THE VERVE LAUNCHES ITS FIRST NORTH AMERICAN TOUR IN NEARLY 10 YEARS ON APRIL 23rd

The Verve will launch its first North American tour in nearly a decade with a special show at The Warfield in San Francisco, CA on April 23rd, warming up for its performance at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, CA on April 25th. The highly influential British quartet, which reformed in 2007, will preview material from its forthcoming album, the follow-up to 1997's Urban Hymns, which has sold eight million copies worldwide.

Tickets sold out in a mere 20 minutes last year when The Verve quietly announced its first U.K. shows since 1998. "The only reunion tour that could put Zeppelin in the shade kicks off and leaves us in no doubt: this is History," said NME, pronouncing the band's first two shows as "nothing short of astonishing." The Guardian praised the group's "stellar return," marveling at "the eerie chemistry that takes place when these four musicians play" while The Observer said: "The Verve are still as beautifully, uniquely energising as ever." The band followed its November dates with a December U.K. arena tour and will play numerous European and Japanese festivals this summer.

The Verve's live shows are as explosive as ever, running the gamut from material so new that Richard Ashcroft sings the lyrics from scraps of paper to long-lost, hazy B-sides ("Let The Damage Begin," "A Man Called Sun") and, of course, their extraordinary string of singles ("Bitter Sweet Symphony," "The Drugs Don't Work," "Lucky Man," "History," "This Is Music," to name but a few). When the band takes the stage, literally anything can happen as setlists are rearranged at will and songs blast off wherever they want to take them in a magnificent improvisation.

Comprised of Richard Ashcroft (lead vocals), Simon Jones (bass), Nick McCabe (guitar) and Peter Salisbury (drums), The Verve formed in 1990 while the four were at college in Wigan, an industrial town in Greater Manchester county. 2003's A Storm In Heaven, the band's full-length debut, introduced its adventurous "music of the spheres," which strove to break out of the stratosphere while simultaneously evoking life with a brutally down-to-earth, gritty realism. On each subsequent release - 1995's acclaimed A Northern Soul and 1997's landmark Urban Hymns - The Verve eclipsed itself, establishing a legacy that was acknowledged afresh last year when Q honored Urban Hymns with the magazine's first-ever "Classic Album" award.

Upcoming tour dates are as follows:

THE VERVE - 2008 NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES


4/23 San Francisco, CA The Warfield
4/25 Indio, CA Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival
4/26 Las Vegas, NV The Pearl Concert Theater at Palms Casino Resort
4/28 New York, NY WaMu Theatre at Madison Square Garden
4/29 New York, NY WaMu Theatre at Madison Square Garden
5/1 Toronto, ON Ricoh Coliseum