It is testimony to McCabe's art that there is always something new and interesting to hear.......
Play guitar magazine 1999.
Question posed to Nick in a '95 interview:
Who inspired you to pick up the guitar?
"That was me, I just got a guitar and
I could play a few things on it and I
liked messing with it, and I liked
making my own things up".
".....definately the best guitarist in the world. He's got the greatest taste. There's never anything that's distasteful in his playing".
Richard Ashcroft on Nick, July '95.
Considering Nick McCabe has had no formal
guitar coaching he's become a widely acclaimed guitarist.
Original Verve manager Dave Halliwell said Nick was
"always a step ahead as far as music went". He
has been accused by some of "overcooking"
songs, by creating great walls of sound or billowing
atmospheric guitar, with wah-wah, overdubbing, echo,
distortion and delay having featured heavily too; but I
reckon he's the most innovative, creative guitarist
around. He is incredibly talented and can almost make his
guitar talk. He is not concerned about being the perfect
guitarist in that he's not afraid to use gadgets to
achieve the sound he wants, but that's no cover up for
the fact that he is an excellent guitarist and can turn
out stellar "solo's". His trademark guitar was
stamped all over early Verve, and he was more influential
to The Verve in latter days than perhaps some gave him
credit for, his guitarwork, re-working of songs and
creativity undoubtedly added a great deal towards their
unique sound. He also has this amazing ability to tame
the feedback from his guitar, making the uncontrolled
sound do exactly what he wants, which when you think
about it must be some knack! Some fans of The Verve
complained that on stage he was unexciting, but Nick
isn't your typical "plank spanker", it's just
not in his nature to be showy and he would spend much of
his time tweaking equipment, looking at LED readouts and
changing pedals. And he'd never paint the same picture
live twice either, because he liked to improvise.
"To some extent, A Storm In Heaven is
his [Nicks'] record - the vocals are mixed low, and the
improvisatory nature of the material allows him to smear
his signature over almost every second. When Nick was
good, he was very good, but when he was bad he was very
bad."
