Ride announce Dublin, Cork and Belfast shows this September

Oxford rockers Ride will be performing shows across Ireland this autmun.

On September 2 they will play in Belfast's Limelight 1, with gigs at Dublin's 3Olympia and Cork's Cyprus Avenue taking place on 3 & 4 September.

These shows follow the release of their newest single ‘Last Frontier’,  the second song they have released from their seventh studio album Interplay. Guitarist and singer Andy Bell speaks about how the track struggled when it was first being created, “this was the runt of the litter of the very first jam session from Mark’s OX4 Studio and I didn’t even include it on my shortlist of the best tracks. It was our producer Richie Kennedy who saw the potential of the song, and we attacked this with a vengeance at Vada studio. A complete revamp of the backing track and arrangement was needed and we took it right back to basics, more towards a pounding Joy Division feel.”

“For the topline, I tried improvising at the mic, singing it all different ways, and coming up with new parts on the spot. I felt really exposed but kind of said to myself, ‘you’re among friends, it’s good to push yourself to try new ways to write.’” Bell said. “It feels different to every vocal I’ve ever done. It’s still a new way of working for me but it’s something I want to continue trying as I think it makes for better vocal lines; a good mixture of written and improvised.”

This is the third album the group has released together since reforming in 2014. This follows their hit albums Weather Diaries from 2017 and This Is Not A Safe Place in 2019.

The group consists of four members, Andy Bell and Mark Gardener, the guitar and vocalist. Laurence “Loz” Colbert the drummer and Steve Queralt the bassist. They formed Ride in 1988 in Oxford and debuted their first album Nowhere in 1990.

The group took a break in 1996 and disbanded due to intergroup conflict but have since reconnected to continue making music.

Tickets for their Ireland shows will go on sale this Friday, February 16 at 10 a.m. Tickets will start at €38.15 each and can be found on their website here.