Ride (band)
Encyclopedia
Ride were a British alternative rock
band that formed in 1988 in Oxford
, England, consisting of Andy Bell
, Mark Gardener
, Laurence "Loz" Colbert, and Steve Queralt. The band were initially part of the "shoegazing
" scene. Following the break-up of the band in 1996, members moved on to various other projects, most notably Bell who became the bassist for Oasis
. In 2001, the band members were briefly reunited for a one-off performance for a television show. Their debut album Nowhere
has been named one of the greatest albums of the shoegazing
genre, Nowhere was voted number 74 on Pitchfork Media
's list of the Top 100 Albums of the 1990s, and closing track "Vapour Trail" was voted at number 145 on Pitchfork's Top 200 Tracks of the 90s. The album is also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
.
in Oxford, appearing in the school's musical theatre productions, and in October 1988, they moved to Banbury
to do Foundation Studies in Art and Design at North Oxfordshire College & The Oxfordshire School of Art & Design
. There they met Laurence Colbert. Steve Queralt, who also went to Cheney School
, was recruited from the local Our Price
record shop where he worked as a singles buyer (although Bell and Queralt had already played together in an obscure reggae/pop band called "Big Spiderback"). After considering various names, the band settled for 'Ride', with its evocation of travel, and after the Ride cymbal. Bell has cited a performance by The Smiths
as the inspiration for forming a band. The band formed in the summer of 1988 and played their first gig as Ride for the College's Christmas Party towards the end of the year. While still at Banbury, the band produced a demo tape, recorded in Queralt's bedroom and hallway, including the tracks "Chelsea Girl" and "Drive Blind". Queralt and his record shop boss and future Ride manager Dave Newton had started a live music night in Oxford called Local Support, and it was due to a cancellation by another band that Ride got their first proper gig at one of these nights. Jim Reid
of The Jesus and Mary Chain
heard a copy of the demo that was in the possession of the DJ
Gary Crowley
, and this led to interest from Mary Chain manager Alan McGee
. After the band supported The Soup Dragons
in 1989, McGee signed them to his Creation Records
label.
, Play
and Fall. All three EPs made it into the UK top 75
, with Play and Fall reaching the top 40. Rides top-75 placing was a first for Creation Records
. The first two EPs were released together as Smile
in the USA in July 1990 (and later released in the UK in 1992), while the Fall EP was incorporated into the CD
version of their first album, Nowhere
, released in October 1990. The band were often labelled as part of the "shoegazing" scene, but the band rejected this, Bell stating "my first reaction was like, this is another boring tag. These days...that's pretty much still my reaction". Gardener said of the band's influences "We liked the noisy bands of the time. When we were at art college we went to see My Bloody Valentine, House of Love
, Stone Roses
and Sonic Youth
. I think these all had a lot of influence on us in the early days as they were great gigs".
The band recorded two sessions for John Peel
's BBC Radio 1
show in 1990, and their popularity with the show's listeners saw them with three tracks in the Festive Fifty
that year, with "Dreams Burn Down" and "Like a Daydream" at numbers 3 and 4 respectively, and "Taste" at number 25.
Nowhere was a critical and commercial success, reaching #11 in the UK, and the media dubbed Ride "The brightest hope" for 1991. Demand for new material was high, and the band recorded another EP, Today Forever
, released in March 1991. The EP marked a change in direction for the group away from the noisier early style. Ride made their first international tour to Japan, Australia and France later on that year. Tickets for the performances in Japan sold out within minutes.
In February 1992 the band broke into the UK top 10 with "Leave Them All Behind", and the following month saw the release of the band's second album Going Blank Again
. The strain within the band was already apparent, Bell stating "By the time the second album came out we were touring too much. We were tired. We then took time off, but it was too much time off".
