RIDE INTERVIEW

Mon 1 Oct 2001 15:19 dotmusic.com

Ten years ago, Ride were as inconspicuous in the lineage of rock and roll as their aspiring record label and the city which spawned them.

However, while Radiohead have made it patently clear where Oxford is and the likes of Oasis have dispatched Creation Records into legend, the influence of Andy Bell, Mark Gardner, Loz Colbert and Steve Queralt has hardly been forgotten.

The evidence to that end has now been presented in the recently released three-CD box set 'OX4 The Best Of', which documents the rise and fall of one of the nineties most important guitar bands.

The collection, which includes a 15-track compilation, plus the band live at the Reading festival in 1992 and an outtakes and unreleased CD, speaks volumes for guitar noise, youthful desire and the simple pursuit of a rock and roll dream.

dotmusic met-up with once estranged dual-frontmen Gardner and Andy Bell now bass player in Oasis last month to find-out how was it for them, where did it go wrong, and more importantly, where did it go right.

See below for the interview transcript and click above to watch in video format.

PART 1: 'THE BEST OF'

dotmusic: How does it feel talking about Ride after all this time?

Mark Gardner: It feels good, odd at first. I guess it's like delving back quite a few years. But I think those years do a lot of good things, in the sense that it means you can listen and see it objectively for the first time in your life, and possibly hear it in the same way that punters at the time heard it. If you're totally involved in it, you just can't do it. It was a pleasant surprise going back to the vaults and finding unreleased stuff and material that we knew was always there and it's sounding great.

Does it seem like a long time ago?

MG: Not particularly.

Andy Bell: It does to me.

MG: Does it?

AB: Yeah, it is a long time isn't it? Five years.

MG: Yeah, a lot can happen in five years…(laughs) and it did!

AB: Ten years since we started…

Whose idea was the actual box set?

MG: I suppose we talked about it. We talked about a 'greatest hits' and we knew there was always a lot of unreleased stuff around. That was being talked about at the end of the Creation time.

AB: After the second album we were going to do an unreleased album but that never happened and then after we split we were going to do a Creation 'best of', but then Creation folded, and it never happened anyway, so when the idea came up for the best of we were kind of sitting around going "well if the fans buy that what are they going to get out of it?" That's when the idea of the box came about.

MG: Just knowing that there were other multi-track recordings - if we just got them up on the slate it could be good or they could be awful. You just didn't know, but we knew there was stuff there so I think the box is good because there is new material, it's not just a 'greatest hits'.

It's quite a compliment to have a 3CD box set…

AB: Yeah, it's turned out really good, you know, when you actually get the thing in your hand. It's good 'cause we'd talked about it for a while. Now, seeing it and hearing it, it's good.

Did you actually listen to any of the stuff in the interim after the band split up?

MG: Not for a while

Was it difficult? Is that a reason why?

MG: I don't know whether it's so much difficulty, it's just when it's been consistently and 100% pretty much your life for six or seven years, you have a natural reflex to find other things in life and listen to other things just to clear your head of it for a while.

AB: I never do it anyway - whatever record I'm doing at the time I never listen to it after it's mastered. You get an initial idea and then you go and demo it and then you make it and then you're like "right, well that's done" and you don't listen to it for pleasure after that. I think after a couple of years have gone by you can do that. When I got the first test CD, I put it in the car, and could actually hear it as a potential fan rather than as someone who was involved, because so much time had gone by. But I'd give it a good few years before you can do that

What period stands out as being Ride's peak?

MG: For me, each album has got particular highlights. Also, the 'Unfamiliar' EP was great - I'm really glad that's got on to a record - it was a great surprise to hear that again. I just think the first three albums really stood out for me obviously 'Nowhere' being the first album, the energy and the naivety in a way. At the time you worry cause you've never been in a studio to do an album and you're trying to get things better but actually listening back - that's something that stands out as being one of the great things about that kind of record - the energy value to it.

PART 2: THE RISE OF…

How do you chart the development of Ride?

AB: We were swinging between styles really. We started off defining what we were as a band and then once we'd done that, we sort of wanted to move on, so second time around, we did 'Going Blank Again' and we wanted to…

MG: What did we want to do? What the hell was going on then?

AB: That was a big recording session

MG: I remember being pretty up against it the schedules were already really happening but they didn't have a record.

AB: We were doing dub tracks and piano tracks and New Order tracks and joke tracks and tracks that were just abstract noise. It was going to be a double album and in the end we just got all the tapes finished and the American label wanted it to be a single album. They wanted it to be ten tracks. It made it a lot better.

