1988

The first song that Ride played together was the Stooges' I Wanna Be Your Dog. It appeared often in their live sets in 1989, sometimes on its own and other times as a part of the last song in the set. It was played at some shows in the first half of 1990 and a few times after that. The last time it was played was November 25, 1994, the last date of the French tour at the Terminal Export, Nancy.

In interviews, Ride said that the songs on the first EP are in the order that they were written. That means Chelsea Girl was first, followed by Drive Blind, All I Can See, and Close My Eyes. All I Can See is the only one of those four which wasn't recorded for their November 6, 1988 demo. All four were played at the January 27, 1989 show and All I Can See appeared on the March 5, 1989 demo.

1989

Ride played their version of the Beatles' Tomorrow Never Knows often during 1989 and several times after that as well. It seems to be one of the band's favorites as it was also chosen for the title of the official newsletter.

Four other unreleased Ride songs appeared in one form or another in 1989. I'm Fine, Thanks was recorded for their second and third demos. Hit Me Like A Train showed up at the January 27 show. Good song, that. Intro 154 is an instrumental that sounds like it was originally meant as an intro to Close My Eyes. It came just before Close My Eyes at the January 27 show. The fourth unreleased song was Ride (mind fuck). I don't know about that one but will see what I can find out.

Six more covers were played at the June 16, 1989 Madonna covers show. These were Lucky Star, Burning Up, Material Girl, True Blue, Like A Virgin, and Femme Fatale, all of which are Madonna songs besides the last which is a Velvet Underground song. Amelia Fletcher from Heavenly helped with vocals at this show. As far as I know, this is the only time these songs were played publicly (and for good reason in most cases).

Andy said in an interview that Eight Miles High, a Byrds cover, was one of the first things they did after recording the first EP. They didn't have the lyric sheet with them when they were recording it and accidentaly forgot one of the verses. It was released on the Through The Looking Glass 1967 compilation in 1990.

European Son, a Velvet Underground cover, was another early Ride recording. It was released in 1990 on Heaven And Hell.

In the latter half of the year, new songs began to show up in the set. Like A Daydream, Silver, Furthest Sense, and Perfect Time, the four songs of the Play EP were played during this period and were recorded sometime before the end of the year.

A demo version of Seagull was recorded on October 29 with Amelia Fletcher from Heavenly helping once again. It and Dreams Burn Down were both played live in the second half of the year.

Ride played four Blondie covers at the December 22 show with Alex Taylor from Motorcycle Boy on vocals. The songs were Union City Blue, Picture This, In The Flesh, and Atomic . Studio versions of Union City Blue and Atomic were recorded for a cassette that was given away to friends and journalists. It was rereleased in 1993 on a limited 7".

1990

On January 13, Ride played extended versions of In A Different Place and Taste at the Rough Trade Shop in London to promote the first EP. Both songs were later released on the Fall EP and included on Nowhere.

Ride played Sight Of You, the first Pale Saints single, for their February 20 Peel Session. They also played it live at their May 9 show.

After playing live non-stop through January and February, Ride took a short break. When they returned in April, Paralysed appeared in the set for the first time. It was later released on Nowhere.

Ride only played a few shows over the summer. During this time, they played Vapour Trail for the first time. It was soon released on Nowhere.

Here And Now and Decay were recorded for their second Peel Session in September. Here And Now first appeared on the Fall EP, and both songs ended up on Nowhere.

Polar Bear, Kaleidoscope, and Nowhere may have been played live in one of those shows over the summer before being released on Fall and/or Nowhere but I don't know for sure. I'm almost certain that Kaleidoscope was never performed live. All of the Nowhere songs were played on the October-December tours except for Kaleidoscope and In A Different Place. In A Different Place didn't show up until the February 1991 tour.

1991

Ride spent a week or two writing and recording Unfamiliar, Sennen, Beneath, and Today for the Today Forever EP. They then spent the end of February and the beginning of March touring in support of it, playing all four songs each night.

A US tour took up part of March and most of April. After a month long break, they returned in June with new songs Leave Them All Behind (originally called B-Song) and Going Blank Again. Leave Them All Behind was later the first single from Going Blank Again, while Going Blank Again appeared on the Twisterella single but did not make it to the album of the same name.

Again they only played a few shows over the summer, with two shows in July and three in August. During this time, Chrome Waves and Time Of Her Time first appeared. After playing Time Of Her Time at the Slough Festival, Andy said they had only written it 2 days earlier. Time Of Her Time was called Ride On Time when it was recorded for a Mark Goodier session. Both were later released on Going Blank Again

The only shows they played in October were three in France for the festival sponsored by French magazine Les Inrockuptibles. No new songs were played there though. Ride then played two shows in mid-December, where they played Making Judy Smile and Mousetrap.

