Verve Break Up... Again

This is probably the least surprising news ever, but The Verve have broken up for the third time and guitarist Nick McCabe and bassist Simon Jones have started a new band, The Black Ships.

Guitarist Nick McCabe said in April that the band are on a "holiday" which shows "no sign" of ending anytime soon.

"I've been hesitant to breach Official Secrets-style policy with any missives from the, well, from any front, basically," he wrote on the band's MySpace page in April, according to The Guardian. (The post has since been removed.) "[But] don't ask me anything about the big V. Just let me enjoy my non-alcoholic Pina Colada."

A source also told Britain's Daily Mirror tabloid Jones and McCabe have not spoken to frontman Richard Ashcroft since last year's V festivals in England.

"As far as Nick and Simon are concerned The Verve no longer exists," the source said. "They think Richard was just using the reunion as a vehicle to get his solo career on track."

But McCabe's behaviour was also reportedly a concern.

"Their management called Simon and Nick in for a crisis meeting in September," the source told the Daily Mirror. "They were told that Richard refused to tour or work with them again as long as Nick continued to drink. He quickly cleaned up his act."

We're just glad to hear there wasn't another punch-up this time around.

Ashcroft first broke up The Verve after the release of 1995's A Northern Soul. He later began playing with Jones and drummer Peter Salisbury, but McCabe did not rejoin the reunited Verve until Ashcroft asked him to in 1997.

A year later, McCabe and Ashcroft got into a fight after a show which left McCabe with a broken hand and Ashcroft with a broken jaw. McCabe then left the band, which continued on without him until 1999.

The Verve announced they were reuniting in 2007 and released an album, Forth, last year.