Ride played the first gig as a full band in 20 years tonight (5th April) at the O2 Academy (formerly The Zodiac) to an ecstatic crowd in Oxford.

They sold tickets via their mailing list just a few days ago and tonight just over 400 fans who have travelled from as far as America packed the venue.

The triumphant set spanned across their whole career with the exception of Carnival of Light. If I’m not mistaken it was the first time Cool Your Boots and Black Nite Crash have been played live. In attendance were Jon Leckie, Sam Williams and Gem Archer.

You can watch a video of opening track Polar Bear below.

The full set list consisted of:

Polar bear
Seagull
Twisterella
Unfamiliar
Cool your boots
Black nite crash
OX4
Dreams burn down
Time of her time
Chrome waves
Paralysed
Taste
Vapour trail
Drive blind
Leave them all behind
Like a daydream
Chelsea girl

A Spotify playlist of the set (including intro track by This Mortal Coil) is below:

The band now fly off to the states tomorrow where they follow up tonight’s gig with the following dates:

• Tue Nov 05 2019Ride
  Ex Theater Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan
• Wed Nov 06 2019Ride
  Club Quattro, Shinsaibashi, Japan
• Fri Nov 29 2019Ride
  Waterfront, Norwich, UK
• Sat Nov 30 2019Ride
  Foundry, Sheffield University, Sheffield, UK
• Sun Dec 01 2019Ride
  O2 Institute Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
• Tue Dec 03 2019Ride
  Oxford Town Hall, Oxford, UK
• Wed Dec 04 2019Ride
  SWG3, Glasgow, UK
• Thu Dec 05 2019Ride
  The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, UK
• Fri Dec 06 2019Ride
  Boiler Shop, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
• Sun Dec 08 2019Ride
  Engine Rooms, Southampton, UK
• Mon Dec 09 2019Ride
  Barbican Hall, London, UK
• Wed Dec 11 2019Ride
  Leeds Beckett University Students Union, Leeds, UK
• Thu Dec 12 2019Ride
  O2 Ritz Manchester, Manchester, UK
• Tue Jan 28 2020Ride
  Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Wed Jan 29 2020Ride
  TRIX, Borgerhout, Belgium
• Thu Jan 30 2020Ride
  Gloria Theater, Cologne, Germany
• Fri Jan 31 2020Ride
  Docks, Hamburg, Germany
• Sun Feb 02 2020Ride
  Festsaal Kreuzberg, Berlin, Germany
• Mon Feb 03 2020Ride
  Strom, Munich, Germany
• Fri Feb 07 2020Ride
  Sala Apolo, Barcelona, Spain
• Sat Feb 08 2020Ride
  Sala But, Madrid, Spain
• Mon Feb 10 2020Ride
  Lisboa Ao Vivo (LaV), Lisbon, Portugal
• Tue Feb 11 2020Ride
  Hard Club, Porto, Portugal
• Thu Feb 13 2020Ride
  LE TRIANON, Paris, France

See all concerts

In other Ride related news, the 6th April marks 25 years since their breakthrough sell-out gig at London’s ULU. The same weekend the band had their first top 40 hit with the Play EP. You can see a clip of them at the ULU gig below.