Friday 22 May Barrowland Ballroom Glasgow, UK
Saturday 23 May 2015 Albert Hall Manchester, UK
Sunday 24 May 2015 Roundhouse London, UK
Tuesday 26 May 2015 Paradiso Amsterdam, Holland
Wednesday 27 May 2015 Olympia Paris, France
Friday 29 May 2015 PrimaveraFestival Barcelona, Spain
Tuesday 2 June 2015 DanForth Music Hall Toronto, Canada
Thursday 4 June 2015 Terminal New York, US
Sunday 7 June 2015 Field Day London, UK
Ride were one of the most important bands in my life. One of the most important things in my life. Seeing Chelsea Girl on Snub TV is one of those events where my narrative changed.
But also: late-period, when Andy took over most of the duties. When they were a pre-echo of Hurricane Number One.
Swervedriver came back last year; this year, though, they're releasing music for the first time in a decade and a half.
That would be enough to get us all giddy. But can you make us giddier, Line Of Best Fit?
“Deep Wound” was previewed live last year and finally experiences a standalone release this week. The track features Ride‘s Mark Gardener on backing vocals too.
Now Gardener has booked shows in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles in June and will play three cities — Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne — in Australia this August, with additional shows expected in Japan and Germany, according to his website.
Depending on where you are, that's less good news, I suppose.
Ride were great from the first day I met them. They were shoegaze with tunes - a massive influence on bands like Coldplay. I hold myself responsible for fucking up their career by introducing them to The Byrds and The Beatles.
Actually, McGee is being uncharacteristically harsh on himself - certainly The Beatles were there from the get-go, as Tomorrow Never Knows shows.
Ben Wardle's A&Rmchair leaps from Rob Fitzpatrick to Susan Boyle, via 1990s Oxford:
And I have to say I'm as guilty as anyone for subscribing to the looks fascism that has always existed in the music business. Or entire entertainment business for that matter. Half of the reason I was excited about Ride was that Mark Gardner was just so good looking. And the reason I, like a lot of people, passed on On A Friday wasn't that the demo didn't have enough strong songs on it - it was that the singer had a paralysed eye and we just couldn't imagine audiences getting past that.
This, then, is the 25,000th No Rock And Roll Fun post. Which, first, gives me a pause in the general flow of things to thank everyone who reads, and special thanks to commenters and those of you who send me tips and hints about stories you think I'll be interested in.
And, to celebrate this landmark, what better than some music, and a more-personal-than-usual post? Here are five musical landmarks from my life (and, if you're keen, feel free to share your landmarks through the comments section).
The first song I remember I've got several really strong memories of songs from when I was not that much smaller but a whole heap blonder: Standing on the pouffe, singing along with The Carpenter's Yesterday Once More, creating a moment for future nostalgia out of a song that was, in itself, about nostalgia. Pilot's January, which made a massive connection in my head when I heard it while looking at a calendar displaying a January page. But, really, the first soundtracked memory I have, has this tune on it. Ringo Bloody Starr, and his you-wouldn't-get-away-with-that-now classic, You're 16, You're Beautiful, And You're Mine:
The memory itself is as underwhelming as the song, to be honest: getting up, on a dark winter's morning, to the sound of Ringo downstairs. He was on the radio. He wasn't a friend of the family.
The 'more than wallpaper' song On Peeling Back The Years, Radio One's indulgent four-parter where John Walters explored John Peel's musical life, he posed a question "when was the first time you heard a song and thought 'this is more than wallpaper, this means something to me'?" Which is a tricky question to answer - I was already a smitten pop fan before hearing the next song, but it did something alchemical to me. This was the record where I realised that this was it; that the rest of my life would be spent trying to find records which gave me this sort of feeling of plunging deep into the heart of the sound; of that moment when the music and the lyrics and the performance resonates.
It was Blasphemous Rumours. Oh, yes, for a time, Depeche Mode were the group that defined me:
The song that changed my life They defined me, but didn't reshape me in the way that Ride did. This came on Snub TV when I was at university, and I mentioned in a letter to a penfriend (a thing we did before the internet, young people) that I'd found my first great new band of the year. "They're playing here in Oxford next weekend, come down" she replied. So I did, kick-starting a couple of years of following bands, meeting people, growing up, sleeping in the open, falling to pieces and pulling back together. This isn't the first time Chelsea Girl has been posted on No Rock, but it can never be heard enough:
The song that sings of love The first dance at my wedding. We're still dancing. I wouldn't be without her.
