Ride On, Baby, Ride On

Dipping back into the world of Creation Records in recent months, after engaging in biographies in print and film, caused me to once again appreciate how Ride were one of the most under-appreciated bands of the early 90s and lament their collapse.

Formed in the late 80s around Oxford college friends Mark Gardner and Andy Bell, also both guitarists and singers (though Gardner would dominate the early songs singing-wise), completing the line-up were drummer Loz Colbert and bassist Steve Queralt. The latter worked in the local branch of Our Price records, and his boss Dave Newton would handle the band’s management.

With the band, barring Queralt, not even out of their teens, early gigs were enough to get interest from Alan McGee, who followed the band’s stint as support on a Soup Dragons tour. Given the band loved My Bloody Valentine and the House of Love, signing to Creation Records seemed an obvious choice, one that would benefit the label in the short-term.

Little is written about Creation at that time – none of their acts had even touched the top 75 in the singles chart and money was scarce. Ride, in their favour, had pretty boy looks and a strong melodic sense under the guitar noise, even if neither of Gardner and Bell had much power on the vocal front. Behind them, Colbert swirled away in the way of a less chaotic Keith Moon.

Their debut release, the Ride EP went in at #71 in January 1990 – Creation’s first "hit". A strong set, it set the tone for the next year’s worth of releases: buzzsaw guitars and vocals singing vague lyrics in a, perhaps mercifully, murmured tone. Andy Bell was already showing some serious guitar chops and it’s not surprising that the follow up Play and Fall EPs both landed inside the top 40: the press were on board and audiences that didn't buy into the "Madchester" vibe at the time were eager for something else.

All of which led to expectation for an album, and Nowhere delivered. Crashing in with the wonderful racket of Seagull (Queralt's finest moment), it goes on to have some great guitar sounds - especially on the dreamy In A Different Place and Dreams Burn Down. The closing Vapour Trail (at the time a rare song sung by Andy Bell) pointed to a future directions with jangly guitar and chugging chello.

Charting just outside the top ten, Nowhere was the album that introduced Creation as a label that wasn't just dealing with cult success anymore. Heavy touring saw Ride into 1991, which also brought the release of the Today Forever EP, a top 20 hit that got them on Top Of The Pops. The four tracks, including the excellent Unfamiliar, were added onto the 2001 re-release of Nowhere, along with the Fall EP, making the album even more essential.

By being attached by the media to the shoegaze scene, though the band's ability to rock out separated them from many others in that club, Ride were prime for a backlash, especially as the new flavour, Grunge, had made having 20 effects pedals in front of you seem unfashionable. Initially, however, Oxford's finest seemed to have dodged the gunfire. Their first release of 1992 was their best: Leave Them All Behind was a four chord thrash with keyboards straight from Who's Next and lasting eight minutes. Despite or because of all this, it went top 10, continuing a remarkable trajectory over the previous two years.

Going Blank Again would be their commercial peak, making #4, and shows a band looking to leave any former contemporaries behind. Though not as cohesive as their debut, there's some killer moments on Mouse Trap and the epic closing OX4. The vocals are higher in the mix and there are plenty of dabbles into indie-pop on Time Of Her Time and Twisterella. The latter was selected as a follow-up single to Leave Them All Behind, but stalled big time, the first signs of the wheels coming off the Ride Wagon.

By 1994, the idea of shoegazing was a distant memory. Suede had kickstarted a retro vibe with their Glam Rock stomp and music had begun going further back still into the 1960s. Ride, with fellow survivors such as Lush, tried to reinvent themselves as more melodic and accessible (Slowdive would morph into the folk-y Mojave 3). Carnival of Light, recorded with John Leckie, may well have been a decent hit if it had been the debut album by a Britpop band. Instead, it was a document of a band fragmented.

Andy Bell had now insisted on individual songwriting credits rather than the previous "songs by Ride" label. Perversely, this just showed how his own efforts were found wanting. The first half was mainly Gardner songs, including strong numbers such as From Time To Time and 1000 Miles, with Loz Colbert chipping in with the upbeat Natural Grace. All benefited from Leckie’s 60s-centric production.

Which couldn't be said for the second half, on which Bell stars but also features an ill-advised hash job of 60s cult-act the Creation’s How Does It Feel To Feel? Perhaps more misjudged was the choice of Birdman as lead single: by no means a bad song, at least musically, it was barely radio material and thus limped into the bottom reaches of the top 40.

Though Magical Spring had a jaunty optimism, the nadir of Ride’s career closed the album. I Don’t Know Where It Comes From took a lead from the Stones’ You Can’t Always Get What You Want by employing a children's choir, but failed to attach a decent song to it. The lyric "turned on the radio last night/and I was overwhelmed with shite" may well be amongst the worst in my entire record collection.

With the moment passed and momentum stunted, Ride found themselves overtaken and lapped several times by Creation's new darlings - Oasis. A final album, Tarantula, was released but deleted a week later as the band had already split. With most of the band disinterested at this late stage - most of the songs are Bell's - it's hard to love, though both Black Nite Crash and Burning have a great swagger to them, which makes it sadder that Bell then went onto form the completely dreadful Hurricane #1.

After that fiasco, he of course went on to join some top pub rocker outfit from the North of England, with whom he still runs through the Faces greatest hits to this day. Mark Gardener has dabbled in solo albums, working for sometime with Oxford band Goldrush. Loz Colbert has recently earned a good gig drumming with the Jesus and Mary Chain alongside fellow shoegaze alumni Phil King and Steve Queralt dropped out of music.

After the messy end, there's been a few occasions where talk of reforming has been in the air. Indeed, the band briefly got back together to provide backing music for a documentary on Sonic Youth, it got a limited release as the Coming Up For Air EP (I've got my copy), and Bell and Gardener have joined each other on stage on a couple of occasions. But the odds on a full-on getting back together seem long, perhaps for the best. At their peak, Ride were an excellent rock band with an experimental edge that for one brief moment in time may have pointed a different direction for popular guitar-based music. Alas.