Andy Bell (musician)

Bell formed Ride with Mark Gardner (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.

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.

Despite having a solid fanbase and some mainstream success, the lack of a breakthrough contributed to inter-band tension, especially between Gardner 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 Gardner 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 Gardner 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 Gardner's self imposed exile from the group. The album was withdrawn from sales one week after release.

Since the break-up, both Bell and Gardner 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.

After the split, Bell formed a new band called "Hurricane #1" but this project was permanently dissolved when he was asked to play Bass for Oasis. Bell had never played the bass before, but Noel Gallagher was confident that he would make a suitable replacement for Paul McGuigan. Bell spent hours before his first Oasis gig in the toilet practising. He is also a contributing member of Oasis' songwriting, penning Heathen Chemistry's instrumental "(A Quick) Peep", and b-side "Thank You for the Good Times". For their upcoming 6th album in 2005, Andy will have more song-writing credits.

As the token southerner, Bell is the butt of many jokes. On stage, in response to the arguing chants of "Noel" and "Liam", Noel Gallagher appealed for the crowds to "cut out the "Noel" and "Liam" shit. Let's have a bit of Who the fuck is Andy Bell?".

Bell is married to Swedish singer Idha. Together, they have a daughter named Leia. He splits his time between Sweden and London.