Ride

Ride formed in Oxford in 1988 — Andy Bell, Mark Gardener, Loz Colbert and Steve Queralt, all students at the same art college. They signed to Creation Records in 1989 and released their debut EP the same year. The sound was immediate and fully formed: layers of distorted guitar, melodic vocals buried in reverb, and a rhythm section that could shift from delicate to overwhelming in a single bar.

'Nowhere' (1990) was one of the defining albums of the shoegaze era. Produced by Alan Moulder, it balanced noise and melody with a precision that most of their contemporaries couldn't match. 'Vapour Trail' in particular — all shimmer and longing — became one of the most beloved songs of the movement.

Ride reunited in 2014 and have continued to record and perform, releasing Weather Diaries (2017), This Is Not a Safe Place (2019) and Interplay (2024). They remain one of the most important acts in British shoegaze — a band whose combination of melodic gifts, atmospheric quality, and emotional directness produced music of genuine beauty, and whose influence on subsequent generations of guitar bands is immeasurable.

'Carnival of Light' (1994) and 'Tarantula' (1996) showed a band losing its way — the former too polished, the latter too grunge-influenced. They split in 1996 after 'Tarantula' failed commercially and critically. It felt like an ending.

The reunion in 2014 was greeted with cautious optimism. What followed exceeded all expectations. 'Weather Diaries' (2017) and 'This Is Not a Safe Place' (2019) were not nostalgia exercises — they were genuine creative statements from a band who had remembered what made them great. Andy Bell's guitar work in particular had developed new textures and techniques. The second act was real.