The Verve finally call it a day?

The Mirror have reported this morning:

They’ve had more break-ups than Britney Spears has had breakdowns, but I can exclusively reveal that The Verve have now well and truly split.

The legendary indie band have been blighted by rows since forming in 1990. It turns out this time band members Nick McCabe and Simon Jones have not spoken to lead singer Richard Ashcroft since their gig at V Festival last August, despite trying on numerous occasions to hold out an olive branch.

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

The Britpop boys announced a reunion in June 2007 and went on a sold-out tour, releasing number one album Forth last summer.

But the old tensions soon came back, centered on guitarist Nick’s wild partying.

“Their management called Simon and Nick in for a crisis meeting in September. 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.”

But it’s not as if Simon and Nick are sitting on their bums waiting for the next reunion – they’ve already started up their own band, apparently called The Black Ships.

Nick writes on his MySpace page: “The Verve seems to be on holiday and shows no sign of not being on holiday. I’ve been hesitant to breach Official Secrets-style policy with any missives from the, well, from any front, basically. Don’t ask me anything about the big V. Just let me enjoy my non-alcoholic Piña Colada.”

Simon told fans: “The Black Ships are coming!”

My mole says: “There have been too many problems to put behind them. If Richard came back with cap in hand they’d tell him to f*** off.”

Surely if those feuding Gallaghers can play nice, why not The Verve?