. A double weekend of gigs with The Charlatans that year ('Daytripper') kept them in the public eye amid wider disinterest with the shoegazing scene. Their third LP, Carnival of Light
, was released in June 1994, at a time when Britpop
was the focus of the music press. Produced by John Leckie
and partly engineered by Nigel Godrich
(future Radiohead
producer) except "How Does it Feel to Feel" by Black Crowes producer George Drakoulias
, and featuring a guest appearance on keyboards from Jon Lord
of Deep Purple
, the album was split between songwriters Gardener and Bell, with the former's songs on side one and the latter's on side two. Opening with the riff-heavy "Moonlight Medicine", tracks also include "From Time to Time", "Birdman" and a cover of The Creation's
"How Does It Feel to Feel", which was released as a single. The album was not well-received by critics, Bell explaining "These were good times but the music took second place. When we recorded the Carnival Of Light album we got indulgent". By the end of 1994 even the band themselves were critical of the album, referring to it within the group as "Carnival Of Shite".
Gardener and Bell had led the band away from their shoegazing roots to become more contemporary, hoping to change their style with the times. Queralt has remarked that the band had two future directions open to them, and they chose the wrong option. Gardener had become interested in dance music
, and wanted Ride to incorporate that into their style, while Bell disagreed. The track listing of Carnival of Light gives an indication of the tension that was mounting between the two guitarists, with the first half of the album being songs written by Mark Gardener and the last half of the album being songs written by Andy Bell - Andy Bell had refused to let his songs be interspersed with pieces written by Gardener. Years later Andy Bell explained "Imagine an argument where the way you win, is by saying 'I don't want my songs on the same side of the album as yours' and it ACTUALLY HAPPENS. We were allowed by the people around us to behave like total babies."
By the time Tarantula appeared, the band was beginning to self-destruct. Bell penned most of the songs while Gardener provided only one - the tension within the band leading to an inability to write meaningful musical pieces. Castle on the Hill, written by Bell, was a lament for the band's situation and contains references to Gardener's self imposed exile from the group. Gardener walked out during the album's mixing sessions, and the band announced their break-up shortly before its release in March 1996. The album was released and remained on sale for one week before being withdrawn. Critics and fans alike had panned the album (although the first single off the album, "Black Nite Crash", was awarded "single of the week" by weekly music magazine Melody Maker
). The album was described by Allmusic as "an abomination of '70s/Lenny Kravitz
clichés, full of third- and fourth-rate tunes and, ultimately, bad blood", going on to say "the words are just plain awful throughout, not even worth printing". Rolling Stone
were more complimentary, stating "the album is saved from maudlin self-obsession because it's rawer and rocks harder than anything else Ride have recorded".
Since the break-up, both Bell and Gardener have been more reflective about the group's disintegration, with Bell especially admitting his own part in the process.
" but this project was permanently dissolved when he was asked to play bass for Oasis
after having turned down the opportunity to join Gay Dad
. He now lives in Stockholm
. Mark Gardener and Laurence Colbert joined with Sam Williams to form The Animalhouse. As BMG signings, they were successful in Japan. The band was, however, short lived and split in 2002. Gardener has also toured as a solo artist, while Colbert, Gardener and Bell have played as in Bob Dylan
tribute band called The Zimmermen. Queralt appears to have retired from professional music. He spent the years following the break-up working in Oxford, playing 5-a-side football, and raising a family. He is now living in Hammersmith, London.
. The footage was used for the show Pioneers, a documentary on Sonic Youth
, and featured a twenty minute improvised jam. The recording of this song, plus two short sound checks, were released in 2002 as Coming up for Air. The interest in this limited release CD caused the band to consider future releases. In late 2002, Ride released a 3CD box set which is made up of OX4_ The Best of Ride, Firing Blanks (Unreleased tracks) and Live_Reading Festival 1992. In 2003 they released Waves, a collection of tracks from five radio sessions recorded for the BBC
.
Mark Gardener is also now pursuing a solo career. From 2003 to 2005, Mark toured extensively, sometimes with the help of Oxford friends Goldrush
, in order to personally fund a full length studio album. During the tour, a three-track EP with Goldrush (Falling Out Into the Night) and a live album (the acoustic solo Live @ the Knitting Factory, New York City) were released. He also spent part of 2005 working with the French duo rinôçérôse
. In late 2005, Mark's album These Beautiful Ghosts was released in North America on United For Opportunity.
