Richard: "The essence of this band is creating something out of nothing, trying to be someone out of nowhere. I learned early. My father died when I was 11. He's worked 9 to 5 all his life and he suffered and got nowhere. And I immediately realized that this wasn't the life for me. I gained an awareness of how quickly people can leave you and of how little time you've got to enjoy yourself and show yourself off and have relationships with people. So I thought, fuck this, I'm gonna do something positive, I can do something great. I'm gonna make something of myself. But I wouldn't be here if he hadn't died. God knows what I would be done. "

Simon: "I take my hat off to him, 'cause I remember being a school boy at 14 and me asking him, 'What yer gonna do when school is over?', and he's like, 'I'm gonna be a singer in a band'. We couldn't even play a fucking note but he's always thought like that."

Richard: "My youth was strangulated in Wigan, that's the main reason why we started a band, to enjoy our youth whilst we've got it, seeing places whilst we're fit and whilst we're living."

Richard, Simon Jones and Peter were school mates at Upholland High School in Wigan. They met Nick at Winstanley College and formed Verve in 1990.

Richard: "I've been in bands since I was 17. Before Verve I played with Nick in the Butterfly Effect. I remember the first time I went onstage, at college. I freaked out completely and people were laughing and staring. I just thought, life's too short, I don't wanna hide myself in a shell. Here I am. Join me if you want and if you don't, go home. That's how I see it. Don't be afraid of enjoy yourself. I want a sense overload."

Simon: "The great thing is we've learned to play as a unit, instead of learning individually. I'll come in with these totally different styles and we sound like a band. One sound."

Richard: " If you come from London, you have got people coming down to see you from the word go and writing you off too early. Whereas we've had years to get it ready. And only when we were ready we did play a gig in London (at the King's Head, in Fulham, 3 August 1991). We played one gig and we were signed by Hut Records."

The early live reviews reported that Verve were a fantastic live experience. These said about mad gigs where the songs were prolonged for 25 minutes while Richard was hanging from the ceiling...