 |
| Background information |
| Origin |
 Glasgow, Scotland |
| Genre(s) |
Indie rock
Alternative rock |
| Years active |
1995–present |
| Label(s) |
Independiente
Epic
Sony
BMG |
| Website |
www.travisonline.com |
| Members |
Andrew
Dunlop
Francis Healy
Douglas Payne
Neil
Primrose |
Travis are a Scottish band
from Glasgow,
comprising Fran Healy (lead
vocals, guitar,
piano), Dougie
Payne (bass, backing
vocals, occasional lead vocals), Andy Dunlop (lead
guitar, banjo,
keyboards,
backing vocals) and Neil Primrose (drums, percussion).
Travis has twice been awarded British album of the year at the annual BRIT
Awards, and are often credited with having paved the way for bands such
as Coldplay,
Keane
and Snow
Patrol. They have released five studio albums, beginning with
their debut, Good Feeling,
in 1997. Their fifth album, The
Boy with No Name, was released on 7 May 2007.
|
Contents
- 1 History
- 1.1 Formation
and early years (1990–1995)
- 1.2 Good
Feeling (1996–1998)
- 1.3 The
Man Who (1999–2000)
- 1.4 The
Invisible Band (2001–2002)
- 1.5 12
Memories and Singles (2003–2005)
- 1.6 The
Boy with No Name (2006–present)
- 2 Discography
- 3 B-sides,
covers and other artists
- 4 References
- 5 Interviews
- 6 External
links
|
History
Formation and early years
(1990–1995)
The band that would become Travis (initially called "Running
Red", and later, "Glass Onion") was initially formed by brothers Chris
and Geoff Martyn. Andy Dunlop, a school friend at Lenzie
Academy, was drafted in on guitar, followed soon after by Neil
Primrose on drums. The line-up was completed by a female vocalist, and
the band's name then changed to "Glass Onion" ("Glass
Onion" is the name of a Beatles song written by John
Lennon and Paul McCartney). After
parting company with their singer in the spring of 1991, they
auditioned for a new vocalist. Having met each other through Primrose
pouring him a pint, a musically untrained art student, Fran
Healy, then joined after being invited to audition by
Primrose. Healy joined the band on the day he enrolled at The Glasgow
School Of Art, in the autumn of 1991. Two years later, with the option
of music holding more appeal, Healy dropped out of art school, and
inspired by song writers such as Joni Mitchell, shortly after, assumed songwriting
responsibilities. With brothers Chris and Geoff Martyn on bass and
keyboards, in 1993, the fivesome released a
privately made CD, The Glass Onion EP, featuring
the tracks "Dream On", "Camembert", "14" and "Joker." 500 copies of the
EP were made and were recently valued at £1000 each. Eventually, the
band was renamed once more, becoming "Travis" — after the character
played by Harry Dean Stanton in the movie "Paris,
Texas" directed by Wim Wenders.
The band won a talent contest organized by the "Music in
Scotland Trust", who promised £2,000 so Travis could deal-hunt at a new
music seminar in New York. Two weeks before they were due to
leave, however, the prize was instead given to the "Music in Scotland
Trust Directory". When sent a copy of the directory, the band noticed
that it seemed to feature every single band in Scotland — except for
them. While on a visit to Scotland, American engineer and producer Niko Bolas, a long-time Neil Young
and Rolling
Stones associate, tuned into a Travis session on Radio
Scotland, and heard something in the band's music which instantly made
him travel to Perth to see them. Healy: "He told
us we were s***, took us in the studio for four days, and taught us how
to play properly, like a band. He was bolshy, rude, and New York pushy.
He didn't believe my lyrics and told me to write what I believed in and
not tell lies. He was Mary Poppins, he sorted us out." Three years
later, when Travis played New York and the band dedicated "All I Want to Do Is Rock"
(the band's first single and recorded with £600 from Healy's mother) to
Bolas who was in the audience, he wept.
With the sudden death of his grandfather, a grief-stricken
Healy shut himself away, refusing to talk to anyone. Emerging a week
later, and with a clear vision of where he now wanted Travis and their
music to go, Healy dispensed of the band's management, their publicity
agent, the keyboard player, Geoff Martyn, and replaced the bassist,
Geoff's brother, Chris, with best friend Dougie
Payne — another art student and Levi's shop assistant.
Remarkably, Payne had not picked up a bass
guitar before this. Two weeks later, with Payne having completed a
crash course on bass in his bedroom, the band played together for the
first time in a free space above the Horse Shoe Bar. The line-up was
thus completed and has remained intact to this day.