Any thoughts of permanently re-forming the band, however, have been explicitly denied by Bell, with the reasoning that it would not live up to expectations. However, the members, Bell included, have stated that they would not mind working with each other again. Since, Bell and Colbert made an appearance at one of Gardener's early shows; Bell later shared two nights of acoustic sets with Gardener in November 2003 when Gardener made a tour stop in Bell's current home of Stockholm.
Colbert has also started playing in a band again - as guitarist and vocalist. He also plays drums in different projects, most notably with the reformed Jesus and Mary Chain
, Supergrass
(filling in for Danny Goffey), International Jetsetters with fellow Jesus and Mary Chain bandmate Mark Crozer
, and Damo Suzuki
(Can
). In 2005, Gardener was stuck in France and unable to play the Truck Festival; Colbert's band filled the gap in the bill. Colbert studied on the 1 Year Diploma in Drum Performance at London's Drumtech after the split of Ride.
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band that formed in 1988 in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, England, consisting of Andy Bell
Andy Bell (musician)
Andrew Piran "Andy" Bell is a Welsh musician, currently playing guitar in the band Beady Eye. He is a songwriter, singer, producer, DJ and former member of the early 1990s shoegazing band, Ride, and later, Hurricane #1...
, Mark Gardener
Mark Gardener
Mark Stephen Gardener is an English rock musician, and former singer and guitarist with the shoegazing band, Ride.-Ride:...
, Laurence "Loz" Colbert, and Steve Queralt. The band were initially part of the "shoegazing
Shoegazing
Shoegazing is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. It lasted there until the mid 1990s, with a critical zenith reached in 1990 and 1991...
" scene. Following the break-up of the band in 1996, members moved on to various other projects, most notably Bell who became the bassist for Oasis
Oasis (band)
Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Originally known as The Rain, the group was formed by Liam Gallagher , Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs , Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll , who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher...
. In 2001, the band members were briefly reunited for a one-off performance for a television show. Their debut album Nowhere
Nowhere (album)
Nowhere is the debut album by British shoegazing band Ride. The album was released by Creation Records on 15 October 1990. Allmusic has cited the album as one of the greatest albums of the shoegazing genre, second only to My Bloody Valentine's Loveless...
has been named one of the greatest albums of the shoegazing
Shoegazing
Shoegazing is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. It lasted there until the mid 1990s, with a critical zenith reached in 1990 and 1991...
genre, Nowhere was voted number 74 on Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
's list of the Top 100 Albums of the 1990s, and closing track "Vapour Trail" was voted at number 145 on Pitchfork's Top 200 Tracks of the 90s. The album is also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is a musical reference book edited by Robert Dimery, first published in 2005. The most recent edition consists of a list of albums released between 1955 and 2010, part of a series from Quintessence Editions Ltd...
.
1988-1989 Starting out
Mark Gardener and Andy Bell had been to Cheney SchoolCheney School
Cheney School is a secondary school located in Headington, Oxford, England.-Current:Cheney is currently one of the largest comprehensive schools in Oxford, serving the Headington and East Oxford area. It is the destination for students from numerous primary schools across the city...
in Oxford, appearing in the school's musical theatre productions, and in October 1988, they moved to Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
to do Foundation Studies in Art and Design at North Oxfordshire College & The Oxfordshire School of Art & Design
Oxford and Cherwell Valley College
Oxford & Cherwell Valley College is a multi-campus college in Oxfordshire, England. It was created in 2003 as "Oxford & Cherwell College" - a result of the merger between Oxford College of Further Education, North Oxfordshire College in Banbury and Rycotewood College in Thame...
