Ride were formed in Oxford in 1998 by four friends who combined 60s guitar-pop sensibilities with avalanches of noise and driving rhythms. It was a recalibration of indie-rock that would come to be defined as shoegaze, music that was both experimental and direct, powerful and fragile.
In 1990, they swept the nation with the release of three critically-acclaimed EP, while in October of the same year they released the amazing “Nowhere”, which reached no.11 in the UK charts and is regarded as one of the greatest debut albums of the 90s. Their follow-up was “Going Blank Again” (1992), a stunning album that appeared on every respectable best-of list of the year and brought the band considerable commercial success.
With “Carnival of Light” (1994), they distanced themselves from shoegaze, at least temporarily, and focused on the strong psychedelic influences of the 60s, emphasizing even more the undeniable melodic charisma of the group’s leaders, Andy Bell and Mark Gardener. “Tarantula” (1996) was to be the fourth and last album of their first period, as intra-band turmoil led to their break-up.
In 2014, while their influence was evident in the top indie bands of the time, Ride reunited for a series of shows in Europe and America, which eventually led them back into the studio to write two brilliant albums, ‘Weather Diaries’ (2017) and ‘This Is Not A Safe Place’ (2019), introducing one of the most forward-thinking guitar bands of their generation to a whole new audience.
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