CITY indie-rock band Ride returned to their roots to play songs from their hit new album in an East Oxford record shop.
The band, which formed in the city in 1988, saw their latest release, Interplay, reach number two in last week's midweek album charts – only kept off the top by global superstar Beyoncé.
To the delight of fans, frontman Mark Gardener, guitarist and singer Andy Bell, drummer Laurence ‘Loz’ Colbert and bassist Steve Queralt, took a break from their national tour to play a pair of intimate sets at the Truck Store.
The Cowley Road music shop is just doors away from Mark’s old home – a flat above the former Honest Stationery shop.
“It’s almost like coming home,” he said before going on stage at the front of the small shop for the second of Thursday evening’s sets.
Music lovers and members of the Oxford music scene packed the shop, squeezed between racks of records as the four-piece performed a pair of acoustic sets.
They played five songs from their latest long-player – Peace Sign, Last Frontier, I Came to See the Wreck, Monaco and set closer Last Night I Went Somewhere to Dream.
They also treated fans to live favourite Vapour Trail and Cowley Road tribute OX4.
Mark encouraged fans to support the independent record shop – and to buy their album.
And he made light of the chart battle which saw Interplay denied a number one spot this week by former Destiny’s Child star Beyoncé’s album Act II: Cowboy Carter.
He said: “We have been kept off the top of the chart by Beyoncé. Keep supporting these record stores or all we’ll have is Beyoncé!”
Though he laughed: “I do love Beyoncé.”
Ride's Mark Gardener at Truck Store, Oxford, Picture by Tim Hughes
Shop manager Carl Smithson said the in-store sets were among the best shows seen in the shop, which opened about 13 years ago.
“It has been great to have Ride here for these intimate performances, right back where they started off on Cowley Road. And they sounded amazing.”
He added: “We are all about supporting the local music scene and they don’t come more local than Ride.”
Ride are among Oxford’s best-loved musical exports.
The band have their roots at Cheney School, Headington, where Mark met Andy. He met Loz while studying art and design at North Oxfordshire College in 1988 and went on to recruit Steve, who was working in the city’s fondly-remembered Our Price Records shop.
They played their first shows at the college, the Jericho Tavern and Oxford Polytechnic – now Oxford Brookes University.
Signed by Alan McGee’s Creation Records label, they enjoyed huge success in the early 90s. Their debut album, Nowhere, charted at 11, and follow-ups Going Blank Again and Carnival of Light both reached number five.
Following the release of their fourth album Tarantula, they split up. Band members pursued their own individual projects, with Andy joining Oasis as bassist.
In 2014, after 20 years apart, they reformed, going on to release Weather Diaries, This is Not a Safe Place and critically acclaimed new album Interplay.
They have played triumphant hometown shows at the New Theatre, Oxford’s Common People festival in South Park, and Oxford Town Hall, and have filled large venues and topped festival bills around the world.
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