Travis is 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 is 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.

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", "The Day Before", "Free Soul" and "Whenever She Comes Round." 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" ^[1], and that the band is 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 and thanked Chris Martin in The Boy With No Name's CD booklet. ^[1] 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".<ref name="NME review of 'The Boy With No Name'">NME review of 'The Boy With No Name', May 2007 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, including the Forestry Commission's Forest Tour. 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 Björklund from Sweden. Björklund'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 Björklund 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:

1. Good Feeling (September 8, 1997)
2. The Man Who (May 24, 1999)
3. The Invisible Band (June 11, 2001)
4. 12 Memories (October 13, 2003)
5. The Boy with No Name (May 7, 2007)

See also List of Travis songs written by Fran Healy.

B-sides, covers and other artists

Travis is 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"
• The Ronettes' "Be My Baby"
• 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"
• 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.

Travis also guest star on Feeder's "Tumble and Fall", performing backing vocals at the end of the song. This was because at the time Feeder were recording their album Pushing the Senses, Travis were in the next studio and they ended up recording together.

An adaptation of the Oasis song "Half the World Away", as performed by Healy, was used as the intro music for a sketch in The Adam and Joe Show entitled "The Imperial Family", which itself was a parody of The Royle Family (to which the Oasis song lends itself as the theme music).

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.^[3]

References

Interviews

• Time Off interview, May 2007
• The Music Magazine interview, March 2007
• Sunday Chart interview, July 2007

External links

• Official site
• Official MySpace page
• Hi5 Music Travis
• BBC review and pics of 2007 tour
• Unofficial Travis Discography
• Russian Unofficial Site
• THE.MAN.WHO Multimedia Blog
• Adam and Joe soundclip page, featuring The Imperial Family title music

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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