Ride

Formed in Oxford in 1988, Ride brings together Mark Gardener, Andy Bell, Steve Queralt and Loz Colbert around a British rock sound in which shoegaze, dream pop, noise pop, alternative rock intersect and, depending on the period, neo-psychedelic and Britpop inflections. The band emerged at the cusp of the 1980s and 1990s on the Creation label with a string of EPs, before quickly establishing its identity on Nowhere in 1990, then Going Blank Again in 1992, two records built on highly textured guitars, clear melodies and a constant tension between saturation, pop momentum and hazy atmospheres. In the first half of the 1990s, Ride toured widely in the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States and Japan, while developing its writing toward a more upfront and more classic rock format on Carnival of Light in 1994, then Tarantula in 1996, released at the time of the band's breakup. After this end of the journey, Andy Bell joined Hurricane No. 1 and then Oasis, while Mark Gardener developed various projects and a solo career. Ride reformed in 2014, returned to the international stage and relaunched its recording activity with Weather Diaries in 2017, This Is Not a Safe Place in 2019 and Interplay in 2024. On stage as in the studio, Ride preserves a group approach based on dialogue between the two guitars and the voices of Gardener and Bell, with a flexible rhythm section that anchors songs that are both dense and airy.