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Nicholas John McCabe (born 14 July 1971) is an English musician, best known as being the lead guitarist of the rock group the Verve.
When asked what it was that inspired him to become a guitarist, he answered: "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." He attended Haydock High School, and later met Richard Ashcroft at Winstanley College. Ashcroft described McCabe's guitar playing as sounding like "a whole other universe"; the two briefly played in a band whilst at college. After leaving college, McCabe began a career as a quantity surveyor. He later recalled: "I hated it. I used to sit there all day scribbling in my pad thinking about guitar sounds." He gave this up to be part of the Verve along with Ashcroft, Simon Jones and Peter Salisbury. During the early days of the band McCabe suffered from impostor syndrome and was discouraged from pursuing a career in music by many people in his social circle.
In early 2007, McCabe made peace with Ashcroft, and the band reunited. A new album, Forth, was released in 2008. However, the band broke up again in 2009.
In 2009 McCabe founded a new band called The Black Ships with Jones, drummer Mig Schillace, and electric violinist Davide Rossi. The Black Ships released their first EP, "Kurofune", in May 2011, and performed their debut gig at Kings College Student Union on 2 June 2011 before changing their name to Black Submarine in mid-2012.
In November 2019 McCabe began releasing solo work to Bandcamp, initially as a side project called Litter and Leaves with Black Submarine member Amelia Tucker and then under his own name. In June 2022 he released the EP "Home Is Where the Heart Is", a collaboration with Verve drummer Peter Salisbury and featuring Tucker. McCabe has also written a significant amount electronic music over the years which remains unreleased.
McCabe has cited artists such as Joy Division, John Martyn, Vini Reilly and Eddie Hazel as inspirations. In the early 1980s McCabe became fond of Detroit techno and Autechre, which along with other electronic music came to influence his style of guitar playing. He has also expressed his fondness of synthesizers and explained his 'psychedelic' sound as trying to make a guitar sound like a synthesizer by using effects pedals and valve amps.
Producer Owen Morris referred to McCabe as "without a shadow of a doubt the most gifted musician I've ever worked with", but also claimed he was "a complete and utter nightmare" to work with, saying "He'll never play the same thing twice. Now you can ask Noel Gallagher to play the same guitar line a hundred times, and as long as there's a good reason for him doing it, he'll do it. But with Nick you've got no chance. But that's what he does, y'know?"
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