Ride made a surprise last minute reunion on Tuesday (4th March 2003) in Oxford when Andy Bell and Loz Colbert joined Mark Gardener on stage at The Cellar in Oxford. The performance saw four Ride songs played live for the first time in nearly 8 years.

"So are Ride getting back together we hear you cry?" It seems the performance was unplanned and a last minute decision. Here's Ride's manager Dave Newton's recollection of the events:

"I happened to speak to Andy in the morning as he had a spare day in London and we've been trying to fix up a photo shoot for an American magazine. He thought that maybe he'd be able to do something that day. He didn't know about Mark's gig and when he found out he grabbed the chance and jumped on the bus to Oxford. They worked out a bit of stuff at the soundcheck and it all fell into place. Loz turned up around soundcheck time with a view to having a few beers before Mark's show and he walked in as Andy and Mark were rehearsing Vapour Trail. After a bit of memory retrieval he sat down and joined in. Hollywood couldn't have scripted it better!"

So where was Steve (Ride's old bassist)? "Steve was unfortunately on holiday in Scotland this week but I did have the presence of mind to call him up whilst they were playing Vapour Trail and he got to hear it the following morning on his voice mail!"

This was the bands first live performance since their Benicassim slot in 1995. During the gig Mark performed acoustically four songs ("See What You Get", "Beautiful Ghosts", "From Time To Time" and "Turn"). Afterwards he was joined by local band Goldrush who backed him for "Magdalen Sky" and a few more tunes.

Mark and Andy closed the gig together with "Dreams Burn Down" and "In A Different Place".

Photo courtesy of Nunununa