Moving text on multibar rest

[Peter Clarke]

Dear list,
I have a text on a multibar rest, like this:    R1*8^"Verse 1"
The text appears centred on the rest.  But I would like it 
aligned to the left, to indicate that it refers to the 
beginning of the rest.  I've tried the following, but they 
didn't make any difference:

R1*8^\markup { \hspace #-5 "Verse 1" }

\once \override TextScript #'extra-offset = #'( -5.0 . 0.0 )
R1*8^\markup { "Verse 1" }

Any ideas why these didn't work, and how can I do it?

Peter C