Good Feeling
(1996–1998)
With Travis having spent the previous year rehearsing above
the Horse Shoe Bar and playing gigs around Glasgow and Scotland, Healy
and Payne then went to London to locate a place to live, a rehearsal
space, and a manager – achieving all three within a day. The band
played their first London show at the famous Dublin Castle in Camden. A
demo the band had then found its way to Andy MacDonald, owner of Go!
Discs Records and founder of Independiente
Records. Sensing greatness, he signed Travis for a reputed £100,000 of
his own money.
The band is signed to MacDonald personally, not to the label — if
MacDonald ever leaves the Sony-financed label Independiente Records,
the band goes with him (commonly referred to in the industry as a
"golden handcuffs" clause).
Produced by Steve Lillywhite of U2 fame, Travis' first
studio album, 1997's Good Feeling,
is a rockier, more upbeat record than the band's others to date.
Recorded at the legendary Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, New York, the
place where Travis favourite The Band recorded, the album contained
singles such as "All I Want to Do Is Rock", "U16 Girls",
the Beatle'esque "Tied to the 90's", "Happy"
and "More
Than Us". The album reached No. 9 on the British charts, but with
little radio play, it slipped from the charts relatively quickly.
Although it heralded Travis' arrival on the British music scene,
received extremely positive reviews, and substantially broadened
Travis' fan base, it sold just 40,000 copies. Following the release,
Travis toured extensively, their live performances — something Travis
have become renowned for — further enhancing their reputation. This
included support slots in the UK for Oasis,
after Noel Gallagher became an
outspoken fan.
The Man Who
(1999–2000)
Shortly after release, Travis’ second album, 1999’s The Man
Who — produced by Nigel
Godrich, and recorded at producer Mike Hedges' chateau in France and
continued at (among other studios) Abbey
Road Studios in London
— looked as though it would mirror the release of Good Feeling.
Although it entered the charts at No. 7, with little radio play of its
singles, it quickly slipped down. Worse, many critics who had raved
about the rocky Good Feeling rubbished the album
for the band's move into more melodic, melancholic material (for
example, "Travis will be best when they stop trying to make
sad, classic records" - NME). However, when the album slipped
as far as No. 19, it stopped. Word of mouth and increasing radio play
of the single "Why Does It Always
Rain on Me?" increased awareness of the band and the album began to
rise back up the charts. Then, when Travis took the stage to perform
this song at the 1999 Glastonbury Festival, after
being dry for several hours, it began to rain as soon as the first line
was sung. The following day the story was all over the papers and
television, the song became an anthem (it is consistently rated as one
of the decade's best songs, as is the album itself), and with word of
mouth and increased radio play of this and the album's other singles, The
Man Who rose to No. 1 on the British charts. It also
eventually took Best Album at the 2000 BRIT
Awards, with Travis being named Best Band. Music industry magazine Music
Week awarded them the same honours, while at the Ivor
Novellos, Travis took the Best Songwriter and Best
Contemporary Song Awards. By 2001, one in eight U.K households
contained a copy of The Man Who. Travis followed
the release of The Man Who with an extensive
237-gig world tour, including headlining the 2000 Glastonbury,
T
in the Park and V Festivals, and a US tour leg with Oasis.
In Los
Angeles, an appearance of the band at an in-store signing forced police
to close Sunset Strip. The gentle, melodic
approach of The Man Who became a hallmark of the
latter-day Britpop sound, and inspired a new wave of UK-based rock
bands, with acts such as Coldplay and Starsailor
soon joining Travis in challenging the chart dominance of urban and
dance acts. The title "The Man Who" comes from the book The Man Who
Mistook His Wife for a Hat by neurologist Oliver
Sacks.
The Invisible Band
(2001–2002)
The title of Travis’ following album, 2001's The
Invisible Band, again produced by Nigel
Godrich, reflects the band's genuine belief that their music — the song
— is more important than the group behind it. Featuring such songs as "Sing"
(the most played song on British radio that summer), "Side",
the McCartneyesque "Flowers
in the Window", "Indefinitely", "Pipe Dreams" and "The Cage", and
recorded at Ocean Way Studios in Los
Angeles, the album again made No. 1 on the British charts, generally
received widespread critical acclaim, while again taking Best Album at
the annual BRIT Awards. It also received Top
of the Pops Album of the Year. The album also
had an impact across the Atlantic, the popularity in the US of the
single "Coming Around", a non-album track with
Byrdsesque
harmonies and 12-string guitar, enhancing this. Travis again followed
the release of The Invisible Band with an extensive
world tour.
In 2002, however, things came to a screeching halt for Travis,
with the band almost calling it quits after its drummer, Neil
Primrose, jumped head-first into a shallow swimming pool while on tour
in France.
