šŸŽµ How Good Are They Really šŸŽµ Travis

Music
21

Canā€™t deny that I really liked those first couple of albums at the time. Thought they were great, and I still think ā€œWriting To Reach Youā€ is lovely to this day, but Iā€™ve moved on so far from them. I soon learned to lump them in with your Coldplays, Embraces, Elbows. Just really boring.

ā€œFamouslyā€ saw them with approximately 4 other people at the Maidstone Union Bar touring that debut album. The bar staff had to leave their posts to make it look like they had more of a crowd. Kind of depressing, but makes for an anecdote. Maybe not a good anecdote, but definitely an anecdote.

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22

Amy Macdonaldā€™s favourite band

They were in Bo Selecta

Some Travis trivia for you

23

Was that with Rude Club supporting? I was there!

24

Man, I loved Travis. Never that bothered before Glastonbury 2000, but they were fantastic on the Saturday night, much better than Bowie the following night, but that has been forgotten, weirdly. (Not claiming for a second theyā€™re better overall, just that weekend)

Got properly obsessive about them, collected the b sides (which are all pretty good from The Man Who era), taught myself the songs on guitar, and thenā€¦ lost interest with the next album, like most people. Not listened to them in 20 years, but I got a lot out of them, more than seems possible now, so for that, a 4.

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25

Would not have a hope in hell of remembering such a detail. It was one of two really badly supported shows I remember down there. The other being Urusei Yatsura.

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26

Bloody hell, would have loved to have seen Urusei Yatsura at the Union Bar. What year was that?

27

They really really like to have choruses which just repeat the title of the song

28

Always thought this was a lovely song, hidden away on a cd single

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29

I do really like The Beautiful Occupation and Writing to Reach you

Also, I caught the end of a gig on BBC4 with an orchestra and it sounded pretty good actually.

Theyā€™ll get slated but they could pen a catchy tune, for sure

3 overall I guess

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30

Quite like Driftwood

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31

Reckon David Gray is loads more interesting than Travis

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32

At a guess 96 or 97. That whole period is a bit of a blur tbf

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33

I loved Travis.

Good Feeling, The Man Who and 12 Memories are all great, and Ode to J Smith and The Boy With No Name are passable.

I think their biggest claim to infamy is that they created Turin Brakes and Coldplay.

Iā€™ve gave them a 4/5 because I really liked them and will always give them a spin.

Also, a song named U16 Girls is misguided but hardly the worst thing a HGATR alumni has done.

3 Likes
34

Saw some cracking bands in there over the years; Gorkys (with Olivia Tremor Control supporting), Carter USM, Catherine Wheel, The Supernaturals (OK, less said about this one, the better).

Was a great little venue and they had a skiing arcade machine in the back!

35

Singlehandedly ruined the Office US

Fair play for forging a few years of commercial success from the same drab acoustic dirges, but if their music disappeared it would be fine, fine fine, fine, fine fine fine.

36

I remember Maidstone as having no decent music scene through my teens. Turns out I was probably just not into good bands at that point.

37

Also, they were the only mainstream UK band to release an anti Iraq war single, which has to be worth something, shame itā€™s not that great

38

Yeah, wasnā€™t much of a ā€œsceneā€, just one venue on the touring circuit really. Between that and Tunbridge Wells Forum (when we werenā€™t getting trains up to London), we werenā€™t exactly spoilt for choice in North Kent

39

Could see these challenging Arethaā€¦

8 Likes
40

I admire this commitment