MG: Exactly, and I also just remember being quite up against it in a way, which I think was a good thing but it was six weeks or something in Chipping Norton - a lot of the material wasn't written, we went there to do it so it was quite an intense period to get it done. I think tours had already been arranged without a record. And that's' when you start to get into that whole thing of getting a bit crazy.

AB: The manager was ringing up the studio in-between tracks going, "well, the release date's this, and are you alright to go to America then for six weeks?" We'd just be sitting there going '"Is this guitar in tune?" "Yeah that's fine, yeah". Put the phone down and keep going. And when we got out of the studio we were greeted with a good few months touring...

MG: You start feeling like monkeys. You know, when you start you've got all the time, no one's going to hassle you, but then suddenly, as everything starts to get moving, the business thing moves in. you've got to meet deadlines and that's when the monkey head goes on a little bit.

There must have been a certain amount of pressure around the time of 'Going Black Again'?

MG: I thought we did well and I love that album. I mean at the time it was acclaimed by some and then other people just didn't think it matched up at all but looking back, I think there's some great tracks on there. I think it's one of my favourites.

AB: I think the first two albums are equal to me. There's no dip in quality there. Third one, you can sort of say is a bit off the boil.

MG: Yeah. But it was strange because firstly, we were from Oxford when nothing had ever really ever come out of Oxford. Secondly we were on Creation, which wasn't known for chart bands. So new doors were flying open all over the place and of course you're trying to keep everyone happy. It' all got a bit carried away really.

Ride spanned the 'Shoegazing' movement and then dropped off with 'Britpop'…

AB: We were gone by the time 'Britpop' came along. We didn't capitalize on that one.

MG: Which is fine (sarcastic). With regards to press, we had the lot. You know form ridiculously over the top good stuff to kind of weird little scenes, like 'Shoegazing'. But I guess in a sense that was only ever something we heard about in England. We were doing world tours at that point so you don't worry about anything like that, your just playing you're just too active.

AB: Another weird thing about that 'Shoegazing' thing is that to Americans…they say, "I'm into 'Shoegazing'". We wouldn't even say the word…but it's kind of become something else.

MG: You had your Simple Minds ideal where people are trying to be larger than life just because they're given a stage and that just used to offend and make me feel so uncomfortable. We were, at our school, very into the 'Uptight', Velvet Underground sort of vibe and that's what we were looking at, and then that suddenly becomes wrong so whatever you do…

AB: It was like anti…big Live Aid.

MG: Yeah I hated that! What was all that about? Who are these people? What is going on? Let's get some sort of reality back into it! I liked the feeling that you could be stood there and feel that a lot of people in the audience could feel it could be them. I never got on that cloud of then start telling people what politics…you know what I mean? Just using it as a stage for other things. I used to detest people for doing that.

PART 3: THE FALL OF...

Glastonbury '94 and Oasis begin their rapid ascent. How did that feel?

AB: It's just life isn't it?

MG: Yeah, it was that sort of scenario. And to me, I don't regret anything in any sense. I feel really happy about it all. And especially now, just to know that…to me, as long as your records are in the shops and the people that want to find them and hear about it do keep finding them, do keep finding Ride things... It never goes away and I'm really happy with that. To be honest, that 'Britpop' thing and how it tried to be sold to America…I would say that 80-90% are a very average lot of bands that go over there and you know, they're not interested 'cause a lot of people can't even play that well. So I wasn't sorry that I was not involved in that at all.

Did you know straight away when you saw Oasis?

MG: Well Noel was coming down to the studio when we were recording 'Carnival of Light' at Abbey Road, and he kept coming in with Alan and that was before they'd heard any music. And of course he sort of dropped us a tape with 'Live Forever', 'Rock 'n' Roll Star'…it was just phenomenal. Up until them he was just a guy from Manchester who wasn't that talkative but McGee was really raving about it. I came in the next day and said: "Do you realise what you've got there? 'Cause that's just absolutely brilliant". To me and to everyone, it was obvious it was going to happen, but perhaps not as big as it did.

AB: Oasis was what Creation were waiting for. All the time when it was building up, and McGee was getting all these bands. It started off pretty out there with Jesus and Mary Chain but it gradually came more and more towards just a rock 'n' roll band. They just wanted a rock 'n' roll band. Primal Scream were really the forerunners of Oasis, like a commercial rock 'n' roll band.

MG: I think he would have loved The Stone Roses as well he missed that one and then Oasis came along and it was bigger and better really.

Where did it start going wrong for you personally within the band?

