Under the Jericho walls.
On December 17th, two days before the secret gig at the ULU, Ride gave an intimistic concert at the Jericho Tavern, a pub in Oxford where the band had played for the first time in 1989. The original idea was to play an exact reproduction of this first gig, with the same covers and unreleased songs (Hit me like a Train, Intro 154, Tomorrow never knows), and using the same guitars Mark and Andy hadn't their new Rickenbacker yet - but this idea was abandoned because of Ride's unability to fall into these beginner years again.
They played a quite normal concert, a sort of " warm-up gig " for the ULU. Quite normal, considering that after having played before substantial audiences, Ride was playing here in front of 200 people, and some of them didn't even know who they were seeing. The Jericho Tavern was playing the game, anouncing a gig of " Arthur Turner's Lovechild?", whose mysterious name was surrounded by lots of "?". So, excepting the band's own VIPs (most of them were other musicians and friends), and the rare fans who had heard about the event, the audience was mainly made with usual clients coming here as during a normal night at the Tavern.
For the fans who were there, happy to see Ride in such an unusual atmosphere, the night was fantastic. But for Ride it was quite disappointing because of the majority of the audience, feeling quite unconcerned. They must have learned a lesson: no more secret gig without telling the fans !
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Translation by Thomas Burgel
A special secret gig of Ride in London is enough to spend an exceptional evening, still when the support guests appear to be Lush in another secret gig, then you come to believe in a miracle. If we had not seen Miki Berenyi roam about the venue, we might indeed not have believed it. This "first concert", as for us Lush could not be just a supporting act, was given in honour of bassist Steve Rippon's departure. It was his last gig with the band. No reason to moan but rather to give "lots of enthusiasm" as Miki will beckon before starting the first song. Seeing how good-humoured they all look, you wonder why Steve is going... However, if it helps, good humour has never been enough to make a good gig. After hearing several live recordings I was somewhat sceptical about stage performances by Lush even though on records they are one of my favourite bands. False notes and weak vocals seemed too frequent. Yet, that night at ULU Lush surprised me, better, they seduced me. Their sound is powerful and dense, Miki and Emma's joint voices form a delicious bitter-sweet mixture and you don't need to wear trousers to fall under the red-haired Eurasisn girl's charm - one of lush's essential ornaments with Emma's legs.
As for Ride later on, the set was based on a perfect balance between old and newsongs. The new stuff seems to indicate a shift towards atmospherical tracks, as already noticed on the Sweetness and Light EP. They bring about different feelings: romantic in the excellent Covert, fatalistic in Monochrome, almost fearful in Stray. The "classics" that are DeLuxe, wonderfully merged on the final note of Covert, Thoughtforms, or the dynamic Bitter bring us back to a sturdier rhythm, stressed by sharper vocals. Played alternatively in concert, all these tracks make sure the audience goes through lots of different impressions and remains curious and interested until the end of the gig. Indeed although it was totally devoted to Ride (the concert was reserved to fans) the ULU punters offered Lush a deserved enthousiast response. Back on stage for a requested encore, Miki jokingly mentioned that they were only supporting and had to leave the place, which they did after Steve's final speech and a vigorous Babytalk that consecrated his qualities of bass player. Lush-Ride, first set, 1-0. Oxford on service. There's no point in trying to guess shat the final score is. Even though Ride's victory was obvious as they only faced hard-core fans, this victory was well deserved because they played really well, as well as in Lille, in a set perfectly, almost mathematically divided into old and new tracks. The feeling in the packed University of London Union was electric, the sheer "hello" from Mark was enough to raise riot and the moshpit soon became a battle place. The Belgian delegation had wisely secured its place on the balcony, fans but not crazy!
