Travis Tickets - The North American Way
Get out your kilts, folks. The Glasgow based Brit-pop band Travis is going to tour throughout North America come the end of March, and you surely don't want to miss these Scottish lads offering up a bit of heart-to-heart on the stage. Their live performances have been heralded as lively, impassioned and deeply emotional, often leaving their audience members pondering the meaning of life, love, music and plaid kilts. Just joking...no kilts. But get out your pen and jot down a few dates as these boys will blast back to the U.K. before you know it. They are scheduled to kick off the excursion with a few warm-up shows in Mexico, where they will open for Peter Gabriel March 27, 29 and 31. Then they will head way up north to Vancouver where they will jam on April 4, then slowly wind their way down to Seattle, San Francisco, Anaheim and Los Angeles. Then it's outward into the greater U.S. of A. They are touring in support of their most recent album, Ode to J. Smith, which was released in early fall 2008. Get ready for Brit-pop with a modern edge by getting your Travis tickets at http://www.stubhub.com/travis-tickets.
Travis formed in Glasgow, Scotland around 1990, comprised of band members Francis Healy, Andy Dunlop, Neil Primrose and Dougie Payne. At first it was just a side-project, a way of letting off steam and enjoying afternoons together, but then the foursome decided that they might actually be sort of good. They opted to try their luck by packing up and shipping off to London. Their self-released debut EP, All I Wanna Do Is Rock, made headlines in 1996, capturing the lost essence of British rock/pop with an artsy, yet back-to-basics sound.
A year later, they issued their much anticipated, critically acclaimed debut full-length album, Good Feeling. Everyone held similar sentiments about the content of the record: it was all good. Hit singles that emerged from the effort included: "Happy" and "Tied to the '90s." Produced by top producer Steve Lilywhite, the album showed that Travis wanted to emphasize classicism. They drew from the traditional Britpop influences like the Beatles, the Kinks and the Small Faces, but combined that with more modern influences that can be traced to the Stone Roses and Oasis. Most critics and many fans embraced this early effort as a re-writing of the Britpop genre and welcomed Travis with open arms.
After Good Feeling managed impressive marks on just about everyone's charts, Travis pioneered forward with The Man Who, which went six times platinum in the U.K. and spawned hit singles like "Why Does It Always Rain on Me?" and "Writing to Reach You." Other follow-up albums included: The Invisible Band, 12 Memories and The Boy with No Name, all of which continued getting rave reviews. Their most recent album, Ode to J. Smith, offers up some more gritty sounds with a clearly edgy style, but the content of their material is still the same, which should please their large and devoted fanbase.
