Ride
Bell formed Ride with Mark Gardener (guitarist), whom he met at Cheney School in Oxford and Laurence Colbert (drummer) and Steve Queralt (bassist), whom he met doing Foundation Studies in Art and Design at Banbury in 1988. While still at Banbury the band produced a tape demo including the tracks "Chelsea Girl" and "Drive Blind". In February 1989, Ride were asked to stand in for a cancelled student union gig at Oxford Polytechnic that brought them to the attention of Alan McGee. After supporting The Soup Dragons in 1989 McGee then signed them to Creation Records. This was a key musical event in Bell's life.
With Ride, Bell released three EPs between January and September 1990, entitled Ride, Play and Fall. While the EPs were not chart successes, enough critical praise was received to make Ride the darlings of music journalists. The first two EPs were eventually released together as Smile in 1992, while the Fall EP was later incorporated into CD releases of their debut LP, Nowhere, released in October 1990, which was hailed as a critical success, with the media dubbing Ride "the brightest hope" for 1991. Nowhere was followed in March 1992 with Going Blank Again. The twin rhythm guitars of Bell and Gardener, both distorted, both using Wah-wah pedals and both feeding back on each other was seen as the highlight of the album's critical and chart success.
Despite having a solid fanbase and some mainstream success, the lack of a breakthrough contributed to inter-band tension, especially between Gardener and Bell. Their third LP, Carnival of Light, was released in 1994, after shoegazing had given way to Britpop. Carnival of Light was oriented towards this new sound, but sales were sluggish and the shift in musical tastes devastated much of their original audience. The band were joined at Creation Records by Oasis, who shot to fame in 1994 with their debut Definitely Maybe. As label mates, Bell came to know the band's Gallagher brothers well and often shared in their partying, if not their success.
1995 saw the dissolution of the band while recording their fourth album, Tarantula, due to creative and personal tensions between the two guitarists. Bell penned most of the songs for the album, one of which - "Castle on the Hill" - was a lament for the band's situation and contains references to Gardener's self imposed exile from the group. Upon release of the album, it was announced that it would be deleted after one week.
Since the break-up, both Bell and Gardener have been more reflective on the reasons why the group disintegrated, with Bell especially admitting his own part in the process. It appears that they had just been too young and too stubborn and had no real idea of where the band was heading when they changed their style.
Read more about this topic: Andy Bell (musician)
Famous quotes containing the word ride:
“Thou and I
Have thirty miles to ride yet ere dinner-time.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“And yet the sun pardons our voices still,
And berries in the hedge
Through all the nights of rain have come to the full,
And death seems like long hills, a range
We ride each day towards, and never reach.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“De gustibus non est disputandum;Mthat is, there is no disputing against HOBBY-HORSES; and, for my part, I seldom do ... for ... I keep a couple of pads myself, upon which, in their turns ... I frequently ride out and take the air.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)