Last year Slowdive reunited at Spain’s Primavera Sound music festival, and now a fellow beloved British shoegaze act could be following suit: Ride.
A mysterious banner depicting the familiar logo of the Oxford band has been spotted around Barcelona, suggesting Ride could be involved in this year’s installment of the three day music fest, going down May 28 to 30 in Barcelona. The Strokes are currently the only band to have been confirmed so far.
UPDATE 9:02 a.m. EST: Brad Searles of Bradley’s Almanac, who we trust when it comes to these sorts of things, says the Ride reunion is definitely happening at Primavera. Also, in related news, Beautiful Noise, the documentary about underground UK guitar bands of the late 80s and early 90s, screens tonight at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge.
Ride broke up in 1996 after releasing some of the most influential albums in British music, including 1990’s Nowhere and 1992’s Going Blank Again. Guitarist Andy Bell was recently playing bass with Oasis and Liam Gallagher’s Beady Eye, and those bands breakups, in particular Beady Eye’s recent split, fueled speculation that a Ride reunion could be in order. The massive success of the recent Slowdive reunion, which toured the world and sold out Boston’s Royale last month, could also be a factor.
Nerds Attack was the first to report the possibility of a Ride reunion this morning. Here’s the banner tweet, via Time Out Barcelona:
Després de la de The Strokes, albirada una altra lona musical al Born: Ride al #PrimaveraSound 2015? via @oscarbroc pic.twitter.com/bwk5oqchEq
— Time Out Barcelona (@TimeOutBCN) November 18, 2014