REFORMED Oxford rock group Ride had fans suspecting an April Fool’s joke yesterday, after announced an intimate hometown warm-up gig.

The Oxford band, who confirmed they had reunited late last year, will play one of just three warm-up shows worldwide at the city’s O2 Academy, in Cowley Road, this Easter Sunday – their first at the venue for 25 years.

The other shows will be in Oxford, Los Angeles and New York City. The gigs come ahead of their UK, European and North American tours, announced last November.

The venue yesterday admitted some fans had dismissed the announcement as a hoax, announcing on Twitter: “The amount of people who think we are April Foolsin’ about @rideox4 playing an Easter Sun show here..

#ThisIsNoJoke.”

Tickets quickly sold out.

After Sunday’s show, the band – Mark Gardener, Laurence ‘Loz’ Colbert, Andy Bell and Steve Queralt – will fly to California to play Los Angeles on Wednesday, ahead of their performance at the Coachella Festival. They go on to play Brooklyn on June 1, ahead of shows in Toronto and New York. The last time Ride performed together was in 1995 at Spain’s Benicàssim Festival.

The announcement confirmed earlier hints by Mr Gardener, a former Cheney School student, the band would remember their hometown fans by playing the city.

Talking previously to the Oxford Mail, he said: “I have not forgotten my Oxford roots.”

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