. There they met Laurence Colbert. Steve Queralt, who also went to Cheney School
Cheney School
Cheney School is a secondary school located in Headington, Oxford, England.-Current:Cheney is currently one of the largest comprehensive schools in Oxford, serving the Headington and East Oxford area. It is the destination for students from numerous primary schools across the city...
, was recruited from the local Our Price
Our Price
Our Price was a chain of record stores in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland from 1972 until 2004. Originally founded in 1972 by Gary Nesbitt, Edward Stollins and Mike Isaacs, early stores were branded "The Tape Revolution" and concentrated on the then-new compact cassette format.The name...
record shop where he worked as a singles buyer (although Bell and Queralt had already played together in an obscure reggae/pop band called "Big Spiderback"). After considering various names, the band settled for 'Ride', with its evocation of travel, and after the Ride cymbal. Bell has cited a performance by The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...
as the inspiration for forming a band. The band formed in the summer of 1988 and played their first gig as Ride for the College's Christmas Party towards the end of the year. While still at Banbury, the band produced a demo tape, recorded in Queralt's bedroom and hallway, including the tracks "Chelsea Girl" and "Drive Blind". Queralt and his record shop boss and future Ride manager Dave Newton had started a live music night in Oxford called Local Support, and it was due to a cancellation by another band that Ride got their first proper gig at one of these nights. Jim Reid
Jim Reid
Jim Reid is the lead singer for the alternative rock band The Jesus and Mary Chain, which he formed with his elder brother and guitarist William Reid -The Jesus and Mary Chain:...
of The Jesus and Mary Chain
The Jesus and Mary Chain
The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride, Glasgow in 1983. The band revolves around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid...
heard a copy of the demo that was in the possession of the DJ
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
Gary Crowley
Gary Crowley
Gary Crowley is an English broadcaster and DJ.When he was at school in the late Seventies Crowley started a punk fanzine titled The Modern World, interviewing some of the most important bands of the day including the Sex Pistols, the Clash and the Jam.After leaving school he took up a junior...
, and this led to interest from Mary Chain manager Alan McGee
Alan McGee
Alan McGee has been a record label owner, musician, manager, and music blogger for The Guardian.McGee is best-known for co-forming and running the independent Creation Records label from 1983–1999, and then Poptones from 1999-2007...
. After the band supported The Soup Dragons
The Soup Dragons
The Soup Dragons were a Scottish alternative rock band of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Named after a character in the 1970s children's television show Clangers, the group is best known for its cover of the Rolling Stones' song "I'm Free."-History:...
in 1989, McGee signed them to his Creation Records
Creation Records
Creation Records was a British independent record label headed by Alan McGee. Along with Dick Green and Joe Foster, McGee founded Creation in 1983. The label lasted until its demise in 1999. The name came from the 1960s band The Creation , whom McGee greatly admired. McGee, Green and Foster were...
label.
1989-1993 Early Creation years
Ride released three EPs between January and September 1990, entitled RideRide (EP)
Ride is an extended player by British band Ride. Their first official release, the EP came out in 1990 on the Creation Records label.The EP was combined with its follow-up Play to form the Smile mini-album for the US market in July, 1990...
, Play
Play (EP)
Play is the second extended player by British band Ride.The EP was combined with its predecessor Ride to form the Smile mini-album for the US market in July, 1990...
and Fall. All three EPs made it into the UK top 75
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
, with Play and Fall reaching the top 40. Rides top-75 placing was a first for Creation Records
Creation Records
Creation Records was a British independent record label headed by Alan McGee. Along with Dick Green and Joe Foster, McGee founded Creation in 1983. The label lasted until its demise in 1999. The name came from the 1960s band The Creation , whom McGee greatly admired. McGee, Green and Foster were...
. The first two EPs were released together as Smile
Smile (Ride album)
Smile is an album by British shoegazing band Ride. It is a compilation of Ride's first two EPs, Ride and Play, both of which were originally released in the first half of 1990. The album was first released by Sire Records, in July, 1990, for the North American market, in lieu of the two original...
in the USA in July 1990 (and later released in the UK in 1992), while the Fall EP was incorporated into the CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
version of their first album, Nowhere
Nowhere (album)
Nowhere is the debut album by British shoegazing band Ride. The album was released by Creation Records on 15 October 1990. Allmusic has cited the album as one of the greatest albums of the shoegazing genre, second only to My Bloody Valentine's Loveless...
