Rocktrospectiva: The Astonishing "Ride EP" Turns 35

Released on 15 January 1990, Ride's self-titled debut and the first of 3 EP's the band will shared that year, the release helped the band gained exposure reaching the UK singles chart enter the top 75, it was also the first Creation Records label release to do it.

So the story begins as this: Mark Gardener and Andy Bell attended secondary school together in Oxford, England and then moved on to art college just north in Banbury. The duo guitarists/vocalists were looking to form a band at college and connected with Steve Queralt, who had attended the same secondary school as them, had played in a prior band with Bell, and was now attending the same college. He joined on bass along with fellow student, Laurence ‘Loz’ Colbert, on drums. They chose the name Ride after the type of cymbal and the feeling of movement it suggested. They played their first gig at their college in late 1988.

It was the end of 1989, and this band coming from Oxford, overturned the inherent pessimism in that optimism and gave us something to believe in. Ride had tunes, noise, looks, style, confidence, everything, their two guitar-playing singers Mark Gardener and Andy Bell were both just 19, as was drummer Laurence ‘Loz’ Colbert. Stephen Queralt, the bassist, was an oldster at 21. They’d come together on a foundation course at North Oxford Art College and had been playing around the Thames Valley area for less than a year. 

Ride's demos and gigs got the attention of Jim Reid of Jesus and Mary Chain, who put them on to Alan McGee of Creation Records and the band was signed. What followed in 1990 was an astounding debut year in which Ride released three EPs and an album, all of which were impeccable and part of a ground-breaking sound known as shoegaze. Two of the EPs cracked the UK top forty in the singles chart and the album nearly reached the top ten of the albums chart.  

The EP, Ride, showed a quick evolution of the band, this one converted their demos into proper studio takes and revealed a band with great power and hooks but with a raw, unpolished sound, which did nothing to take away from the brilliance of the songs. "Chelsea Girl" was a fantastic sprint of thrashing guitars underpinning their somewhat monotone, harmonic vocals. Then "Drive Blind" was a dirgy, hypnotic wash of guitars over pounding drums, all with a slight echo as if recorded in a big room. Their sound blended rock, pop, punk, and a hint of garage rock into a slightly chaotic, barely restrained energy.

The cover of the "Ride EP", released in January 1990, showed a bed of roses. The symbolism there, and in the first words on the first track was lost on nobody. A new decade was rung in with a possibility that guitars gone into overload might become pop music, and "Chelsea Girl" was the track that reached for new heights. It went to Number 71. In those days, for an independently released debut, with next to no radio airplay, this was a result. Creation had never slipped inside the Top 75 before. Ride were hungry to perform, and when they did, they blew everyone away.

 

Ride EP Track List:

 

1. Chelsea Girl

2. Drive Blind

3. All I Can See

4. Close My Eyes