In the concert review in Melody Maker this week, there is the following line: "If Ride thought they could ever do away with the lyrics althogether, they wouldn't hesitate".
Mark: Oh, no, I don't know. I wanna sing better and better. Really when we started, our main concern was to be really loud and noisy and now we still want to be noisy and stuff but we also want to write really good songs. What we are listening to, people that influence us, have changed as well. I mean, like, I've listened to lots of things by Crosby, Stills and Nash, people that uses their voices really well, harmonies and stuff. So that's what I want to do more of as well.
You used to mention Slowdive and stuff as the bands you were listening to, now you always mention other bands...
Mark: I don't know, we've always listened to lots of old bands but out of the bunch that came after what we were doing, I thought that Slowdive were good because they took the pop into an extreme which is good if you're in the mood for it but the rest of them weren't really good. I just don't think there's been many good bands around this year, there's a lack of very good bands. I thought Verve were all right as well. The thing is a lot of the bands are alright but they're not very convincing. It's really "You can take it or leave it". I like things that hit me like the Stone Roses did, and the Mondays did as well. Nothing else…
When you see the coverage in the press of a band like Suede, do you see Ride as you were two years ago?
Mark: Yes, I know what they're going through. It's weird but I feel a bit like an old timer now. I'm only 22 and I've seen the wheel going round once. I hope Suede pull it off, I think they're OK as well. Andy quite likes Suede. But it's not king of "hit me", I think they're alright. What is strange is that a lot of bands, as soon as they start, they get so much attention, in England especially, but it can take bands a long time to get really good. There are a lot of alright bands but there aren't many that are really good…A few of them might be in a few years.
You managed quite well.
Mark: Yeah, I think so. I think the next album will be easily the best thing we've done.
Have you already written some new material?
Mark: There's a few ideas that have started but now we're clear of all the hassles of this year I think everyone wants more than anything to get a really good album out. All through Ride's existence it's been generally a good laugh but half of this year was no laugh at all. The only way to put those things in the past is to do something like a good album. We've just been touring so much and it always works that if you're in a studio for too long, you want to go on tour and if you're touring too long, and we took too long this year, you're dying to get back into a studio and just get new things to happen.
You insist on a "good album", does it mean that Going Blank Again is disappointing?
Mark: Oh, no, it's just that Going Blank Again has run out of its course. GBA, for us, is the actual record as soon as we put it out and now it's kind of ended for us because we've finished, with tonight and last night, the GBA tour. I'm sure we'll play things from it still the next time and maybe earlier songs, but we just want to change again and make it better.
Which group has had the ideal career for you? Or what would be the ideal career?
Mark: I don't know really. I guess, of recent bands, the Cure. I quite like the Cure anyway, but just the way it grew on their own terms and they made lots of good albums. Some people can do well in a career sense but their music starts sounding rubbish. So, the Cure did well. I guess you've got to look at people like the Beatles and say what better career can you have. It's just through experimenting, finding new things and just keying in with what everyone was thinking at the time. It must be really good. Any band that managed a good album and kept it on their w"n terms and they still sounded good, I suppose you can keep to what REM have done, the Bunnymen did it too until they split. That was a good career, that was a mess I suppose.
Split at the top?
Mark: I don't know It just gets to that point where you can't really say. You just have to see how it goes. It's a good question...It always changes. Every time you think something's gonna happen, usually the opposite happens and you just have to go with it. It's quite good that you don't know what's gonna happen cause it keeps it exciting. If you worked with a plan in mind of how you'd like your career to be, it could be pretty boring. It's easy as well if you want to just get top-ten records and sound that way for maybe a year or something but it's hard to actually keep people buying your records in ten years or fifty years or, hopefully, eternity. I don't know, most of the bands I listen to now are maybe ten, twenty, thirty years old. It still sounds as good now.
I wonder what music's gonna sound like in some twenty years...
Mark: I think my main aim is to feel that all the music I listen to and inspired us in the first place, that we can do something of equal standard, if not higher, and that we'll stand the test of time. Hopefully different generations will listen to us. That's why I have never been that bothered with what everyone's saying about you, how you fit in or you don't fit in because it doesn't really matter. Especially in England where you've got one fashion and then as soon as something else comes along it has to be opposite from everything that's gone before, if you tried to be fashionable every year in England, you'd just be schizophrenic.
You've managed to stay out of the Scene.
Mark: Well, we were affected to a certain extent but hopefully the music should only be your music, it can only be you. If it works, it works, if it doesn't, it doesn't. What it can be is what you wanted it to be and I'm happy now cause I feel there's an audience which is gradually growing. I mean, even the Charlatans had a tougher time after what happened to them, when they first released their album and had their hits. But they never went completely mad. It's mad that we're still touring, we're sort of three years old and we're gonna do another album.
You're going to play with the Charltatans next year?