Mazzy Star's Fade Into You. If you have to have a Starr, then you need a Star to balance them out.
The greatest new song I've heard today I hadn't heard much of the new PJ Harvey - John Parrish stuff before today, when I caught up with their live session on George Lamb's programme from earlier in the week. Sublime, as ever, making the switch from the music to the honking, the canned applause, and the provincial cabaret patter even more galling. Here's Black Hearted Love the way it's intended to be:
Music. It's bloody brilliant, isn't it?
Now, then, back to the cynical poking of people who try and ruin it...
Aptly for a Saturday lunchtime, here's an ITV Chart Show indie chart run down. Besides our main focus, Ride, doing Twisterella, you'll also get fellow Thames Valley Scenesters (vague concept copyright the Face, 1992) doing Venice. Sadly, this was when the producers had abandoned the response to not having a video of showing footage of the middle of a record label spinning round and round. There's also a glimpse of Piotr from Adorable...
I think it's probably fair to say that, of all the bands I've given my heart to, Ride are the ones who probably changed my life, and its velocity and vectors, to the greatest extent. Clearly, it all ended it tears - and Andy Bell's subsequent work for Oasis has been heartbreaking (like having the world's greatest pastry chef operating the machine to squirt the filling into Mr Kipling's fruit pies) - but there was a time, from the first appearance on Sunb TV to roughly the dying moments of OX4, where they were just about perfect.
So, then: a weekend with Ride. Kicking off with Dreams Burn Down, live in the Brixton Academy, 1992.
Buyer's Guide: Nowhere - a 2006 remastering of the debut album (and, frankly, their greatest work) Waves: The BBC Sessions - most essential for their Dead Can Dance cover Box Set - contains a best of, a b-sides collection, and a live album Smile - a combination of their two debut eps, 'roses' and 'daffodils'
In what is a slightly less than fraternal approach to the news, NME.com is denying a story carried by sister magazine website Uncut.co.uk. Uncut reports that Andy Bell is on the point of bringing about a Ride reunion; NME talks to Dave Newton, the band's manager, who suggests it isn't going to happen:
"This point in time would be the least likely for this kind of thing to happen - they're all very busy at the moment with individual commitments and very full schedules. Having said that, if the organisers of NXNW want to get in touch with an offer, I'd have to put it to the boys."
Which is a pity - we'd quite like a Ride reunion, providing Andy Bell's current boss can be persuaded not to turn up and spoil things.
The Scotsman meets up with Jim Reid to find out the motivation for the Mary Chain reunion. Could it be money?
"Obviously, or I'd be lying to you - and I hate when other people do that. I'm not rich. I'm not lighting cigars with £50 notes. I've got a family, and it's a consideration. I'm not saying I'm doing it for the money but I'd be a fool if I said it didn't matter."
Still, it must be nice to have all that falling-out and bad blood firmly in the past. It is in the past, isn't it, Jim?
"It's never going to be perfect. Me and William will always yell at each other. We always have, we always will. I don't really know how it's gonna go, nobody does. But we have to do this to find out whether it's going to work or not. I really am nervous. We haven't played music together for about ten years, so it's going to be... interesting."
At the word "interesting", a dozen venue managers run fingers around the inside of their collars and double-check their insurance policies.
Of note to shoegazers, reformed and otherwise, is the detail that drummer for the tour will be Loz Colbert, formerly of Ride (that's Bobby Gillespie stood down, then - clearly the brothers Reid decided they wanted more than one drum being tapped throughout the show) and Phil King out of Lush will be doing the bass.
Back when No Rock had more hair and our eyes sparkled brightly with hope and dreams, our lives were soundtracked by Ride. So, we're delighted to hear that the sessions recorded for Channel 4's Sonic Youth show have been released as an ep, Coming Up For Air. Meanwhile, in the US, the long awaited release of wrap-up set OX4 is going to have extra tracks exclusive to the US, allowing you to buy the album all over again on import. Although, to be honest, as much as we love Ride, "a track that got chopped off Going Blank Again" isn't the most tempting recommendation we've ever heard.
Now, about that The Charlottes box set we've been wanting...
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