Travis

Travis is a rock band from Glasgow, Scotland. It was formed on July 1, 1996. The original lineup has been never changed and included Fran Healy, Andy Dunlop, Dougie Payne and Neil Primrose. Almost all of them had been the members of Glass Onion. Songs recorded 1990 through 1996 were featured on the first albums of the band. The debut single All I Want To Do Is Rock was recorded by Travis at their own label Red Telephone Вох under the guidance of Yen McAndrew. In 1997, Travis released their first long player Good Feeling. This album invaded the first ten of the British charts. The local mass media proclaimed Travis one of the best young bands of the year. This inspired the musicians to work hard on the next record. It was produced in May 1999 under the title The Man Who and astonish the audience as the hit of the summer thanks to the track Why Does It Always Rain On Me?, one of the British chart-toppers in August. After the striking performance given by Travis at Woodstock'99, The Man Who topped the British charts and became the most successful record of the year. This album paved the way to a new wave of British acoustic bands, including such major performers as Coldplay and Starsailor.

In spring 2000, Travis sailed away to conquer the USA supporting the celebrated Oasis. The concerts far from home made them as famous as back in Britain. Travis released the third album in June 2001. Unlike The Man Who, The Invisible Man was not loaded with hits and featured only two of them: Sing, and Side. This album was promoted by a large tour. In October, the Q magazine named this CD the best album of the year. In summer of the next year Travis were forced to take unplanned rest due to Primrose's injury after his unlucky dive into the pool. The band canceled a streak of performances in Europe in Reading and Leeds, Great Britain. In autumn, Travis released the new single Love Will Come Through to encourage their colleague. This track was made available for free downloading online. Shortly after, this song was chosen as soundtrack to the movie Moonlight Mile.

Instead of the performances canceled due to Neil's mishap, Travis focused on recording new songs. Love Will Come Through was included into the new album 12 Memories, released October 14, 2003. The critics regarded it as the most mature job done by Travis. The lyrics appeared different from the texts Travis had been writing before as they turned to the global problems of humanity and filled their songs with positive emotions and simple yet good ideas. It took Travis a long time to start recording the new album. The session began in the middle of 2006. Before that, they produced a collection of singles and hits and a DVD with the same tracklisting under the title Singles, officially released on November,1 2004. Travis had only eight concerts in 2005 and gave no performances in 2006. Originally, Travis had planned to produce the new album in August 2006, but eventually they changed the producer and re-recorded the entire material. The Boy With No Name was released on May 7, 2007. The musicians said that they had accumulated the material enough for a double CD. The music of the new release revealed strong deviations from the original style. The latest Travis' album recording was a speedy process, and the fresh release Ode to J. Smith is planned for September 2008. The latest Travis' album recording was a speedy process, and the release of Ode to J. Smith took place in September 2008.