, released in October 1990. The band were often labelled as part of the "shoegazing" scene, but the band rejected this, Bell stating "my first reaction was like, this is another boring tag. These days...that's pretty much still my reaction". Gardener said of the band's influences "We liked the noisy bands of the time. When we were at art college we went to see My Bloody Valentine, House of Love
The House of Love
The House of Love is an English alternative rock band. Formed in 1986, the band rose to prominence in the UK as a leading indie rock band in 1988 and split up in 1993, eventually reforming a decade later in 2003. The band is best known for its detailed psychedelic guitar sound and for the...
, Stone Roses
The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses are an English alternative rock band formed in Manchester in 1983. They were one of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement that was active during the late 1980s and early 1990s...
and Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
. I think these all had a lot of influence on us in the early days as they were great gigs".
The band recorded two sessions for John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
's BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
show in 1990, and their popularity with the show's listeners saw them with three tracks in the Festive Fifty
Festive Fifty
The Festive Fifty was originally an annual list of the year's fifty best songs compiled at the end of the year and voted for by listeners to John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show...
that year, with "Dreams Burn Down" and "Like a Daydream" at numbers 3 and 4 respectively, and "Taste" at number 25.
Nowhere was a critical and commercial success, reaching #11 in the UK, and the media dubbed Ride "The brightest hope" for 1991. Demand for new material was high, and the band recorded another EP, Today Forever
Today Forever
Today Forever is an EP by British band Ride, released in March 1991.The first three songs also appeared in the US on the "Vapour Trail" CD-single. All four songs from the EP were added to the Nowhere album as bonus tracks on its re-release in 2001....
, released in March 1991. The EP marked a change in direction for the group away from the noisier early style. Ride made their first international tour to Japan, Australia and France later on that year. Tickets for the performances in Japan sold out within minutes.
In February 1992 the band broke into the UK top 10 with "Leave Them All Behind", and the following month saw the release of the band's second album Going Blank Again
Going Blank Again
Going Blank Again is the second studio album by British alternative rock band Ride, released in March 1992 on Creation Records. It was produced by Alan Moulder, and peaked at #5 in the UK Albums Chart...
. The strain within the band was already apparent, Bell stating "By the time the second album came out we were touring too much. We were tired. We then took time off, but it was too much time off".
1994-96 Change in musical direction
Ride were able to see out 1993 riding on the success of Going Blank Again and a third LP was keenly anticipated, demonstrated by regular music press features which provided some allusion to influences like Neil YoungNeil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
. A double weekend of gigs with The Charlatans that year ('Daytripper') kept them in the public eye amid wider disinterest with the shoegazing scene. Their third LP, Carnival of Light
Carnival of Light (album)
Carnival of Light is the third studio album by British alternative rock band Ride, released in June 1994 via Creation Records. "How Does It Feel to Feel?" is a cover of a song by The Creation...
, was released in June 1994, at a time when Britpop
Britpop
Britpop is a subgenre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom. Britpop emerged from the British independent music scene of the early 1990s and was characterised by bands influenced by British guitar pop music of the 1960s and 1970s...
was the focus of the music press. Produced by John Leckie
John Leckie
John Leckie is a British music producer, notable for producing many high-profile albums such as The Stone Roses's debut and Radiohead's The Bends...
and partly engineered by Nigel Godrich
Nigel Godrich
Nigel Godrich, , is a recording engineer, record producer and musician. He is best known for his work with the English rock band Radiohead and is sometimes referred to as the "sixth member" of the band...
(future Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
producer) except "How Does it Feel to Feel" by Black Crowes producer George Drakoulias
George Drakoulias
George Drakoulias is a Greek-American music producer and A&R executive at the American Recordings label. He is often considered a protege of Rick Rubin....
