Ride are an English rock band formed in Oxford in 1988. The band consists of vocalists and guitarists Andy Bell and Mark Gardener, drummer Laurence “Loz” Colbert and bassist Steve Queralt. They have been recognised as one of the key pioneers of shoegaze, an alternative rock subgenre that emerged to prominence in the United Kingdom during the early 1990s.
With a neo-psychedelic Wall of Sound that relied on massive, trembling distortion in the vein of My Bloody Valentine but with a melodic sense that was simpler and more direct, they were dubbed by the British music press as shoegazers for their shy disposition and concentration on guitar effects pedals, they nonetheless stood apart from their peers, primarily because of their keen sense of songcraft and dynamics. The Oxford quartet epitomized the designation throughout 1990, a prolific year during which they released three promising EPs and the widely praised full-length Nowhere, a number 11 U.K. hit. Ride quickly shed and distanced themselves from shoegaze with Going Blank Again (1992) and Carnival of Light (1994), Top Ten U.K. LPs that integrated elements of power pop and folk-rock while emphasizing the ringing harmonies of Andy Bell and Mark Gardener. They bowed out amid acrimony with Tarantula (1996) and worked separately on a multitude of projects across two decades. After some uncertain overtures, Ride fully reunited in the mid-2010s with touring and festival dates that led to Weather Diaries (2017) and This Is Not a Safe Place (2019), sharply defined recordings that returned the band to the upper reaches of the U.K. chart.
Ride released the EP Tomorrow’s Shore, a collection of four more tracks recorded during their Weather Diaries sessions. Continuing to work with Alkan, Moulder, and Wichita, they recorded a second post-reunion album, This Is Not a Safe Place, released in August 2019. It became their third Top Ten U.K. LP. In 2022, the band kicked off a reissue campaign that would bring long out of print LPs like Nowhere and Going Blank Again back into the shops on CD and limited color vinyl editions. This reissue series also included 4 EPs, a compilation that included all of the material from the band’s earliest EP releases Ride, Play, Fall, and Today Forever, together in one place for the first time.
The new single is “Peace Sign” from a brand new record to come, Interplay.
REF: AllMusic
Sacramento’s K-ZAP 93.3 FM plays Ride. All part of 50 years of Rock, Blues and More, 24-7 on our station’s stream at K-ZAP.ORG/LISTEN/
Check out Ride: