RIDE ON TIME
With a perfect sense of timing, RIDE -- the band who'll
shake-up the independents this year -- release their debut
45 on Monday, a buzzing burst of energy into the slow-going,
post Christmas doldrums.
Along with the few other sparklers (LPs by The Sundays,
Carter, a single by the Edsel Auctioneer) Ride's contribution
to an otherwise shallow January is a record not short on
colour or contrast. It contains four tracks of guitar tension,
leading with early 'live favourite' 'Chelsea Girl' (not the
Simple Minds one!) and accompanying A-side tease 'Drive Blind'.
It's on Creation. Which is a surprise, but a good one. Alan
McGee, at about the same time as Your Hassled Scribe, latched
onto Ride last year and realised that here was something worth
getting excited about.
Collecting together tracks they've demo-ed over the past year, the
'Chelsea Girl' EP merges influences, including a confessed liking for
The Beatles (!) into a fusion of wah-wah guitar, shy vocals and flailing
drums. The House Of Love with chainsaws.
At times it's right up in your face, at times it's just in your head,
dreamlike and moody. It is a good way to start the year, cleaning out
the cobwebs.
Ride are terrifically self-motivated. Together in Oxford for just over
a year (after meeting at Art College -- "It was only a foundation course!"),
they've cemented their sound, packed in the jobs they got to support
themselves and happily talk about "working on the group full-time".
We meet up at EMI Publishing in London's Charing Cross Road where they're
recording some Blondie cover versions with a guest girl vocalist for a party
giveaway tape.
The EP then...
Andy (guitar/vocals): "We're very proud of it as a first step. The songs
all appear in the order that we wrote them because we felt everyone should
get into the band the same way we did."
"There's a thread running through them, of escapism. Like 'Chelsea Girl' --
it started off as a song about going to London with your girlfriend, but
we've changed it now, it's just about love. We try to make our lyrics a bit
ambiguous."
Andy: "In the beginning all the songs were quite angry songs. Quite heavy.
Because the band was our way of getting the stress out of college."
In their very, very early days ride rehearsed in a garage and played their
first gig locally -- and tremendously nervously -- supporting a thrash-metal
band. With the help of a few contacts they've eased along preciously worried
about being hyped.
They have the typical ambitions of a fresh-faced four-boy pop band who are
being modest, ie 'We take every stage as it comes Brian,'. This is why we
skip over 40 questions and who they'd most like to meet at the Top Of The
Pops Studios.
At the moment they're ever so content, people are still approaching them
rather them doing the lap-dog bit. Enter McGee, enter the New Born
Creation.
Lawrence (drums): "The thought of someone looking on us as a sort of
rejuvination -- as a breath of fresh air is really rewarding."
Stephan (bass): "At the moment we just want to do what we want to do, we
don't need the pressure of a record company. But Creation have given us a lot
of room, they just said do the single and we'll see how it works out. They
were the only ones who came and saw us, rather than asking us to go and see
them."
Obvious really, because Ride show an obvious potential to follow in the
footsteps of The House Of Love and My Bloody Valentine. Maybe not so many
traumas along the way. But then again what's life without a bit of
excitement? I'll tell you. Life without a bit of excitement is Oxford. Or
Sherbourne.
Andy: "That's right, we played in Sherbourne... we were loading the gear
into the van after the gig and the crowd who'd been watching us came out
of the gig and after standing round in the street for a while all rushed
to the end of the road to this railway track and watched as the train went
past. And they were all shouting and cheering. It made their night. Sod rock
bands! When's the next train come through?"
Right on schedule, Andy.
'Chelsea Girl' by Ride is out on Creation on Monday. A tour is currently
being arranged, but they warm-up by supporting The Mighty Lemon Drops at
London's Astoria on January 14.
Steve Lamacq
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