, and featuring a guest appearance on keyboards from Jon Lord
Jon Lord
Jonathan Douglas "Jon" Lord is an English composer, pianist and Hammond organ player.Jon Lord, also known as 'Hammond Lord', is a classically trained piano player. He is recognised for his Hammond organ blues-rock sound and for his pioneering work in fusing rock and classical or baroque forms...
of Deep Purple
Deep Purple
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although some band members believe that their music cannot be categorised as belonging to any one genre...
, the album was split between songwriters Gardener and Bell, with the former's songs on side one and the latter's on side two. Opening with the riff-heavy "Moonlight Medicine", tracks also include "From Time to Time", "Birdman" and a cover of The Creation's
The Creation (band)
The Creation were an English rock band, formed in 1966. The most popular Creation song was "Painter Man", which made the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart in late 1966, and reached #8 in the German chart in April 1967. It was later covered by Boney M in 1979, and reached the #10 position in the UK...
"How Does It Feel to Feel", which was released as a single. The album was not well-received by critics, Bell explaining "These were good times but the music took second place. When we recorded the Carnival Of Light album we got indulgent". By the end of 1994 even the band themselves were critical of the album, referring to it within the group as "Carnival Of Shite".
1996 The breakup
1995 saw the dissolution of the band while recording Tarantula.Gardener and Bell had led the band away from their shoegazing roots to become more contemporary, hoping to change their style with the times. Queralt has remarked that the band had two future directions open to them, and they chose the wrong option. Gardener had become interested in dance music
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
, and wanted Ride to incorporate that into their style, while Bell disagreed. The track listing of Carnival of Light gives an indication of the tension that was mounting between the two guitarists, with the first half of the album being songs written by Mark Gardener and the last half of the album being songs written by Andy Bell - Andy Bell had refused to let his songs be interspersed with pieces written by Gardener. Years later Andy Bell explained "Imagine an argument where the way you win, is by saying 'I don't want my songs on the same side of the album as yours' and it ACTUALLY HAPPENS. We were allowed by the people around us to behave like total babies."
By the time Tarantula appeared, the band was beginning to self-destruct. Bell penned most of the songs while Gardener provided only one - the tension within the band leading to an inability to write meaningful musical pieces. Castle on the Hill, written by Bell, was a lament for the band's situation and contains references to Gardener's self imposed exile from the group. Gardener walked out during the album's mixing sessions, and the band announced their break-up shortly before its release in March 1996. The album was released and remained on sale for one week before being withdrawn. Critics and fans alike had panned the album (although the first single off the album, "Black Nite Crash", was awarded "single of the week" by weekly music magazine Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
). The album was described by Allmusic as "an abomination of '70s/Lenny Kravitz
Lenny Kravitz
Leonard Albert "Lenny" Kravitz is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and arranger, whose "retro" style incorporates elements of rock, soul, R&B, funk, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, folk and ballads...
clichés, full of third- and fourth-rate tunes and, ultimately, bad blood", going on to say "the words are just plain awful throughout, not even worth printing". Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
were more complimentary, stating "the album is saved from maudlin self-obsession because it's rawer and rocks harder than anything else Ride have recorded".
Since the break-up, both Bell and Gardener have been more reflective about the group's disintegration, with Bell especially admitting his own part in the process.
1997-2001 Post break-up years
After the split, Andy Bell formed a new band called "Hurricane #1Hurricane No. 1
Hurricane #1 were an English indie rock band, formed in Oxford in 1996. The band were formed by former Ride guitarist Andy Bell, along with vocalist / guitarist Alex Lowe, bassist Will Pepper and drummer Gareth Farmer....
" but this project was permanently dissolved when he was asked to play bass for Oasis
Oasis (band)
Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Originally known as The Rain, the group was formed by Liam Gallagher , Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs , Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll , who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher...
after having turned down the opportunity to join Gay Dad
Gay Dad
In 2001 the leading single from Transmission - "Now Always and Forever" - was released. It fell just short of the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart. An extensive UK tour was followed by a limited edition single "Harder, Faster". The third single "Transmission" was released just before the album came...
