Travis

Scottish indie-pop band Travis are best-known for the slow-burning post-Britpop success of second album The Man Who (1999), which heralded a new period of UK chart success for anthemic guitar bands such as Coldplay and Starsailor.

In 1996, the budding young Glaswegian group Travis signed with Independiente Records and recorded their debut album Good Feeling (released in 1997), produced by famed U2 producer Steve Lillywhite. Though the album received very warm reviews from critics and substantially improved the band's exposure to new audiences, it sold only 40,000 copies. Travis' live show became renowned for its energy and humour and substantially grew their fanbase that now included many high profile rock stars. One such fan, Noel Gallagher, arranged for Travis to do several support slots in the UK for his band, Oasis.

When the band released their breakthrough second album The Man Who (1999), it was not received favourably by critics and although it debuted at No.7 it quickly began to slump. It fell no lower than No.19 however, and when the first single "Why Does it Always Rain on Me?" began to get regular airplay on the radio The Man Who slowly began to rise in the charts again. Then it all went right for the humble Scottish lads when, at the Glastonbury Festival in 1999, a dry day gave way to heavy showers just as Travis played the first strains of "Why Does it Always Rain on Me?". The coincidence was seized upon by the national media and the song gradually became an unlikely summer anthem. As a result The Man Who rose to No.1 in the UK charts, won the BRIT Award for Best Album (where Travis were also named Best Band), and earned Travis two Ivor Novello awards.

Travis followed The Man Who with 2001's The Invisible Band. Doubling the sales of the previous album, The Invisible Band produced three Top 10 hits: "Flowers in the Window", "Sing" and "Side". In the US the single "Coming Around" helped to cement their growing popularity across the pond and Travis again followed their album release with a world tour, selling out many cities as word of their impressive live performances spread. However, while on tour in France in 2002 drummer Neil Primrose broke his neck in a freak swimming-pool accident. Primrose nearly drowned and would have died had his bandmates not carefully pulled him from the pool. Primrose eventually made a full recovery, but during this time the band had to take a break.

The band escaped the pressures of fame and calls for a new album by taking up residence in a small western Scottish town and setting up their own studio. After several weeks of solitude and relaxation the band had recorded their fourth studio album, 12 Memories (2003). A darker, more politically driven album than anything Travis had done before, it received mixed critical reviews and relatively poor sales. After a highly successful compilation album entitled Singles, Travis took some time for themselves. They participated in the Make Poverty History campaign in 2005 by performing at two Live 8 concerts, first in London, and then four days later in Edinburgh.

On April 23, 2007 Travis released their fifth studio album The Boy with No Name. It received mixed reviews but was met by brisk sales. The first single "Closer" featured a video starring Ben Stiller as a grumpy grocery store manager.