Breaking his neck, he almost died due to spinal damage. If not for his
bandmates, he also would have drowned. Despite the severity of the
accident, Primrose has since made a full recovery. Healy said later of
this time, "Little cracks had started appearing in 2001, around the
time of The Invisible Band. We hadn't anticipated The
Man Who doing so well. It was an emotional rollercoaster for
us. Being Scottish, we're very reticent about being famous pop stars;
it's encoded into our DNA that we can't be brassy or show off. But
suddenly, we weren't this little band in Glasgow any more. We
desperately needed to take a step back and re-evaluate. After Neil's
accident it came close to the end of Travis — this band would no longer
exist without one of the four members — but we were given another
chance."
12 Memories
and Singles (2003–2005)
With Primrose having recovered, Travis regrouped and
re-evaluated. Moving into a cottage in Crear,
West Scotland, they set up a small studio, and over two weeks, came up
with nine new songs that would form the basis of their fourth studio
album, 2003's 12 Memories.
Produced by Travis themselves, Tchad Blake, and Steve Orchard, the
album marked a move into more organic, moody and political territory
for the band. Although this seems to have alienated some fans, the
album generally received very positive reviews (for example, "Then, of
course, there's Travis and their album 12 Memories
[Epic]. You just have to sit there and listen to it all the way
through, and it will take you on a real journey. It's like an old
album. It's like the Beatles' Revolver [1966]. Fran
Healy's voice and lyrics are mesmerizing and beautiful" — Elton John),
singles such as "Re-Offender" did very well on the
British charts, and the album itself reached No. 3. Yet it also saw
them lose ground in the U.S., where Coldplay had usurped Travis during
their 2002 absence. Of particular note on the album were the songs, "The Beautiful Occupation" —
a track that was written a year before US and UK troops entered Iraq.
"Re-Offender", a song about domestic violence; and "Some Sad Song" — a
hidden 12th track, and a song Healy wrote and performed solely on
piano. The radio popular "Love Will Come Through" was
released as a download single, in aid of The Spinal Injuries Trust.
"Love Will Come Through" was also played as the last song on a season
three episode of Grey's Anatomy
as well as being used by Royal Mail, Britain's postal service, during a 2004 advertising
campaign.
In 2004, Travis completed a highly successful tour of the US
and Europe (supported by Keane in the UK), while in
2005, the band released a successful compilation of their singles, Singles,
as well as the new track, "Walking in the Sun". This was
followed by a series of small, intimate gigs at UK venues such as
Liverpool's Cavern Club, London's Mean
Fiddler, and Glasgow's Barrowlands. While on tour, the band
also made a series of impromptu acoustic "busks", raising money for the
charity The Big Issue. In addition to other
performances, they also headlined the 2005 Isle of Wight Festival and T in
the Park.
On July
2, 2005,
Travis performed at Live
8's London concert, and four days
later, at the Edinburgh 50,000 -
The Final Push concert. Travis also participated in Band Aid
20's re-recording of "Do They Know It's
Christmas?" — Healy and friend Nigel Godrich playing leading roles in
its organisation. Healy is a part of the Make
Poverty History movement, having recently made two trips to Sudan with the Save
the Children organisation. On July 13, 2006, the members of Travis stuck a giant
post-it sticker on the front door of the Downing
Street home of British Prime Minister, Tony
Blair. It read: "Tony Blair — Some steps forward, much to do at the G8,
make poverty history."
The Boy with No Name
(2006–present)
Travis released a fifth studio album, The
Boy with No Name, on May 7, 2007. Nigel
Godrich was the album's executive producer, while Mike Hedges and Brian
Eno were also involved. The album is named after Healy's son,
Clay, whom Healy and his partner Nora were unable to name until four
weeks after his birth. Healy has described the process of making the
album as "like coming out of the forest"
, and that the band are now "in a good place", contrasting with the
dark mood surrounding 12 Memories.
On the January 18, 2007, Coldplay's Chris
Martin debuted a new Travis song, "Big Chair", on Radio 1.
Martin commented, "We're gonna finish with an incredible exclusive,
we're very privileged to play it. It's a new song by the band Travis,
the band that invented my band and lots of others." Travis played down
the importance of the compliment, but admitted to being touched by
Martin's sentiment.
The band have since released seven more songs on their official
MySpace page: "Closer", "Three Times and You
Lose", "Selfish
Jean", "My Eyes", "Eyes Wide Open", "Colder" and "Battleships". At the
live pre-album performances, Fran has revealed that "My Eyes" is about
his new son whilst "Battleships" refers to his relationship with Nora,
having stated after one row he wrote in his diary, "Pah! Relationships!
More like battleships!". Fran also announced that the track "Colder"
was written by Dougie.
