Verve Don't Need Majors

If you're like me, the first thing that came to mind upon hearing The Verve's new single, "Love is Noise," is how much it sounds like a mash between them and Gorillaz. The resemblance isn't intended, but bassist Simon Jones freely professes his love for the cartoon band.

"Personally, I think they're amazing. I always like Damon [Albarn], seeing what a great performer he is, and how he gets lost in music when he's doing it. Brilliant. Fantastic... A lot of love, lot of love."

Jones was part of the Gorillaz live band for the Demon Days shows, a gig he got partly through his connection to Simon Tong, a multi-instrumentalist and former classmate who moonlights in both bands. Tong originally taught Jones and Verve vocalist Richard Ashcroft how to play guitar back when they were teenagers attending Winstanley College.

"Guitar was always my first instrument," Jones explains. "Si Tong, who plays with the Gorillaz, he taught me how to play guitar basically when we were at school.

"Guitar is my first instrument. I think you need to know how to play guitar to be able to play bass."

Though their relationship is as strong as ever, Tong wasn't invited to join the reformed Verve because, as Jones puts it, "It would have been too hard. It's hard enough for the four of us."

The Verve have a bad reputation for impermanence, justly earned by two major break-ups and frequent rumours of in-fighting amongst its members. They refused to sign a multi-album, long-term contract with their record label, but Jones insists it's because they don't need them.

"You don't need the majors anymore, you know? If you're in a position that we're in, where you've got a big audience anyway, that's the way forward for people: self-releasing. Because of Richard's contractual obligations, the other ways to do it weren't open to us this time.

"If we hadn't been under contract, we would've definitely done it on our own. There wouldn't have been a question about that."