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Mar 03, 2025 Issue #74 - The Protest Issue with Kathleen Hanna and Bartees Strange By Mark Redfern Photography by Perou

My Firsts is our email interview series where we ask musicians to tell us about their first life experiences, be it early childhood ones (first word, first concert, etc.) or their first tastes of being a musician (first band, first tour, etc.). For this My Firsts we talk to Andy Bell of Ride (and formerly of Oasis).

Bell released a new solo album, pinball wanderer, last Friday via Sonic Cathedral. It follows 2020’s The View From Halfway Down and 2022’s Flicker. Ride, meanwhile, released a new album, Interplay, last year via Wichita and PIAS. It was one of our Top 100 Albums of 2024.

The album was launched by a cover of The Passions’ post-punk song from 1981, “I’m in Love With a German Film Star,” retitled “i’m in love…” and featuring guest vocals from Dot Allison and guitars from Michael Rother of Krautrock legends Neu!

“I went through a stage of playing the guitar part for that song at every Ride soundcheck,” says Bell in a press release, referencing The Passions’ original. “Erol Alkan has always maintained it’s ‘proto shoegaze’ and I agree.”

The album’s “madder lake deep” was inspired by a dream Bell had where he fell into a painting after staring at it for too long. “I don’t have synesthesia, but some music can take solid form or sometimes liquid form for me,” Bell explains.

Pinball wanderer’s most recent single, the eight-minute long “apple green ufo,” has a Stone Roses gone Afrobeat vibe. As its title suggests, the song’s lyrics are otherworldly. “The lyrics imagine if I met an alien and had to show them around Earth, what would I want to show them?” Bell says. “It also references The Simpsons’ Mr Burns (‘I bring you love’) and ET (‘If you’re lonely, phone home’).”

Read on as Bell discusses his rather recent first broken bone; being sick and ignored by his parents; and the movies, music, and TV shows he was first into.

First broken bone?

I was on holiday in Mallorca in July 2023 and ended up breaking the little finger of my left hand messing around in the pool. It was shattered, a spiral fracture, and needed a metal plate to hold it together for six months. That’s the first broken bone I’ve experienced. It wasn’t awesome.

First time you had to go to the hospital?

At the age of 13 I had appendicitis and had my appendix removed. The family had been in the house on a Saturday or Sunday evening watching an old black and white war movie called The Longest Day. I remember complaining about having a stomach ache a few times and not really being listened to, then I woke up screaming in pain in the night and got taken to hospital. While I was recovering, a lady who worked with my dad gave me two Beatles books, Help and A Hard Day’s Night, but sadly I couldn’t read them because it hurt too much to laugh. I couldn’t stop laughing every time I started reading them.

First movie you saw in the movie theater?

Herbie Goes Bananas! I don’t remember much about the movie but I know I loved it.

First TV show you were obsessed with?

Happy Days was my favorite show—no other show came close. I used to count the days until Happy Days—literally, and my gran got me a Fonz badge which said “Fonz is cool” on it. I remember that the music used to get me really hyped.

First album you bought?

Blondie’s Parallel Lines. I was on a family holiday and used my holiday money to buy the album on vinyl. I still have it, the album really stands up, I’m quite proud it was my first one. Super cool band who I was into throughout. I bought loads of their singles and a few albums. Debbie Harry was my first pinup as well.

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First favorite band?

Everything changed when I got into The Smiths. They inspired me to pick up the guitar again—after getting one aged nine but losing interest—all so I could play Johnny Marr guitar parts. I was obsessed—and devastated when they broke up.

First favorite song?

The Rolling Stones’ “19th Nervous Breakdown”—I loved the sounds on it, I guess it’s a bass sound, just before they sing “Here it comes…” I used to play Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) all the time, but this song was my favorite on that compilation.

First music festival you went to?

I went to Glastonbury 1987 with my girlfriend at the time, Chloe. We saw Elvis Costello, The Pogues, New Order, The Junkyard Band, Weather Prophets, and many more. It was incredible in every way.

First job you had?

Not counting paper rounds and washing up jobs, my first interesting job was working at a hearing aid factory which I did for a couple of months before starting art school. I used the money to buy a guitar amp.

First car you owed?

I didn’t learn to drive until Ride broke up. When Mark [Gardener] left I was convinced I’d have to become a taxi driver. Anyway I passed my test and we ended up getting a white Vauxhall Nova, which we used to call the Vauxhall supernova—it was 1995 or ’96!

www.andybell.bandcamp.com

Read our interview with Ride on Interplay.

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