As a Xmas present, Ride played two new tracks: Making Judy Smile and Mouse Trap. Two completely different songs, the first one in the pop wake of Like A Daydream or Taste, the second one denser but wild, a bit "Seagull-meets-Nowhere" - well, sort of . Leaving your imagination and personal souvenirs give life to the other songs, let me just give you my first reaction on these two new Ride creations . The "schoolboy song - like" Making Judy Smile, did not convince me at first (apart from the instrumental ending where the guitars part is particularly seductive) and I guess they will have to play it more (or that I'll have to hear it more) before it reveals its real potential. Some songs require more efforts but they generally end up stronger then the rest so I won't give a definitive impression now. Mouse Trap, on the other hand, is a "love at first sight" song, the "coup de foudre" as we say in French. It gives Ride's best, as if the band had wanted to create the perfect song by cutting off and gathering the best parts in other tracks. It starts in a Perfect Time riff that in three months will be cheered at just like the first Drive Blind notes, then speeds up foolishly tike Unfamiliar. The bassline gets mad and the drums roll on wild: as the drumner with Ride, Laurence Colbert has not chosen the most peaceful job. This very long breathtaking introduction is softened by Mark and Andy's sweet vocals reminding some of the Leave them all behind melancholy. Then comes the surprising moment in Mouse Trap. Instead of traditional verses interrupted by an instrumental break, here we have a short and quieter vocal part, that appears as the gap between two impressive guitar waves. They already used this "trick" in Nowhere but the break is even sharper here: they almost sing a capella and are literally guillotined by the succeeding cutting guitars. To make it absolutely perfect the track goes on with a profusion of Seagull-like distortions and then stops in a silence quickly transformed into cheers from a charmed audience. Need I say this song is splendid? I'll say it: Mouse Trap is splendid. That quite appropriately named mouse trap gives place ta Seagull and I remember thinking then that this classic of a song came early in a concert that had just begun. How naive...After Seagull, Ride go! After these short twenty minutes - all right 45 to be honest - the concert is over. Of course we'll have two encores and three more tracks but one hour for a special gig, isn't it too short or am I so demanding? Nevermind..the encores are excellent, one with the ever-burning Dreams Burn Down and the wondrous Time of her Time - have I already told you that this song is beautiful? Have I? Well - the other with the unavoidable Drive Blind, shortened to a reasonable 7-8 minutes version. You don't break your drums every night, do you Loz? Mark wishes us a happy Christmas and here is another one over! Some of us will then have to queue for the cloakroom, others will listen to their precious recordings, and I will have a small chat with some of you: hello Robert, David and Sandra! "Great concert, wasn't it?" "Yes but a bit short". Don't tell me...
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From the outside it probably looked like any other concert. Queue at the door, Lush as support guests, Ride playing for just one hour, then everyone went home. Yet, that night at ULU was different. The gig had been announced in September when the band had just successfully completed the first cycle of their existence (EPs, concerts, album, tours, festivals) and were heading for a new sequence. Ride invited their fans to celebrate it with them, as a Christmas present. No way to resist going. The opportunity was nice. Indeed we too had something to celebrate with the band: what, for almost two years, they had started to mean to us. And reasons to love Ride are many:
- for their powerful and masterly music that, unlike others, needs no superficial
show nor misleading sidelines;
- for this pure attitude of committing themselves totally to the music without
showing off like stars;
- for the courage of following a personal course, as was made clear with the
first album; it was different from what some people expected, more subtle exactly
the record they needed to do (and, strangely enough, the one we really needed
to hear);
- for the voices evoking pain and hope, confusion and solution, taking everything
away into the transfiguring body of the music;
- for that kind of generosity which appears as well in their respect for the
fans as through the profusion of the guitars; "they're your songs" they wrote
us once speaking of their little masterpieces, and we were happy.
Big business, blind media and arrogant journalism interfere in our approach to music to the point of depriving us from its very core. Ride overwin those obstacles and offer us real music again, as real as were and will always remain (among others) the music of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joy Division, The Cure, My Bloody Valentine at their best moments. Too many lies, too much narrowmindedness are making our world insane, belittling people, humiliating us as if we were puppets unaware of being led and fed. Ride help us to react and lift our heads again, to leave them all behind, including those turning the temple into a market place and the spokesmen of the debilitating systems (the older ones as well es the new ones). Ride bring back in us a sense of adventure and teach us how to fly.
