Andy Bell (musician)

Andy Bell (11th August, 1970) is a British musician formerly of Ride, a 1980s and 90s British shoegazing band, and Hurricane #1. He currently plays Bass for Oasis, following the departure of Paul McGuigan in 1999.

Ride

Bell formed Ride with Mark Gardener (Guitar), who he met at Cheney School in Oxford and Laurence Colbert (Drums) and Steve Queralt (Bass), who he met doing Foundation Studies in Art and Design at Banbury in 1988. While still at Banbury the band produced a tape demo including the tracks "Chelsea Girl" and "Drive Blind". In February 1989 "Ride" were asked to stand in for a cancelled student union gig at Oxford Poly that brought them to the attention of Alan McGee. After supporting The Soup Dragons in 1989 McGee signed them to Creation Records.

Related Topics:
Mark Gardener - Oxford - Laurence Colbert - Steve Queralt - 1988 - February - 1989 - Alan McGee - Creation Records

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With Ride, Bell released three EPs between January and September 1990, entitled "Ride", "Play" and "Fall". While the EP's were not a chart successes, enough critical praise was received to make Ride the "darlings" of music journalists. The first two EPs were eventually released together as Smile in 1992, while the "Fall" EP was incorporated into their first LP, Nowhere, released in October 1990, which was hailed as a critical success and the media dubbed Ride "The brightest hope" for 1991. This was followed in March 1992 with Going Blank Again. The twin rhythm guitars of Bell and Gardener, both distorted, both using Wah-wah pedals and both feeding back on each other was seen as the highlight of the album's critical and chart success.

Related Topics:
EPs - January - September - 1990 - 1992 - October - March

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Despite having a solid fanbase and some mainstream success, the lack of a breakthrough contributed to inter-band tension, especially between Gardener and Bell. Their third LP, Carnival of Light, was released in 1994, after shoegazing had given way to Britpop. Carnival of Light was oriented towards this new sound, but sales were sluggish and the shift in musical tastes devastated much of their original audience. 1995 saw the dissolution of the band while recording fourth album Tarantula due to creative and personal tensions between Gardener and Bell. The track listing of Carnival of Light gives an indication of the tension that was mounting between the two guitarists, with the first half of the album being songs written by Gardener and the last half of the album being songs written by Bell - one or both had refused to let their songs be interspersed with pieces written by the other. Bell penned most of the songs for Tarantula, one of which - "Castle on the Hill" - was a lament for the band's situation and contains references to Gardener's self imposed exile from the group. The album was withdrawn from sales one week after release.

Related Topics:
1994 - Britpop - 1995

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Since the break-up, both Bell and Gardener have been able to be more reflective on the reasons why the group disintegrated, with Bell especially admitting his own part in the process. It appears that they had just been too young and too stubborn and had no real idea of where the band was heading when they changed their style.

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