The Verve were an English rock band formed in 1989 in Wigan by lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft, guitarist Nick McCabe, bass guitarist Simon Jones and drummer Peter Salisbury. The guitarist and keyboard player Simon Tong later became a member. Beginning with a psychedelic sound indebted to shoegazing and space rock, by the mid-1990s the band had released several EPs and three albums. It also endured name and line-up changes, breakups, health problems, drug abuse and various lawsuits. Filter referred to them as "one of the tightest knit, yet ultimately volatile bands in history". The band's commercial breakthrough was the 1997 album Urban Hymns, one of the best-selling albums in UK Chart history, and the single "Bitter Sweet Symphony", which became a worldwide hit. In 1998, the band won two Brit Awards-winning Best British Group, appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in March, and in February 1999, "Bitter Sweet Symphony" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song.

Soon after this commercial peak, The Verve broke up in April 1999, citing internal conflicts. During an eight year split, Ashcroft dismissed talk of a reunion, saying: "You're more likely to get all four Beatles on stage." The band's original line-up reunited in June 2007, embarking on a tour later that year and releasing the album Forth in August 2008. In 2009, the band broke up for the third time.