The Verve - Urban Hymns (2017 Box Set)

Awesome. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll be checking them out.

Absolutely agree with the British Guitarist lineage. McCabe is a giant along with JM, BB, and John Squire.

"It was weird being hit with Urban Hymns, investigating further and realizing it was less than the sum of its parts."------- This is an incredibly accurate description of how I also felt!

If I remember (and this is always up for debate) they did clear the BS sample with Oldham, but he claimed they used a longer sample than agreed too and the Verve did not have comparable amount of money to afford the lawyers to fight it.

I pretty much agree with everything you have said!

 

Is there no way to acquire Verve b-sides except to buy all the singles or the deluxe cd's? I'm talking ANS and UH era, not ASIH.

 

The BSides for ANS, Urban Hymns, and Forth were never collected except for their respective box-sets (ANS and UH).

 

What a shame. Do the box sets for ANS and UH do a good job of collecting all the non-lp goodies?

 

The ANS boxset is absolutely incredible. It collects all the BSides plus adds some unreleased gems.
The UH boxset collects all the BSides and adds some really great live tracks, unfortunately it does not include any unreleased tracks.
The unreleased UH tracks (which include 2 of their best tracks IMO) were leaked and most of us acquired them via this very thread.

 

Funny, I ALSO have A Northern Soul as my best album of the 90s and I've ranked over 200 90s releases.

I do love Rolling People too, and I saw that one in '95 on the Northern Soul tour in Toronto. They closed with a cracking version of The Sun, The Sea that went on for around 10 mins I believe.

I paid CDN$15 for this show - The Verve Setlist at The Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto

We got three songs that would end up on UH.

All Ways and King Riff 2 are my fave tracks from the unreleased demos which are available in lossless FLAC if anyone doesn't have them yet...King Riff 2 reminds me a little bit of Columbo from Forth which I think stands out as the only track from Forth that I think could have been on ANS also.

 

If you did not grab this already, it is now back to $8.74 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1909526533/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I didn't bond with ANS immediately as it was so different from their previous recordings, but over the years it has simply become my favorite album. The guitar sound on the title track is incredible.

Is that the show that they played Echo Bass as the outro to Superstar? I can't get to the link at my work pc.
I have a video of that show. Great show, wish the quality of recording was better.

'All Ways' and 'Wednesday Madness' are my two faves from the unreleased UH.

 

I was on shrooms at the time (hey, it was 23 years ago haha), so something as detailed as did they play Echo Bass I'd have to rewatch my VHS boot to find out. That boot was shot from the balcony of The Phoenix...not great quality and bounces around a lot, shame none of the shows from this era were professionally shot on film so we could get a kick ass 1080p Blu-ray with high res 5.1 mix.

I think almost the entirety of the show is on YT:



The Verve - The Sun, The Sea, Toronto 1995

 

That's the one!
I always incorrectly think that Echo was at the end of Superstar.

It really is a shame that the 95 tour wasn't documented very well.
It may the first year of them touring where there are no quality recordings.
IIRC I have some good quality shows from 92,93, and 94.

 

If I had a "dime" for every time I've heard that.

 

Lol.
I also should have mentioned 'Jalfrezi'. Sometimes that is my favorite unreleased UH track.

 

Kind of wish they'd done a separate BBC sessions release. Hell, even Ocean Colour Scene has one.

 

I like all those tracks, but it wouldn't have been a very successful album had they done that.

 

Can anyone comment on the mastering/sound quality of the vinyl version?

What format and resolution (e.g., mp3, WAV) are the downloads that come with the vinyl version?

 

I love this one too. Has anyone said who does the backing falsetto at the end? Sounds exactly like James Mudriczki, from the now defunct Puressence.

 

It's...okay. Sounds more or less the same as the original pressing I had. Having the b-sides and Haigh Hall gig on vinyl are really nice though.

 

I haven't read all that much about these tracks.
I did find this ( The Verve Live: Exclusive - The Verve’s lost tracks in review ) although is does nothing to answer your question.

 

Thanks - that's a great read. I haven't heard but a couple of those tracks and I'll definitely need to fix that.

 

I guess he's actually singing backing vox throughout the song to some degree. It looks like the bands toured together as early as '92, so it seems plausible.

The Verve at Powerhaus (London) on 25 Apr 1992 | Last.fm

 

New boot surfaced. Their first ever radio session from 1992.

Aside from the 1990 demo boot. I think this could be their earliest love recording

 

Here's a link to radio session - the link above is inactive. Verve - Hit The North Session (BBC Radio Five 05/02/92)

 

Hi, late to this thread. Has there ever been any official mention of why the great, unreleased demos were left off this set? I’ve seen the insinuation in the thread, just dont know if it has been confirmed. Any interviews alluding to future release plans? Because if not... *old man shaking his fist at nothing*

 

Because Ashcroft nixed it.

 

Is it possible that Ashcroft nixed the demos because he has some intention of possibly recycling some of the musical ideas from them in his solo career? He has a new solo album coming out in October that was just announced.