Merging intensity and serenity, concentration and recreation, vulnerability and confidence, personality and unpretentiousness, their music raises and regenerates. This is what we were celebrating on 19 Decenber at ULU, each one of us carrying our little personal story with Ride and our gratitude. The concert was 100% in the band's own style: despite the new year's celebrations in the air, there was no shoddy stage set, no embarrassed speech (Mark just wished us a Merry Christmas), the whole celebration was in music. And, of course, Ride were brilliant. Seagull had never flown so high, Drive Blind had never gone so far. With some new songs slipping unnoticed in our ears, and Like a Snowflake preciously kept in our hands, we left the venue, happy to have been there and, as they say, full of (p)Ride.
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Jan Koenot, Antwerpen, January 1992
In their hometown Oxford, for the first gig of the year, Ride gave us what the ULU secret gig somewhat lacked: the unexpected. From Leave them all behind with its new alienating ending, to the rediscovered freshness of Chelsea Girl, the 80 - minute concert gave all we could have hoped for. And more. Beyond expectancy. In a set mainly built around the new album (nine tracks out of ten were played), Ride also played some of the best old songs but did not for so much choose to play it safe by leaving the most successful numbers unchanged. Indeed, the euphoriant Vapour Trail surprises us with a two-voices singing, Mark joining Andy in a softer but still as glittering version. Nowhere is becoming more and more insane: when the noise flood splashes on the classical Apollo theatre Andy is shaken by psychedelic spasms, Mark forgets everything around him and Steve is bent so hard on his bass guitar that his knees touch the floor. Although we've come to expect it, this moment is always as impressive.
Nevertheless it's in Drive blind that Ride will play exactly the opposite of what they re expected to. Jammed between two new tracks in the middle of the set - I for a while feared that they might leave the stage right after it - Drive blind starts normally and goes on in a perfect routine. We're already holding our breath for the usual hurricane of sound but this is where Ride get us: when they reach that note, they just go on with the song and end it as they started it, with unruffled serenity. Just like a car hurtling towards a wall suddenly turns away at the last second and rides on as if nothing had happened. Once the first moment of disappointment has faded, I nust admit that this is a good thing. After some time, this sonic chaos did no longer provoke us and therefore lost its very reason of being. Ride won't be foreseeable and they have found the best way not to be.
Among the new tracks, OX4 particularly seduces me with its irresistible, I dare say danceable, rhythm which come so unexpected from Ride. It is furthermore enlightened by a wonderful visual effect, which leads me to open a long parenthesis on music in order to focus on a new aspect in a Ride concert: the lightshow. Forget the kaleidoscope that accompanied the Nowhere tour and think of tight columns, lasers and wall projections. Imagined by Ride themselves and realised, on their instructions, by a talented engineer, the light show gives a new dimension to the concert: after securing the comfort of the ears, the band now deals with our eyes end the effect is stunning. From pale green cones surrounding them in Chrome waves to laser rings flying around in Twisterella, and the beautiful fountain of stars that seems to spring up from Loz's drums during OX4, each song has its atmosphere, its colour, its image and everything has been designed with the care and perfection that Ride know the secret of. We knew they were excellent musicians, we now discover they are artists to the bones, as much for the sound as for the image. Well done. Then slowly this more than excellent concert comes to an end but nor Drive blind nor Nowhere will give the final assault. Nor the surprisingly absent Seagull, which is however impossible to regret as it is admirably repleced by the all powerful Mouse Trap.
The first encore, again associating Dreams burn down and Time of her time is rather expected but the second one - highly deserved and acclaimed by Oxford's mad audience - offers us what no one would have dared to ask: Chelsea girl. Hooked at the tail of this comet of new tracks, Chelsea girl seemed to belong in a long forgotten past but watching Ride play it with the passion of the first days blows a welcome wind of freshness. When you realize how fast they grow, as well musically as saleswise, you start to fear they might change in their attitude or development but, as the lively Chelsea girl will show us that night, Ride is still Ride, that is four talented guys who keep their feet on the ground and won't get lured by dangerous success. Maybe it's by this honest and uncompromised enthusiasm that they are the most exceptional.
