1988–1989: Starting out Andy Bell and Mark Gardener had been to
Cheney School in Oxford, appearing in the school's musical theatre productions, and in October 1988, they moved to
Banbury to do Foundation Studies in Art & Design at North Oxfordshire College and the Oxfordshire School of Art & Design. There they met Laurence Colbert and Steve Queralt. Queralt, who also went to
Cheney School, was recruited from the local
Our Price record shop where he worked as a singles buyer (although Bell and Queralt had already played together in an obscure reggae/pop band called "Big Spiderback"). After considering various names, the band settled for 'Ride', with its evocation of travel, and after the
ride cymbal. Bell has cited a performance by
the Smiths as the inspiration for forming a band.
Ride's top-75 placing was a first for
Creation Records. The first two EPs were released together as
Smile in the USA in July 1990 (and later released in the UK in 1992), while the
Fall EP was incorporated into the
CD version of their first album,
Nowhere, released in October 1990. Bell said that the band kept putting out new material to remain fresh in listeners' minds, comparing it to the release schedules of
the Beatles and
the Jam. The band were often labelled as part of the "shoegaze" scene, but the band rejected this, Bell stating "my first reaction was like, this is another boring tag. These days...that's pretty much still my reaction". The band recorded two sessions for
John Peel's
BBC Radio 1 show in 1990, and their popularity with the show's listeners saw them with three tracks in the
Festive Fifty that year, with "Dreams Burn Down" and "Like a Daydream" at numbers 3 and 4 respectively, and "Taste" at number 25.
Nowhere was a critical and commercial success, reaching number 11 in the
UK Albums Chart. In February 1992, the band broke into the top 10 of the
UK Singles Chart with "
Leave Them All Behind", which peaked at number 9, and the following month saw the release of the band's second album
Going Blank Again, which peaked at number 5 in the UK Albums Chart. the album was split between songwriters Gardener and Bell, with the former's songs making up the first half of the album and the latter's the second. Not only did the album's sound eschew the band's earlier influences in favour of inspiration from
classic rock, but the band's approach to songwriting also changed: whereas earlier material had mostly been developed by the band in
jam sessions as a group, for
Carnival of Light Bell and Gardener would arrive in the studio with their songs more or less fully formed. Opening with the riff-heavy "Moonlight Medicine", tracks also include "From Time to Time", "Birdman" and a cover of
The Creation's "How Does It Feel to Feel?", which was released as a single. The album was not well received by critics, Bell explaining "These were good times but the music took second place. When we recorded the
Carnival of Light album we got indulgent".
1996: The break-up 1995 saw the dissolution of the band while recording
Tarantula. Gardener and Bell had led the band away from their shoegazing roots to become more contemporary, hoping to change their style with the times. Queralt has remarked that the band had two future directions open to them, and they chose the wrong option. Gardener had become interested in
dance music, and wanted Ride to incorporate that into their style, while Bell disagreed.
Rolling Stone were more complimentary, stating "the album is saved from maudlin self-obsession because it's rawer and rocks harder than anything else Ride have recorded". Since the break-up, both Bell and Gardener have been more reflective about the group's disintegration, with Bell especially admitting his own part in the process.
1997–2001: Post-break-up years After the split, Andy Bell formed a new band called
Hurricane No. 1 but this project was permanently dissolved when he was asked to play bass for
Oasis after having turned down the opportunity to join
Gay Dad. The recording of this song, plus two short sound checks, were released in 2002 as
Coming up for Air. The interest in this limited release CD caused the band to consider future releases. In late 2002, Ride released a 3-CD box set which is made up of
OX4_ The Best of Ride,
Firing Blanks (Unreleased tracks) and
Live_Reading Festival 1992. Mark Gardener then pursued a solo career. From 2003 to 2005, Gardener toured extensively, sometimes with the help of Oxford friends
Goldrush, in order to personally fund a full-length studio album. During the tour, a three-track EP with Goldrush (
Falling Out into the Night) and a live album (the acoustic solo
Live @ the Knitting Factory, New York City) were released. He also spent part of 2005 working with the French duo
rinôçérôse. In late 2005, Gardener's album
These Beautiful Ghosts was released in North America on United For Opportunity. Any thoughts of permanently re-forming the band, however, were previously explicitly denied by Bell, with the reasoning that it would not live up to expectations. However, band members, Bell included, had stated that they would not mind working with each other again. Since then, Bell and Colbert have made an appearance at one of Gardener's early shows; Bell later shared two nights of acoustic sets with Gardener in November 2003 when Gardener made a tour stop in Bell's then home of Stockholm.
2014–present: Reunion albums On 19 November 2014, it was announced that Ride had reunited again for a series of tour dates in Europe and North America, in May and June 2015. On 10 and 17 April 2015, Ride performed at
Coachella, following a live performance broadcast by
KCRW on 8 April 2015. The band played many European festivals such as
Primavera Sound,
Best Kept Secret,
Melt! Festival,
Field Day,
Pukkelpop and
Øyafestivalen. They also toured America with
DIIV opening. The reunion was originally meant for touring only, but after playing shows together again, the band decided that the experience should also lead to the recording of a new album. The next day, the band released another single, "Home Is a Feeling". On 23 March, Ride announced their first new studio album in 21 years,
Weather Diaries. The album was released on 16 June 2017. It made number 11 in the UK album charts and gained critical and fan approval upon its release, supported by a tour of Europe and North America across the summer and autumn of 2017. On 27 May 2018, they played a hometown gig, as first support to
James, in Oxford's South Parks, as part of the two-day "Common People" festival (the previous day had been in
Southampton). In March 2019, the band announced that their upcoming sixth studio album had already been finished, with the same producer as their previous album,
Erol Alkan. The new album, called
This Is Not a Safe Place, was released on 16 August 2019. Ride played the
2022 edition of the
Primavera Sound festival, performing
Going Blank Again and
Nowhere in full on two separate days. The band also toured for the 30th anniversary of
Nowhere from 2022 to 2024, including a co-headlining "Between Nowhere" tour with
The Charlatans (who played
Between 10th and 11th in full) in North America. In November 2022, Ride announced that the band had been working on a seventh album, set for release in 2023 or 2024. ==Members==