Oxford indie-rockers Ride are to play a long awaited hometown show –in the grand surroundings of Oxford Town Hall, writes Tim Hughes.

The band – Mark Gardener, Laurence ‘Loz’ Colbert, Andy Bell and Steve Queralt – will play the civic venue on December 3, making it an early Christmas present for fans. It will be the band’s first show in the city since their joint-headline set with James at last year’s Common People festival in South Park. Their last indoor gig was at the New Theatre in 2017.

The show is part of an 11-date tour which includes London’s Barbican Centre on December 9, and will see them playing tunes from new album This Is Not A Safe Place, out on August 16 on Wichita Recordings.

The Oxford band have their roots at Cheney School, Headington, where Mark met Andy. He met Loz while studying art and design in 1988 and went on to recruit Steve, who was working in the Oxford branch of Our Price Records. They played their first shows at the college, the Jericho Tavern and Oxford Polytechnic – now Oxford Brookes University.

Fame beckoned when a demo tape they had recorded in Steve’s bedroom was heard by Jim Reid of The Jesus and Mary Chain, who recommended the band to manager Alan McGee.

They went on to support The Soup Dragons and were then snapped up by McGee’s Creation Records label. They released a flurry of EPs, Play and Fall making the top 40.

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This was followed by Peel sessions and their debut album Nowhere, which charted at 11. They also cracked the top 10 of the singles charts with Leave Them All Behind – which appeared on their upbeat second album Going Blank Again – which reached number five in the album charts and went gold.

Oxford Mail:

Their follow-up Carnival of Light was recorded with Stone Roses producer John Leckie and Nigel Godrich, who would go on to produce Radiohead. It reached number five, though cracks had started to appear in the band, and by the time fourth LP Tarantula was released, the divisions proved too deep and they split. Each pursued different courses, Andy playing with Oasis and Liam Gallagher’s band Beady Eye.

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In 2014, after 20 years apart, they reformed, going on to release acclaimed album Weather Diaries.

Tickets go on sale next Friday, May 24, but fans can register now for exclusive pre-sale gig tickets and album orders at thebandride.com.