Ride

Banbury

Ride began in October 1988, when Andy Bell and Mark Gardener, who had been at Cheney School in Oxford together, went to Banbury for art foundation courses. There they met the drummer Laurence Colbert, known as Loz, and brought in Steve Queralt, a singles buyer at the Oxford branch of Our Price, on bass. Bell said seeing the Smiths was what made him want a band. The name pointed both to travel and to the ride cymbal. Their first show was a college Christmas party, their first demo was made in Queralt's bedroom and hallway, and Bell remembers the first rehearsal producing Drive Blind.

Jim Reid of the Jesus and Mary Chain heard the demo, which brought the interest of Alan McGee, and Creation signed them in 1989. Three EPs followed in 1990: Ride in January, Play in April, and Fall in September, which carried Taste. They appeared on Top of the Pops that year. John Peel gave them a session early that year, and his Festive Fifty for 1990 placed Dreams Burn Down third, Like a Daydream fourth and Taste 25th.

Nowhere

Nowhere came out on 15 October 1990, when the four were between 18 and 20. They recorded it at Blackwing Studios in London that spring with Marc Waterman, who left before the end, and Alan Moulder mixed it. Bell had spent his Creation advance on a Gretsch, two Rickenbacker 12-strings, a Hiwatt head and a Marshall cabinet. The sessions ran so late that Gardener said the band became nocturnal and the record became a night album; he called the title an anti-statement. It reached 11 in Britain. It closes with Vapour Trail, written and sung by Bell, which he has called the song from that era he is proudest of.

The Quietus later wrote that Nowhere is often named among the most influential albums of the 1990s and that it set the template for shoegaze. Pitchfork placed it 74th among the decade's albums, and it is in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Going Blank Again

The Today Forever EP reached 14 in March 1991. Work on Going Blank Again began that October, about a week after Nirvana released Nevermind, at Chipping Norton with Moulder. Planned as a double album, it was cut down at the suggestion of Sire and Warner, and Gardener called it their pop record. It went to 5 in March 1992, and its opening track, Leave Them All Behind, became their biggest hit at 9. Pitchfork's Ben Cardew called the album the commercial peak of shoegaze. Their Brixton Academy show that month was filmed, and their Reading Festival set that August was later released.

Carnival of Light (1994), produced by John Leckie with Jon Lord guesting on keyboards, also reached 5. The band came apart while making Tarantula: Gardener wanted to bring in dance music, Bell disagreed, and Gardener walked out during the mixing. Tarantula appeared in March 1996, shortly after the split was announced, and Creation deleted it a week later.

Apart

Bell formed Hurricane #1, then played bass in Oasis from 1999 to 2009 and guitar in Beady Eye. Gardener made solo records, worked with Robin Guthrie, and produced Swervedriver and the Brian Jonestown Massacre at his OX4 Sound studio; he and Colbert also formed the Animalhouse. Colbert drummed for the reunited Jesus and Mary Chain and filled in for Supergrass. In 2001 all four were filmed jamming together for a Channel 4 documentary, and the BBC sessions collection Waves followed in 2003.

Back

The reunion was announced in November 2014, and in 2015 Ride played their first shows in twenty years, including Coachella, Primavera Sound and Field Day. Charm Assault, their first new song in 21 years, led into Weather Diaries (2017), produced by Erol Alkan for Wichita. This Is Not a Safe Place (2019) reached 7, and Interplay (2024), written during the pandemic, reached 8 and topped the UK independent chart. A 30th anniversary Nowhere tour ran from 2022 to 2024, with American dates shared with the Charlatans.

On setlist.fm's count, Taste and Vapour Trail are their second and third most played songs, behind only Seagull, and both were in the sets in Tokyo and Valencia in September 2026. A tour of older songs is planned for February 2027, its London date marking 35 years since the Brixton shows of 1992.