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In October 1990, after a nine months existence and three eps, Ride release their first album, Nowhere. Expected and praised, Nowhere is a first successful challenge. Ride innovate, play with new instruments, write more sophisticated tracks and sets a model of its kind with alternating quiet and noisy bits: "[Nowhere] is more mature, I guess, but above all it shows what we can do live. The first eps paved the way but the album is really going to lead to our own marks. We are very proud of it because we didn' t make any compromise" (Another View # 3, translsted back from French).
However, the band don' t linger over it and, when being questioned about it, stubbornly look to the future: "We loved it at the time, but it's gone for us now. It's out and there's nothing more we can do to it. Any questions or doubts about it have to be referred to the next album" (Mark, MM, 5/1/91). After a British and European tour and some Japanese dates, they start working on a new ep which softly reveals some development, as Andy explains: "It's a kind of middle EP. The way we're going will be much clearer the next time do a record. This has been atmost like catching up with ourselves. lt's the first time we've ever gone into the studio having no songs written at all, just ideas" (Andy, MM, 16/3/91).
With Today Forever, those who had been won by the nervous Chelsea Girl, the arrogant Seagull or the angry Perfect Time, find out that Ride's strength doesn't only derive from tempestuous tracks but also from falsely quiet songs: "We don't want to make the same record twice. Who knows, we may be doing quieter stuff now, but there may be a lot more noise to come" (Mark, Metro Times, March 1991).
What is to come is partly revealed during the summertime festivals. Ride play some new stuff and Leave them all behind (then called the "B-song") surprised the crowds with its rhythm tape but especially with its astonishingly powerful epic atmosphere. Leave them all behind, Chrome waves, Time of her time indicate a new direction and careful fans understand that Ride are seriously developing. "It means we do something different next time. We are now very aware of what we don't want to sound like. There's a lot of rules there now. Loud guitars, soft vocals. A quiet bit followed by a really loud bit. We re not going to be that obvious anymore" (Steve, Select, September 1991). Mark confirms how concerned they are with getting better and better: "If we've done it already and shown the best of Ride then there's no point in continuing, there's so many things we haven't experimented with yet, for instance, we've never used keyboards in our music, the best is definitively yet to come from us" (Mark, On the Scene, September 1991).
September puts an end to festival time and Ride enter the studio to work on their new album, which is possibly even more expected than the first one. This puts them in a rather uncomfortable situation: "We're at the worst point we could possibly be at - the second album from the great white guitar hopes. You can sense that people want us to fail. They want to laugh at us so they can feel better about themselves" (Andy, NME, 8/2/92). Despite (or maybe because of) this risk to fail, Ride are determined to do as they feel like it, ignoring their reputation of leader of a certain indie "guitar band" wave. "That's a side of us you'll be seeing a lot more of, rather than just the normal guitar, bass, and drums. In the past we were into making things sound very big, with reverb or delay, but it's the sort of thing all the indie bands are doing now. It'a sort of indie-by-numbers, and it's just very easy to do. Next recording, we'll definitely be using violin and piano and... accordion. And big cymbals. A kettle drum. Harmonica. Oh, and a triangle, as well. We're really trying to get that marching brass sort of feel" (Steve, Options, January 1992).
Caught by some sort of creative assault, Ride write and record enough stuff to release a double album. "We recorded 24 songs and see've shaved that to ten. We were dabbling wildly in various genres and in the end we were advised not to. So now it's a lot more streamlined" (Steve, NME, 8/2/92).
As Autum leaves place to Winter, the album, preceded by a single, is announced for the beginning of the year. On February 3, Leave them all behind gives a first taste of the new material and the instrumental Grasshopper opens the most beautiful perspectives. At last Going Blank Again is released on 9 March. Having listened to it over and over again leaving no single note unheard, I can say that indeed Ride have run down all the preconceptions we might have had. They have stayed deeply honest with themselves, and more than ever show their need to be different, unforeseeable, and, omitting their natural modesty, the best. Will the rest of the world follow them? "(We've probably taken a risk) but it's not a risk to us 'cos we made the music that we really wanted to make and if, at the end of the day, it goes wrong saleswise or whatever, alright we'd be a bit disappointed but it's more important to do something that we're really into at the time. To me, this album is a lot better than anything we've done before. We're playing better and we're more confident but thet's not the main thing. What was essential to us was that we didn't repeat what we'd already done" (Mark, MM, 15/2/92). Well they haven't.