Mark: I think so. We're just gonna try to find some place to do it, maybe some big tent. It's a bit weird as we kind of started at the same time, some of the things have happened at different times and I've always had this thing about looking like Tim Burgess! We met at Reading and he was drunk and I was drunk. And I said "we'll have to do a show" and then we both went "yeah, but these things never happen". Now it looks like it might. Good things can come out of drunkards!
Less than 2 months after this interview, on 5 January 1993, Mark was interviewed by Mark Goodier. His reflection on the foregone tour was somewhat different:
Mark: I think looking back now it must have done some good because we seemed to play everywhere! At the time it got really tiring, obviously, and we all got a bit fed up. I think basically we're all quite lazy and it was too much hard work but I think it must have done some good. At the time you're never really sure because it's hard tio get any distance from it because you're in the coach all the time or you're at a different venue... There were lots of weird rumours and things flying around but it certainly wasn't anything like that. It was actually quite good.
Mark Goodier: So have you really enjoyed the space you've had from each other?
Mark: Yeah, but I feel bored now! I want to get back and go on the road again. I think we're all kind of now because we've spent so long playing all the songs all the time we're just dying to be creative again and get another album together!
Mark Goodier: Have you worked individually, have you heard what all the other members have done?
Mark: Yeah, bits and pieces and it sounds good. The good thing now is for the first time we've actually got some time to use and we're trying to use it well. We don't feel under pressure to do anything at the moment so we're just writing songs for the right reason: because we want to and it feels good to be doing that. I think we'll all be definitely in the studio quite early in the next year. l'm sure there'll be singles and an album, maybe before the winter. I don't know but definitely within the next year there'll be lots more releases.
Interview by
How did you get to manage Ride?
They needed a manager and l knew Steve, that's about it really. There's wasn't any real planning or decision. I used to promote in Oxford, running local music papers and I seemed like the obvious choice. They were just too lazy to do it themselves and I had an office and a daytime phone number, I knew other promoters. In Oxford at the time, there wasn't a lot of choice.
Have you worked for other bands?
No, well not in managing. I'd been promoting for about two years, running a paper for about two and a half years. l put out a couple of records on a label, so l've been in studios with bands but not in that sort of capacity. It's a learning experience and I didn't know what l was doing but l knew more than them. Just. And I'm three or four years older. It was enough.
What's the best thing and worst thing of working with Ride?
lt's hard to sum it up. The thing I enjoy most is the recording and the release of records. That's the exciting part. I've been buying records for so long and it's still amazing for me to sit in the office and put all the parts of a record sleeve together and one month later see it in the shop. It's the bit I enjoy most. What makes them different to work with, the reason why I don't think I could work with other bands is that lots of bands don't seem to have any understanding of what goes on. The four of them are very interested, they take a lot of care and control over what happens, which makes it easier for me to make the right decisions when I'm dealing with the record company or whoever. They're very involved with what goes on. The worst thing is because of that, it takes ages to make a decision because everything has to go through everyone, everyone has to talk about it. It can take a long time getting something done. Sometimes I get a phonecall and something needs to be discussed, I know what the answer's gonna be but it has to go all the way round and all the arguments. Sometimes it's too democratic cause it takes too long. But it's much better that way.
There's nothing that really upsets you then?
Obviously whenever you're in a small group of people who spend a lot of time together, Iimagine it's the same thing with afootball team or in a small office or any sort of job when you're always dealing with the same people, living in a bus for weeks on end, all the little things become big problems but nothing that lasts.
I'm the sound engineer. I suppose I just amplify the band, make it sound like people or the band want it to sound like, which is normally far too loud.
How did you get to work with Ride?
Because I live in Oxford and did the sound for them for a couple of times, at concerts they played there. We seemed to get on so they asked me to do it.
What other bands have you worked for?
Slowdive, Swervedriver, various bands. The last couple of years have been mostly Ride because they've toured so much but I don't just work for Ride. I work for anybody.
What's the best thing of working with Ride?
They do a lot of concerts!
What's the worst thing of working with Ride?
They've just stopped doing a lot concerts as this is the last show!
I'm a guitar technician. It's also called other names but you can't really print them. Basically I look after all the guitars. I make sure they're all in tune, put new strings on them and I look after Mark and Andy's equipment, what we call the backline which is what they play through. So Andy plays through an amp and a speaker, so does Mark and I look after them and maintain them if anything goes wrong, I repair guitars as well. Andy broke the neck on the guitar the other day and I had to repair that. It's quite varied. It's not rehearsal work. When I work with other bands, I do different things.
What other bands have you snrked for?
I've worked with Lloyd Cole quite a lot. On his last tour, I was doing the stage sound and doing the monitors and I was stage manager as well. I also did two shows with Sugar in September and I've worked with Bob Mould in the past. I've done Carmel, Wooden Tops. I've been working for maybe ten years and consequently you forget who you've worked for.
