HURRICANE
#1
Ready Steady Go! spoke
to main man and ex-Ride axeman Andy Bell in the summer of 1997 about his
chequered past and new aspirations with Hurricane #1. Hurricane #1 released
two albums before Andy Bell was signed up by Oasis in 2000.
Creation had high hopes for
Hurricane #1. In Andy Bell, they have one of the most talent guitarists
of our generation. Fuelled by a love of The Stone Roses and Oasis he chanced
upon a fellow Beatles fan in the shape of Alex Lowe. Alex’s rough’n’ready
gruff vocals open many possibilties for Andy Bell to realise his musical
ambitions and put the murky past of his public fall out from Ride behind
him. These are clearly exciting times for Andy Bell, second time around...
How does your expectations
and aspirations for Hurricane #1 differ from when you first started out
as a teenager with Ride?
"I still feel the same, I
want everything I can get. I almost feel even more mad then I did then,
to get recognised, to get famous. Back in the days when I was in Ride
I really didn't know what to expect. I didn't know what was going to come
around. Now I know a little bit about what a band can achieve, I know
what this band could have achieved (points to a picture of Ride on the
cover of an old ESP fanzine). We basically did it, we exceeded it. You
know, it was great but I think now, this band that I'm in now, I can see
what they can achieve. Not so much because the band's that different,
it's more because the times have changed, so I just feel like the sky's
the limit".
Can you retain they
same starry-eyed vision, can you feel the magic initial success first
brings after been through it all once before?
"No it's totally magic, its
double as magic second time around. Who would have thought that I would
ever come back and do anything again? I didn't really think so at all".
How does the sound of Hurricane #1 differ from what we may have expected
Ride to develop onto?
"When I was with Ride I was
really working with what was around me and if I could have made Mark sing
like Alex I would have done. Guitar wise it's pretty similiar, song wise
it's pretty similiar but the voice is obviously like a big step forward.
I think we've got a more focused sound. Which is kind of down to me writing
all the songs which provides the band with that one kind of direction.
Which is really my direction although everyone in the band has a big input
into it, its not like I'm really laying down the law. I'm kind of easy
going when it comes down to it. All I really want is my songs to be used
and then let everything go, pretty free".
The subtle difference
between Ride and Hurricane #1 is that the former met up as friends while
the latter came about through advertising and auditions. What does Andy
think of the comparison people may make?
"I would have definitely
imagined it would be really different before I did it. Basically, I'll
describe how both bands started out. Ride started out, me and Mark were
at the same Art school together and basically fell in with Loz. Steve
was kind of going out with a girl we kind of knew and he came in through
that. With Hurricane, I knew Gaz, he introduced himself to me at a gig
and we just became mates and started playing together, pretty much the
same way that me and Mark met ages ago. The advert in the paper and stuff,
that was really wierd to do that, but I was kind of determined to find
someone to sing. I felt wierd about it but I did it anyway. And then when
it came to it the first guy that came in the room and started singing
was Alex and it was just like he'd walked in and immediately he was one
of us straight away. As soon as we met it felt really natural. It wasn't
like an audition, where I'm the boss and you're the employee and all that
kind of thing. It was more like, oh you like the Beatles, so do I. The
same thing with the bass player Will. He turned up the same day through
a mate and I hadn't met him before but as soon as he walked in it was
just the same thing. I could tell straight away he was going to be totally
on the ball. So if you think about it that way it's a pretty similar to
how Ride started out apart from there wasn't auditions involved but I
think it was quite a lucky day that day".
Obviously hopes
and dreams have been revitalised with the new band but there must have
been some low times since the unfortunate breakup of Ride when you thought
about jacking it all in?
"I went through all that
really when we'd just split up with Ride and I didn't know what I was
going to do. I thought it was a real mistake to do those interviews that
we did. When me and Mark did them separetly but the situation with that
was, the press side of Creation basically told us that if we didn't promote
the album they wouldn't put it out and I really wanted the album to come
out because I felt it was a good album. I didn't want the fact that Mark
had left to spoil the chances of the album getting out and people hearing
it because he chose to leave at a really bad moment. Just when were about
to finish recording the album. So he kind of made it really awkward. If
he'd have said at the beginning of the album, okay fair enough, we wouldn't
have bothered doing the f--king album! But I'm glad we did"
Do you regret the
fact that the falling out was a public affair?
"Oh yeah, a lot of things
came out in those interviews which I wish...from both sides. I'm sure
he was the same. I remember seeing him just after all that stuff came
out in the press and I thinking, what have we really done to each other,
to the band, to the memories of what it was. Neither of us gained anything
from doing that just a bit of muscling in".
Was it a case of
picking up on ‘off the cuff’ soundbites that always look worse in print
and feeling an urge to respond?
"Oh yeah, the thing is, the
journalists was going, Mark said this, what do you think of that? Well,
if he says that, I'm going to say that. So I don't know, you know how
it is!"
Now Andy Bell is clearly focused
on one band. "The past was yours but the future’s mine" is an apt lyric
from The Stone Roses to describe Andy’s current state of mind.
Andy Bell is now a full time
member of Oasis.
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