. He now lives in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
. Mark Gardener and Laurence Colbert joined with Sam Williams to form The Animalhouse. As BMG signings, they were successful in Japan. The band was, however, short lived and split in 2002. Gardener has also toured as a solo artist, while Colbert, Gardener and Bell have played as in Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
tribute band called The Zimmermen. Queralt appears to have retired from professional music. He spent the years following the break-up working in Oxford, playing 5-a-side football, and raising a family. He is now living in Hammersmith, London.
2001+ Channel Four and beyond
On 16 October 2001, all four members of Ride agreed to be filmed by Channel 4Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
. The footage was used for the show Pioneers, a documentary on Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
, and featured a twenty minute improvised jam. The recording of this song, plus two short sound checks, were released in 2002 as Coming up for Air. The interest in this limited release CD caused the band to consider future releases. In late 2002, Ride released a 3CD box set which is made up of OX4_ The Best of Ride, Firing Blanks (Unreleased tracks) and Live_Reading Festival 1992. In 2003 they released Waves, a collection of tracks from five radio sessions recorded for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
.
Mark Gardener is also now pursuing a solo career. From 2003 to 2005, Mark toured extensively, sometimes with the help of Oxford friends Goldrush
Goldrush (band)
Goldrush are a rock band from Oxfordshire, England. Their music has been compared to Nick Drake, The Byrds, The Flaming Lips and Grandaddy. The band centres around brothers Robin and Joe Bennett. The other members are Garo , Growler and Graham Roby...
, in order to personally fund a full length studio album. During the tour, a three-track EP with Goldrush (Falling Out Into the Night) and a live album (the acoustic solo Live @ the Knitting Factory, New York City) were released. He also spent part of 2005 working with the French duo rinôçérôse
Rinôçérôse
Rinôçérôse is a French band founded by Jean-Philippe Freu and Patrice Carrié that mixes rock music and electronic dance music. The duo of musicians also work as psychologists, calling themselves, "Psychologists by day, musicians by night". They compose music in English, French, and German...
. In late 2005, Mark's album These Beautiful Ghosts was released in North America on United For Opportunity.
Any thoughts of permanently re-forming the band, however, have been explicitly denied by Bell, with the reasoning that it would not live up to expectations. However, the members, Bell included, have stated that they would not mind working with each other again. Since, Bell and Colbert made an appearance at one of Gardener's early shows; Bell later shared two nights of acoustic sets with Gardener in November 2003 when Gardener made a tour stop in Bell's current home of Stockholm.
Colbert has also started playing in a band again - as guitarist and vocalist. He also plays drums in different projects, most notably with the reformed Jesus and Mary Chain
The Jesus and Mary Chain
The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride, Glasgow in 1983. The band revolves around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid...
, Supergrass
Supergrass
Supergrass was an English alternative rock band from Oxford. The band consisted of brothers Gaz and Rob Coombes , Mick Quinn and Danny Goffey ....
(filling in for Danny Goffey), International Jetsetters with fellow Jesus and Mary Chain bandmate Mark Crozer
Mark Crozer
Mark Crozer is a British musician and current member of critically acclaimed Scottish alternative rock band The Jesus and Mary Chain.-Musical career:...
, and Damo Suzuki
Damo Suzuki
, universally known as Damo Suzuki , is a singer best known for his membership in the German krautrock group Can.-Biography:As a teenager, Suzuki spent the late 1960s wandering around Europe, often busking....
(Can
Can (band)
Can was an experimental rock band formed in Cologne, West Germany in 1968. Later labeled as one of the first "krautrock" groups, they transcended mainstream influences and incorporated strong minimalist and world music elements into their often psychedelic music.Can constructed their music largely...