The album's first single, "Closer",
was released on April
23, 2007.
The music video for the single features a cameo role from actor and
friend of the band, Ben Stiller. Stiller plays the role of a
supermarket manager. This song was recently featured on a second season
episode of the ABC Family show Kyle XY.
Travis played at the Coachella
Music and Arts Festival on April 28, 2007. At the Virgin Megastore tent in the
festival, The Boy With No Name was available to
purchase over a week early. Early reviews of the album have generally
been very positive, some calling it Travis' best to date. However NME
gave the album a mere 2 out of 10 and labelled it "impotent aural
gruel" with "all the soul of a platform announcement".
However, user responses to NME's review indicate a
very different opinion.
Previous to the album's release a brief UK tour was conducted
followed by a full UK tour after the album's release. Performance in
Europe and America followed.
Travis have also dedicated this album to Richard
Burns.
Following the promotional tour for the album, Travis included
a new touring pianist, Claus Bjorklund from Sweden.
Bjorklund's first appearance with the band was when they played at the Oxford
Brookes Union on 19 March 2007, prior to the album's release. During the
piano solo on the track "Good Feeling", Fran Healy encouraged the
audience to point at Bjorklund and shout "Claus! Claus! Claus!" until
the solo was over. At their performance at the Hammersmith
Apollo, "Flowers in the Window" was
dedicated to him as he had just got engaged the day before. The "Claus
chant" was reproduced at the Chicago performance on July 21, 2007. This chant has
become a running part of their current tour in the United States and
was once again recited at The Tabernacle in Atlanta, Georgia on July
29, 2007.
The band dedicated their performance at the Vic
Theater in Chicago
to their producer Nigel Godrich.
Part of the song "My Eyes" was used during the BBC's coverage of the 2007 Wimbledon
Championships.
Discography
-
Main article: Travis
discography
A list of studio albums only:
- Good Feeling (September
8, 1997)
- The Man Who (May 24, 1999)
- The Invisible Band
(June
11, 2001)
- 12 Memories (October
13, 2003)
- The Boy with No Name
(May 7, 2007)
For a full discography of Travis songs written by Fran
Healy, see Healy Songs.
B-sides, covers and other artists
Travis are notable in that their B-sides outnumber their album
tracks. The same single is sometimes even released with a different
B-side. Travis has also done a number of covers, whether recorded as
B-sides for singles, or performed live. Songs that Travis have covered
include Joni Mitchell’s "River" and "The Urge
for Going", The
Band’s "The
Weight", Mott the Hoople’s "All
the Young Dudes", Queen’s "Killer
Queen", Elton
John’s "Rocket Man", John
Lennon’s "Gimme Some Truth", The
Beatles’ "Here Comes the Sun", AC/DC’s "Back
in Black" Elvis Presley’s "Suspicious
Minds", David Bowie’s "Heroes",
Britney
Spears', "...Baby One More Time",
Jimmy
Webb’s "Wichita Lineman", Graham
Nash’s "Another Sleep Song", Bob Dylan's "You're a Big Girl Now" and Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know" (a
modified live acoustic version titled "After Mark and Lard Go").
The band have also played with a number of other artists,
including Paul McCartney, Graham
Nash (of Hollies and Crosby, Stills,
Nash and Young fame), and Oasis' Noel
Gallagher.
In June 2007, Travis participated in BBC
Radio 2's project to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band. All the album's tracks
were re-recorded by contemporary artists, supervised by the original
engineer, Geoff Emerick, using the same 4-track
studio equipment. Travis contributed a rendition of "Lovely
Rita". The band wanted to be as faithful to the original as possible,
even to the extent of recording the guitars in the stairwell of Abbey
Road Studios in order to recreate the acoustics.
References
-
BBC Radio 2: Sgt Pepper's 40th Anniversary
Interviews
External links
| Travis |
| Francis
Healy | Dougie Payne | Andy
Dunlop | Neil
Primrose |
| Nigel
Godrich |
| Discography |
| Albums:
Good Feeling | The Man
Who | The
Invisible Band | 12
Memories | The
Boy with No Name |
| Compilations:
Singles |
| DVDs:
More Than Us | Travis at the Palace
| Singles |
| Singles:
"All I Want to Do Is Rock" |
"U16
Girls" | "Tied to the 90's" | "Happy"
| "More
Than Us" | "Writing to Reach You" | "Driftwood"
| "Why Does It Always
Rain on Me?" | "Turn" | "Coming
Around" | "Sing" | "Side" | "Flowers
in the Window" | "Re-Offender" | "The Beautiful Occupation" |
"Love Will Come Through" | "Walking
in the Sun" | "Closer" | "Selfish
Jean" | "My Eyes" |
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