What's the best thing of working with Ride?
They're nice people and that makes a big difference. They're a good band to work for.
What's the worst thing of working with Ride?
Like anything on tour, it gets very monotonous and very boring. You can get on each other's nerves a lot. You're ten people together all the time for weeks on end and in the end you end up hating each other but you still stay friends when you get home. Being away from home is the problem.
I'm the monitor engineer and I look after Steve's bass guitar as "ell because the person wha's supposed to do it is in hospital. can't think of one. Qell, it's not really a bad thing but doing so auch touring, you'd like a bit of time aff but I suppose it's a good thing rather than a bad thing. Hur did you get to sork ~ith Ride'F I Live in Oxford and the front sound engineer, Hickey, wss working with the band already and I ~as looking for work. 1 thought l ought to do Ride as well. I went down to a gig and they offered me a job. But 1 kne" the manager Dave for many years. iJhat other bands have you smrked forV Quite a few. All I do is work for bands. Last tour I did was the Candyskins. That's all I've done for the last two years: Candyskins and Ride. ilhat's the best thing of snrking ~ith Ride? Going to different places. llhat's the snrst thing of snrking with RideV Travelling to different places.
What's your job?
Light engineer but some people call it light designer.
How did you get to work with Ride?
The production company works with the lighting company that I work with and that's how I got to do the first tour.
What other bands have you worked for?
The Real People, Thomas Lang, Peter Wallie and loads of other local bands.
What's the best thing of working with Ride?
Everyone get on with each other, it's like one big happy family, it's brilliant.
What's the worst thing of working with Ride?
I don't know if there's one,
How did you get to work with Ride?
I work for a company, Bravado, and they signed hundreds of bands.
What other bands have you worked for?
I worked with Stevie Wonder, ZZTop, Scorpions, Pop Will Eat Itself, Worder Stuff, many, many, lce-T, Gangstarr, Hue & Cry, Spandau Ballet.
What's the best thing of working with Ride?
Of all the people l've mentioned they're probably the best people I've worked with, as people.
What's the worst thing of working with Ride?
The music.
Interview by
Finally the long expected day has come: Ride are in Italy for the first time, and they're playing their only Italian gig in Milan, at the City Square, in front of a poor but hugely excited crowd of no more than 350 screaming fans. Before the show the four boys hang around the venue and on stage: Loz eats a banana and greets the fans waving his fist in the air and howling a powerful "hey!", promptly returned by the crowd.
The gig starts with the classical "bip bip" that precludes the gorgeous guitars of Leave them all behind. Honestly they don't play avery brilliant version of this song, as some technical troubles occurred with Andy (he breaks the first of four strings) and with Steve (he has to replace his black bass with a red one). Anyway I don't think this is the right song to start a gig with: it needs the band to be warmed up more so maybe they should start with an easier song, such as Chelsea Girl or Twisterella. The boys soon make us forget all those philosophical disquisitions by pouring out the flamboyant Taste and Not Fazed and then the totally unexpected Sennen. When they start with the chords of Like A Daydream, the crowd are pushing and screaming frantically. Now it's time for the poppier moment of the night: they put on a smile on our faces by filling our ears with the honey-dripping notes of Tsisterella, OX4, Time Of Her Time and Making Judy Smile. We're still stomping happily when the first chords of Nowhere fill the venue: it's the beginning of an unforgettable spiritual and sonic experience. This is a really weird song, because the album version is a less convincing effort, but live this song allows Ride to reach the top of their actual possibilities, and I can hardly imagine what they should be able to do in a couple of years time! We're still in a deep state of trance when they end the first part of the gig with two pearls: Vapour Trail and Mouse Trap.
After less than a minute they're out again and they shoot at the yelling crowd with two of their best silver bullets: Close My Eyes and Chelsea Girl. Our hands sre burning from too much clapping and my throat is sore from too much singing. They leave the stage, but we want' em back: here they are, playing an epic version of Drive Blind, comparable only to the one performed at La Cigale in Paris last year when Loz literaly teared down his drum-kit. He does exactly the same tonight, while his three friends submerge us in a sea of feedback. The last flash of the night belongs to Steve as he throws his bass on the bass drum!
This has been a really nice gig, although it has been too short, lasting only 70 minutes (no support band performed before). Fortunately they played more angrily and rougher than usual, avoiding duplication of the albums' sounds. The only sad thing was the absence of such wonderful songs as Time Machine, Chrome Waves and Cool Your Boots. Anyway I enjoyed everything. The audience was small but very warm (only devoted fans) and cheerful, and there wes a pleasant intimate atmosphere. I hope Ride and their manager will remember us when they're going to plan the next massive world tour. See you soon, boys!
Review by Piero Piutti