RIDE: ANDY BELL INTERVIEW
Cutting a very laid back, selfless figure, Andy Bell has spent years basking at side stage, under the shadow of parka-clad Mancunian and his mono-browed brother, purveyors of timeless nineties indie.
Bassist he may have been, but reforming the baggy sounding, fellow friends of Alan McGee band where it all began has seen Andy return to what he loves most. ‘I really prefer being a guitarist. Being a bassist is superb but it’s a completely different set of skills. You have to seamlessly blend in to the overall sound and only the expertly trained will pick it out.’ Surprisingly, the Banbury-based Bell prefers something else. ‘I’m a show off at heart. Being in my favourite band for ten years was amazing, but it’s hard to stand out with the Gallaghers isn’t it?
Being a guitarist and vocalist just pushes me forward and allows me to do what I do best. Do tricks, twists and exciting things on guitar.’ With Ride, the guitar sounds were fresh and new, whilst sparking music historians to roll back the years to psychedelia. Nowhere, recently reissued on its twenty-fifth year anniversary heralds those early Martin Hannett produced Stone Roses demos.
‘The Roses were big for us. You wouldn’t be the first to hear that influence. It was just the sounds that were in the air at the time, those drum beats and the reverbs that you can hear in both our and John Squire’s guitar.
It’s perfectly of its time and utterly timeless.’ Ride shot back onto the scene in 2014 after an eighteen year hiatus. In those 18 years, Andy has supported both Liam and Noel in Oasis and followed the younger of the troublesome two into much-debated Beady Eye. ‘I’ve learnt so much in those years. Everyone I’ve played with, everyone I’ve met, they’ve allowed me to grow. To tell you the truth, I’ve never really thought about it. I just play and improvement is a brilliant side effect.’
Andy – with bandmates Laurence, Mark and Steve – may have grown together, apart and back together again whilst arguably becoming more talented, but Andy isn’t really worried about his talent. ‘Sometimes, like with Nowhere, your first album is your best. You just capture that energy, that desire to put what you’re thinking and feeling on record. That moment is put on tape, almost accidentally. You open yourself up to all sorts of criticism but it’s just what you feel.’ Ride’s debut album holds its message and Ride’s journey in its album cover. Those waves, previously released with accompanying text, represent a distance to travel of finding oneself, one’s beliefs and what the band wanted to become.
‘It took us eight months to record Nowhere. We just went in and recorded every single song we had. We weren’t scared of what was to come next. We just cleared the decks. The funny thing was that was never a burden.’ No weight on the young Oxfordshire band’s shoulders equated to a lack of pressure and a general feeling that they could do what they wanted. ‘We believed in our abilities to create a brilliant record. We just let the unknown in to our process to create something unbelievable, rather than your average indie record. Sometimes you have to open those doors to everything’.
Those open doors slowly creaked shut as Ride tumbled from the heady heights of indie supremacy. After flying out of the traps, the psychedelic influenced band dropped off the radar, probably overshadowed by their Creation counterparts Oasis and Primal Scream. ‘We seem to get more interest now than we did then! We were only young and we kind of got lost in this whirlwind that was going on around us. Ride had hit their heights and then we slowly slipped down the pecking order and out of people’s minds.’
However, fans and critics alike have seemingly decided in their droves to open their indie arms and welcome Ride back into the pantheon of nineties alternative, a quarter of a century since their debut record. And with that, the shoegaze group left their differences in the past and strode back onto the scene. There was no rock and roll reconciliation though, more a gentleman’s agreement.
‘We just did it gradually and it fell into place naturally. We wanted to play music and our diaries matched. We all just feel unbelievably proud to bring music to people who missed it the first time, people who want to hear that music live again, and Ride fans begging us to return.’ This return will capture the hearts and minds of old and new fans. Those new fans who’ve just ridden onto the proverbial bandwagon won’t be disappointed with this new deluxe Nowhere 25 package. ‘We wanted to do something really special. We found this 1991 show tucked away. It was filmed by the same guy who filmed the video for ‘Unfamiliar.’ It captures that moment and that was the catalyst for this package. It’s a reward for the fans’ patience!’