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Come to think about it, Going Blank Again is a most appropriate title for the second Ride album. Blank may mean "astonished", "disconcerted" and the album is, well, disconcerting. Forget your preconceived ideas on noise-pop or how a perfect guitar-band should sound like. Ride is way beyond that. Don't try to impose them limits they will be in such a hurry to jump over. Of course it all starts with guitars which, it seems to me, have never been put to more beautiful use. As from Leave them all behind they appear as an inexhaustible source of emotions, weeping in the first seconds, choking in the last; all through the ten tracks they swirl their way from melancholy (Time of her time) to joy (Twisterella), take on the lightness of lace (Chrome waves) or the creaking of iron filings (Making Judy Smile). When they tend to reach too high, the bassline holds them down (Leave them all behind); if they get lost in a mesh of sounds, the voices bring them out softly (Mouse Trap). Each element supports or strengthens the other and the first feeling you may get from Going Blank Again is that of a surprising harmony, even though it is sometimes born from chaos (Leave them all behind) or a falsely awkward rhythm (Not Fazed).
With their live performances, Ride had already given us an idea of what the album might sound like but one of the album's shock comes from their talented use of other instruments to appear exactly where they should, first bringing the listener to astonished incomprehension ("what, Ride using an organ?") quickly replaced by a grateful acknowledgement ("well of course, it's perfect"). So pianos, organs, keyboards slip more or less discretely between the guitars and drums, creating a particularly vivid effect in Twisterella and Not Fazed and an irresistible feeling of comfort in Cool your Boots and Chrome Waves. On Chrome Waves Ride go even further . Their love for music is such that they are ready to forget themselves to produce the best sound: if keyboards create the best atmosphere , let the guitars pass unnoticed. Then the few acoustic light notes that Andy seems almost unwilling to let loose are all the more precious. Chrome waves, if need be, completely convince you that if Ride have chosen to move apart from the traditional model (that we create, not them), it is only for the sake of music. And if they take risks, they're worth it.
Ride nonetheless keep the noisy strength that built their reputation with tracks like the wild Mouse Trap, the impossibly romantic Time of her Time, or the excellent Leave them all behind. Cool your Boots is disorientating: not knowing anything about techniques, I can't tell how many guitars are fighting here - two, four or six? - but what is most surprising is that this chaotic semblance gives rise to a deep feeling of serenity. As if time had stopped. No, as if it had slowed down. Keyboards's softening effect probably, and something else too, Ride's copyright.
Talking about harmony... Going Blank Again is a varied album were each song stands apart with its own marked character. However it remains compact and, despite the numerous innovations, so typically "Ride". Where is then the link between the perfectly pop Twisterella and Making Judy Smile, the rockier Mouse Trap, the ethereal Time Machine or the dancing OX4? First in the sound: clear and authentical, such as the sound Ride offer us live, only smoothed out. Then and mainly, in the finishing of songs. Listening to other bands, good as they may be, often leaves me wanting for more, sure that they still could do better. With Ride I have the opposite reaction: how could they think of this? Think of the strange voice on Cool your Boots, the almost inaudible soft backing vocals on Time of her Time or Twisterella, the instrumental that subtly leads us to OX4 or the very last note of Twisterella, like the last drop which stains the tablecloth if you remove the teapot too quickly. All are details grafted on the already powerful bodies of the songs but take them off and you'll see how needed they are. Once the astonishment has faded, you can start snoozing away and let Ride take you where they want. Going Blank Again, both in its music and lyrics, is a call to travel, an invitation to dream. Leave them all behind sets the tune as it invites you to leave and tet it flow. The up and down waves of Not Fazed and Cool your Boots will show you the way and Time Machine will make you loose all sense of time. "Imaginations are running wild", let them run then. The album ends on the entertaining OX4, Ride's first Oxford song, and the last words you'll hear Andy and Mark sing are "I'm going home". Is there a more beautiful ending? Didn't I tell you Ride had a talent for well finished things?
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