). In 2005, Gardener was stuck in France and unable to play the Truck Festival; Colbert's band filled the gap in the bill. Colbert studied on the 1 Year Diploma in Drum Performance at London's Drumtech after the split of Ride.
Studio albums
| Album | Release Date | Chart Info | Certifications |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nowhere Nowhere (album) Nowhere is the debut album by British shoegazing band Ride. The album was released by Creation Records on 15 October 1990. Allmusic has cited the album as one of the greatest albums of the shoegazing genre, second only to My Bloody Valentine's Loveless... |
15 October 1990 | 11 (UK UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... ) |
Silver (UK) |
| Going Blank Again Going Blank Again Going Blank Again is the second studio album by British alternative rock band Ride, released in March 1992 on Creation Records. It was produced by Alan Moulder, and peaked at #5 in the UK Albums Chart... |
9 March 1992 | 5 (UK) | Gold (UK) |
| Carnival of Light Carnival of Light (album) Carnival of Light is the third studio album by British alternative rock band Ride, released in June 1994 via Creation Records. "How Does It Feel to Feel?" is a cover of a song by The Creation... |
20 June 1994 | 5 (UK) | |
| Tarantula | 20 March 1996 | 21(UK) | |
Compilations and live albums
- SmileSmile (Ride album)Smile is an album by British shoegazing band Ride. It is a compilation of Ride's first two EPs, Ride and Play, both of which were originally released in the first half of 1990. The album was first released by Sire Records, in July, 1990, for the North American market, in lieu of the two original...
(1990) Sire/Creation - Kaleidoscope (1991) Sire (promotional only)
- GrasshopperGrasshopper (EP)Grasshopper is an EP by British band Ride, released in November 1992.It is compilation of two singles for the Japanese market. Tracks 1-3 are from the Leave Them All Behind single. Tracks 4-7 are from the Twisterella single.-Track listing:...
(1992) Sire/Warner Bros. - Cosmic Carnival (1994) Sire
- Live Light (1995) Mutiny/Elektra
- Ride (Box Set) (2001) Ignition
- OX4 The Best of RideOX4 The Best of RideOX4_ The Best of Ride is a compilation album by the British band Ride, released in 2001 by Ignition Records in the United Kingdom. The album was also released as the first disc in the three-disc Ride Box Set, which also included Firing Blanks_ Unreleased Ride Recordings 1988-95 and Live at Reading...
(2001) Ignition - Firing Blanks Unreleased Ride Recordings 1988–95 (2001)
- Live Reading Festival 1992 (2001)
- Waves (2003)
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
U.S. Modern Rock | |||
| 1990 | Ride Ride (EP) Ride is an extended player by British band Ride. Their first official release, the EP came out in 1990 on the Creation Records label.The EP was combined with its follow-up Play to form the Smile mini-album for the US market in July, 1990... EP |
71 | ||
| Play Play (EP) Play is the second extended player by British band Ride.The EP was combined with its predecessor Ride to form the Smile mini-album for the US market in July, 1990... EP |
32 | |||
| Fall EP | 34 | |||
| 1991 | "Taste" | 24 | Nowhere | |
| "Vapour Trail" | ||||
| Today Forever Today Forever Today Forever is an EP by British band Ride, released in March 1991.The first three songs also appeared in the US on the "Vapour Trail" CD-single. All four songs from the EP were added to the Nowhere album as bonus tracks on its re-release in 2001.... EP |
14 | |||
| 1992 | "Leave Them All Behind" | 9 | 20 | Going Blank Again |
| "Twisterella" | 36 | 12 | ||
| 1994 | "Birdman" | 38 | Carnival of Light | |
| "How Does It Feel to Feel?" | 58 | |||
| "I Don't Know Where It Comes From" | 46 | |||
| Live EP | ||||
| 1996 | "Black Nite Crash Black Nite Crash Black Nite Crash was a single by English shoegazing band Ride from the album Tarantula. It reached 67 in the UK Singles Chart on 24 February 1996... " |
67 | Tarantula | |
| 2002 | Coming Up For Air EP |