The Verve was or were.....

There are going to be different views on this. I would say (without claiming any expertise) that an Englishman would say "were"--because band is a noun known to represent more than one person. For the same reason, an Englishman would say: "The staff were . . . " or "The government were . . ."--both staff and government are singular nouns, but represent more than one person.

Most (but not all) Americans would say "was" precisely because band is a singular noun. An argument can be made on behalf of such a view that one refers to all members of the category "band" in such a locution, and that therefore it should be treated as a singular noun. I consider the attempt to apply logic to language to be foolish. I would personally say "band were," while acknowledging that most of my fellow citizens would likely say "band was."

In British English it’s absolutely fine to treat most collective nouns as either singular or plural – you can say my husband’s family is very religious or my husband’s family are very religious. There is a choice. The Beatles was a group from Liverpool; the Beatles were four guys with mop-top hair.