Ride
Ride was a Shoegazing band from Oxford, England. The band was active from 1988 to 1996, and briefly reunited in 2001. They were part of the wave of popular shoegazing bands that arrived in the wake of My Bloody Valentine, such as Lush and Slowdive. While not possessing MBV's monstrously imposing sound, Lush's spaceyness or Slowdive's Dream Pop tendencies, they distinguished themselves mainly through a more aggressive, faster-paced sound that drew from classic rock and Punk Rock, and arguably through their all-male lineup (their contemporaries MBV, Lush and Slowdive had at least one female member).
Their first two albums Nowhere and Going Blank Again have been enshrined in the canon of essential shoegazing albums, with the former being considered the genre's second best effort after Loveless, and the latter toning down the shoegaze tendencies in favour of influences drawn from Grunge (the bandmembers admitted to being inspired by Nirvana's Nevermind while recording) and classic rock, giving it a sort of proto-Britpop sound. Once shoegaze collapsed, the band attempted to stay relevant by reinventing itself as a full-on Britpop act with Carnival of Light, which gained them some positive notice but no chart success, and increasing tension between songwriters Bell and Gardener led the band to break up during the recording of their swan song Tarantula.
Since their breakup, Andy Bell has gone on to serve as Oasis' bass player.
Band members:
- Andy Bell - guitar and vocals
- Mark Gardener - guitar and vocals
- Stephen Queralt - bass
- Loz Colbert - drums
- Ride (EP) - 1990
- Play (EP) - 1990
- Fall (EP) - 1990
- Nowhere (LP) - 1990
- Today Forever (EP) - 1991
- Going Blank Again (LP) - 1992
- Carnival of Light (LP) - 1994
- Tarantula (LP) - 1996
- Coming Up for Air (EP) - 2002
- Cover Version - Carnival of Light has a cover of "How Does It Feel To Feel?" by The Creation.
- Creator Backlash - The band eventually ended up hating Carnival of Light, and took to calling it "Carnival of Shite".
- Epic Rocking - Several of their songs exceed 6 minutes, "Leave Them All Behind" exceeds 8 minutes, "Grasshopper" is almost 11 minutes, and "Performance" (from Coming Up for Air) is over half an hour of improvisation.
- Don't forget "Seagull", which if we discount the vocals pretty much serves as an Epic Instrumental Opener for Nowhere.
- Fish Eye Lens - The cover photograph for Carnival of Light.
- ~Name's The Same~ - This Andy Bell isn't the singer from Erasure.
- But this Andy Bell later joined Oasis...
- New Sound Album - To a certain extent Going Blank Again, practically Carnival of Light
- Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You - The cover illustration of Tarantula shows a hand pointing a revolver at the "camera", nicely warning the listener beforehand what listening to the album feels like.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute - "Seagull" swipes the bassline from "Taxman" by The Beatles.
- Textless Album Cover - Nowhere
- Depending on the printing. Some of the earlier, rarer prints have the name of the album and band on it and nearly all of the vinyl copies have that.