1992

The remaining Going Blank Again songs were developed in the studio. These are Twisterella, Not Fazed, Cool Your Boots, Time Machine, OX4, Grasshopper, Howard Hughes, and Stampede. Grasshopper was released on the single for Leave Them All Behind, while Howard Hughes and Stampede were released on the Twisterella single. All of the album songs were played live on the UK and US tours except for Time Machine and Cool Your Boots. Cool Your Boots was played at the February 7 show but was played very infrequently, if ever, after that. Time Machine didn't make its debut until Ride toured Japan. In Japan they also played Grasshopper. Howard Hughes and Stampede are the only songs from this period that were never played live.

For NME's Ruby Trax compilation, Ride covered Kraftwerk's The Model.

On July 23 in Melbourne, they covered Heroes by David Bowie.

At the Reading Festival in August, they covered John Lennon's I Don't Want To Be A Soldier. This version was later released on a couple of compilations.

1993

By March, Ride had written four new songs and recorded them for the first time for an Evening Session. These songs were Crown Of Creation , Birdman, Walk On Water, and Since Then. All four were then played live at the two Daytripper shows and the Daytripper warm-up show later that month. Crown Of Creation and Birdman went through many changes over the year and were eventually released on Carnival Of Light. Walk On Water was actually written in America in '92 and was recorded for Carnival Of Light but didn't turn out right and wasn't released until Tarantula in 1996, greatly slowed down and with different vocals. This version of Since Then had a part near the end which was later removed and used as the chorus of 1000 Miles. The lyrics of this song went through many changes in 1993 but the song remained about the same. Then for some reason it was completely changed during the Carnival Of Light sessions and was then released on the Birdman single as Don't Let It Die.

The Kids Are Alright, a Who cover, was also played at those three shows in March.

The next two shows came in April, at which time Ride revealed Let's Get Lost. The lyrics changed over the year but the song remained fairly close to this version. It was released (with the addition of horns) on the Birdman single.

Ride played four shows in May and June. It was then that American Spring, At The End Of The Universe, Natural Grace, and 1000 Miles first appeared. American Spring went through mainly lyrical changes and during the Carnival Of Light recording session the title was changed to Magical Spring. Natural Grace and 1000 Miles both stayed about the same through the year and all three of these made it to Carnival Of Light. At The End Of The Universe was released on the How Does It Feel To Feel single.

A June demo gave us the first version of I Don't Know Where It Comes From, which didn't show up in the live set until September. An acoustic version was played on an August radio broadcast. It later appeared on Carnival Of Light

Their one show in July, consisting of all new songs, included From Time To Time, Something's Burning, and You Give Me Sunshine. From Time To Time later appeared on Carnival Of Light. Something's Burning was never released and may be one of the songs that Mark has taken with him to his new group. The title of You Give Me Sunshine was later changed to She's So Fine and finally Sunshine/Nowhere To Run before its release on Tarantula. Oh, and the lyrics were completely changed by the end of 1993 and then again for the version on Tarantula.

How Does It Feel To Feel?, a Creation cover, was first added to the set in September and later appeared on Carnival Of Light.

I'm not sure of the exact dates that Endless Road, Rolling Thunder, Walkabout, Moonlight Medicine, and Only Now came into being. Rolling Thunder was included on a late '93 demo under another name and was released on Carnival Of Light. The others also made it to Carnival Of Light except for Walkabout, which was on the How Does It Feel To Feel? single.

1994

That Man, a Small Faces cover, was played on the Carnival Of Light tour. It was released in 1996 on the Small Faces tribute album.

1995

By the end of the Carnival Of Light tour, Andy had written a bunch of new songs and was anxious to record them. A total of 21 songs were recorded in the first few months of the year. Six were Mark's, one Laurence's, one by the Small Faces (That Man), and 13 by Andy. Three of Mark's remain unreleased and may be used with his new band. Two of Andy's remain unreleased, and he has said that they will never be released.

Ride's last live show was in Spain on August 5. None of the new Tarantula songs were played.

1996

After Ride's breakup and Tarantula's release, Andy played a few live and radio shows to support it. Usually he played a few acoustic Tarantula songs and some of his own new songs. These were the only live performances of Tarantula songs other than Walk On Water and Sunshine/Nowhere To Run (see above).

---

Return to discography page