Travis

Travis biography

Travis are a post-Britpop band from Glasgow, Scotland, comprising Fran Healy (lead vocalist, guitar, piano, banjo), Dougie Payne (bass guitar, backing vocals), Andy Dunlop (lead guitar, banjo, keyboards, backing vocals) and Neil Primrose (drums, percussion). They named themselves after the Harry Dean Stanton character Travis Henderson from the film Paris, Texas.

The band's debut album Good Feeling, released on 8 September 1997 entered the UK Album Charts at number 9, spending 9 weeks inside the UK Top 100. Singles released from the album were not too successful, with the album's lead single "All I Want to Do Is Rock" charting at number 39 on the UK Singles Charts. However, it wasn't until the release of their second studio album The Man Who that Travis began to develop a name for themselves in the music industry, with continued success into the 2000s. The Man Who charted at number 1 on the UK Album Charts, and spent 104 weeks inside the UK Top 100.

Their third studio album, The Invisible Band was released on 11 June 2001, and like The Man Who, The Invisible Band debuted at number 1 on the UK Album Charts, where it remained for 4 weeks in total, and went onto spend a total of 54 weeks inside the UK Top 100 album charts. Although their fourth album, 12 Memories did not make the top spot in the United Kingdom, it debuted at number 3, spending a further 11 weeks on the charts in the UK, and still got certified Platinum status by the BPI. Travis released a compilation album Singles in 2004, debuting at number 4 on the UK Album Charts, released their fifth studio album The Boy With No Name in 2007, debuting at number 4 on the UK Album Charts. and their sixth album was released in September 2008, entitled Ode To J. Smith, debuting at number 20 on the UK Album Charts.

History

Formation and early years (1990-1994)

The band that would become Travis was 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, Catherine Maxwell, and the band's name became "Glass Onion", after the Beatles song of the same name written by Lennon/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, an 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. Other songs they recorded but were left off are "She's So Strange" and "Not About to Change".

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