AB: We'd recorded 'Tarantula' and we were going to go and do the American tour and that got pulled. We went from touring too much to touring not enough. We were questioning why there was no tour going on. Really it was just because the American label weren't that impressed with the album. We'd taken so long making it, and, in the meantime Oasis had happened so we were on the sidelines really. My solution was to go in and record something really fast afterwards because I had a load of tunes and that was 'Tarantula'. But it was a bad idea because we ended up just breaking up during the recording. We never had a vibe in the studio and ended up with Mark saying "No".

MG: Yeah. Well I had to do vocals in America. We just had totally different ideas by that point. At that point I think we were burnt-out and it doesn't help when relationships start breaking down as well. It all gets blown out of perspective but it's just 'cause really we probably could have done with a big break for a whole reassessment but we never really had that it was just full on all the time.

AB: In a way I'm happy that it just blew up and it happened and we just all said "Right that's it". I guess we could have carried on and done more but…

MG: It wouldn't have been right. And in a way if you just think certain bands should have split up a long time ago as well. I don't think it's such a bad thing that bands do their thing with the intensity and what makes them great and then when it goes…I mean you don't fool the punters, you know, people can hear it.

'Tarantula' was only out for a week and then got deleted...

MG: Yeah, I didn't know what was happening at that point.

Did you two not speak to each other for a while?

AB: We weren't speaking then. It took a few months.

MG: Andy was trying to buy amps from me about 6 months later! We'd accomplished certainly more than I ever thought we'd accomplish. My ambition was to play Oxford Apollo when I was 18 after seeing a gig and we sort of blew that out the water. So, I think we'd done what we set out to do, more than we ever dreamed of doing and I think we just hit that point where it was time for us to sort of look at life. You know, get out of the bus basically.

PART 4: 'SOLO WORK'

Are you still doing Animal House?

MG: No, at the moment I've moved to France, it's sort of been put on hold. It was like a one album, two-album sort of thing. I'm now looking into doing my own recording, some of my own stuff.

Oasis? How's that going?

AB: It's going great!

What's the situation? How close is the album to completion?

AB: It's hard to say 'cause we're doing it, but it's getting there. Most of the backing tracks are completed, bit of vocals to do, mixing to do then just the final, "Is this the way it's going to be? Do we need to record any more tracks?" We know what it's going to sound like and it's going to sound pretty great.

How would you compare it, or where would you place it within the Oasis canon so far?

AB: There's a fresh approach to it. It sounds like a band playing, which would put it in line with the first two albums I guess. Or the first three albums. The fourth album was a little bit more withdrawn from that band vibe but it's got that maturity to it as well, in the song writing, so I'd say it's got a little bit of everything in it.

Are any of your songs on there?

AB: I've got one tune on there. 'Thank You For The Good Times'.

Was that difficult?

AB: Not at all no. Right from when I joined the band, Liam and Noel kept on saying: "Any songs you get, bring them in and see if they fit the band" and this has been the one that fits. You'll know when you hear it because it does sound like Oasis.

Anything being released before the end of the year?

AB: Don't think so just got the shows…

Have you been rehearsing for those?

AB: Well, we just started; today's the first one. Today's the first rehearsal, so we're going to go down there today and see what happens.

Do you think any of the new material is going to get played?

AB: I think we'll definitely rehearse it - rehearse a couple of tracks at least - but I don't know whether it'll turn out. We'll have to see what sounds good and what fits in with the set. We always rehearse a lot more than we play. For the last tour with the Black Crowes, we rehearsed a lot more songs than we ended up doing and I think we always go with the plan of changing the set around a bit and putting songs in but then we just hit on a set which just works really well and we stick to it.

It's very exciting for Oasis to be playing such small venues. I think a lot of people would like to hear new material, but obviously it's up to you.

AB: There's definitely a good chance we'll be doing new stuff.

How different is it being in Oasis to being in Ride?

AB: Well obviously it's a bigger band; a lot bigger. Once you get beyond all that and everything that goes with it, being in a band is pretty familiar. If you're in a regular working band that does tours and albums then, you know, it's tours and albums isn't it. You'll have to co-operate because it's full time. You have to get on. If you don't get on, as we know, as happened with Ride in the end, it doesn't work. You've got to get on.

Is there a fresh focus between Noel and Liam now?

AB: Yeah, things are pretty up at the moment, they have been ever since I've been in the band really. Doing Wembley last year was a real high. Doing that whole tour was great. I mean there were some weird bits when Noel walked out for a bit, but that was kind of temporary. I think that was also related to things that were going on in his personal life in both of their personal lives that were making them act that way. As far as the band's concerned it's rockin' and it looks like it will continue to be rockin' for a good long time.

Ben Gilbert