lot, but all in all a decent show.

Some nice merchandise, a $8 summer tour program, 4 different reguar verve shirts @$25 each, 2 baby doll shirts, 2 posters@ $5 each, and the 'Music Saves' sticker. After the show they were handing out foil stickers similar to the foil poster I got. so that was nice. the SET LIST in full:

Space and Time
Sonnet
This Time
Weeping Willow
The Drugs Don't Work
Lucky Man
History
One Day
Velvet Morning Bitter Sweet Symphony
Encore:
See You in the Next One (Have a Good Time)
On Your Own
Come On.

 

From: NME

THE VERVE are set to unveil a radically different sound at tonight's opening date of their US tour.

Central to the new sound is BJ Cole, the veteran pedal-steel guitar player the band have drafted in to replace guitarist Nick McCabe after he absented himself from all Verve live dates.

Just before leaving London for Chicago with the rest of The Verve, BJ Cole told NME that the versions of 'Bitter Sweet Symphony', 'The Drugs Don't Work' and 'Sonnet' he's rehearsed with the band bear little relation to the original studio versions recorded with McCabe.

"When I went into the rehearsal I had no idea that I was replacing somebody," Cole said. "So I just did what I do. Now that I know I'm replacing Nick, I've listened to the record more intensely in terms of his parts but I hope it won't change my original ideas."

Cole put his induction into the touring band down to "a hunch on Richard Ashcroft's part". "It's not the most obvious way of replacing Nick but they seemed to like it. I was communicating primarily with Richard and Simon (Tong) during the rehearsals. They were very communicative and enthusiastic about what I was bringing to the band."

Cole rehearsed for two days with the band in London and in Chicago last weekend prior to The Verve opening their US tour at the Aragon Ballroom tonight (Tuesday, July 28). Cole has previously played on albums by Spiritualized, Elton John and Beck and is currently recording an album with Luke Vibert.

He said he actually had no idea that McCabe had pulled out of the band's live dates when he received a call from The Verve's management asking him to rehearse with them.

"I went into the rehearsal without any general knowledge of what had gone on in the band. But I didn't get a feeling that they are gonna pack up after this tour. In fact, they wrote a song while we were rehearsing. I don't think it has a title, but it's quite heavy, it's quite hard."

Cole said that he will be playing on about three-quarters of the band's set. He says together they've rehearsed versions of 'Bitter Sweet Symphony', 'Space And Time', 'The Drugs Don't Work', 'Sonnet', 'Lucky Man', 'One Day' and 'Velvet Morning'. "Obviously, they're all anthemic and they all really suit the steel guitar," he said. "I know it's a lateral approach but when you think about it it does make sense."

Cole said Richard Ashcroft didn't discuss McCabe's situation with him. "Now I know why. He just doesn't know. My feeling is if I can contribute something that gives them new hope in the sound without Nick then obviously they're going to have an ongoing view about the band. It seems to all stem from Richard saying the band doesn't exist without Nick. Now it's one of those things where somebody says something apocryphal like that then all of a sudden it becomes a reality. I don't know if he's actually analysed whether that is true. Their mood was very positive."

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