That patience has seemingly paid off. The last night of the UK tour saw Ride grace the Institute and play a 22 song set, made up of a greatest hits set followed by Nowhere in all its glory. The band has captured the imagination of a disaffected music scene as well as its hardcore fans. Despite the links to stereotypical floppy hair and oversized t-shirts, Ride aren’t coming back as a maligned ‘retro throwback’ that grace headline slots in muddy festivals.
‘I still see the music stand out. There’s a journey in our sound. There’s moments of light alongside moments of darkness. A contrast of loudness and quiet. It’s sounds cheesy but to me, that’s still beautiful. They’re simple tricks but we just love playing it.’
However, that beauty seen by many with its distorted guitars and ‘Spector-esque’ wall of sound was ignored by the malleable weekly music press and the term ‘shoegaze’ was penned. Despite its derogatory origins, Andy doesn’t see it as a problem. ‘It started as a bit of a put-down. However, hip-hop was the same. It started as that ‘hippity-hoppity’ and that became hip-hop. We just embraced that term. You just look at those journalists and puff your chest out. I’m a shoegazer. Get over it.’
Shoegazing, despite it connotations of boredom, represent a love of music and an unbelievable craft that has seen fans of the genre flock to Ride’s shows since their rebirth. The success of the group was much owed to a Scot who saw his Southern counter parts talent. ‘Alan McGee was just a genius. He had a vision and he saw it through, nurturing brilliant talent whilst having a crazy time. It was a musical hurricane.’ That hurricane turned well into the era and the ginger genius gave birth to a jaw-dropping list of drug-addled musical heavyweights. ‘You can’t see how brilliant it was until it all fell apart. We didn’t sit there worrying about when it was going to end. You just jumped on and kept going ‘til you dropped off. I can’t, in all honesty, see anything like that happening again. Never say never though. I bet people said the same at the demise of Def-Jam or Motown.’
When the seat belts that strapped so many to Creation loosened – and eventually unbuckled – Andy went on a different ride that wasn’t a million miles from his previous employers.
When Noel and Liam come calling, who could say no? Four Oasis albums later, as well as two Beady Eye LP’s, and Andy’s journey came full circle. ‘I can’t even begin to compare the two experiences. They’re just so different. I’d put them all on a pedestal though. Liam, Noel, Gem are absolutely superb musicians as are Loz, Mark and Ste. They are all on a level of excellence.’
However, much like Bell’s feelings on his talent, he just tends to live in the moment. ‘You just don’t compare them, because they’re unbelievably talented musicians in their own right. I love being part of that gang to be honest, your own little family. You watch each other’s backs and when everything falls into place, it’s magic. You just spark and create. That creation has no boundaries and no upper or lower limit. It’s just inspiring.’ Despite Oasis being Bell’s proclaimed ‘favourite band,’ he will always see Ride as his own child, the brain-child of four friends from art college. But where does Andy see the music scene now, having been so close to its inner cogs since 1989.
‘I love Tame Impala, I really see them as the modern day us. I can hear the sounds. I don’t want to blow my own trumpet though; they probably aren’t inspired by us.’
Andy really isn’t self-indulgent. He looks back fondly and although often referring to his band, he still seems shocked to be part of such a fantastic moment.
‘We played the Hummingbird in Birmingham. Does that still exist?’ ‘They’re all owned by O2 now aren’t they?! Unbelievable!’ The interview digressed whilst two men mumbled and muttered and bemoaned the corporate scene.
‘Anyway, we played there with Ocean Colour Scene in 1989. Our careers have run parallel really. They came out with this baggy sound, disappeared and then exploded with Moseley Shoals. We came out, disappeared and then came back. Simon Fowler reckons it was one of their first three gigs and it was early in our touring career too.’ The past is vitally important in Andy’s own career and in his musical heritage. Andy references the obvious as inspirations; Beatles, Stones, Byrds as well as The Cure, My Bloody Valentine and Spacemen 3. But what does the future hold for Ride? ‘I’m not going to force anything. I love what’s happening now. If it happens then so be it.
Never say yes, never say no. We know the world wants it.’
Dan Shorthouse
