Travis (band)
The band announced in December 2007 that a short tour was planned for February 2008, with only five dates in small club venues around the UK. The band road-tested new material in the February 2008 club shows. Shortly after, they started recording their sixth studio album. It is named after the song "J. Smith", to be featured on the album. Said Fran Healy on the blog "The album is called Ode to J. Smith partly giving a heads up to the key song and partly because all the songs are written about nameless characters or to nameless characters."
The band recorded the album in two weeks in February/March 2008, having been inspired by the speed and simplicity of their recent recording session with Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick while participating in a BBC programme celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album[3]. The album was aldo recorded quickly to allow bassist Dougie Payne to have "paternity leave"[4]. It was announced at this time that the band had split amicably from their long-time record label Independienteas they had "come to the end of our deal and decided to go as it was time to start afresh" [5], according to Fran Healy.
In early June 2008, a vinyl EP of the song J. Smith was announced online as the first release from Ode to J. Smith. It is limited to 1000 copies and was not an 'official' single, instead it is more of a taster of the album for fans. The album date is still to be announced (as of June 12th) although it is expected in the autumn, probably September and an announcement is expected soon[6].
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Discography
A list of studio albums only:
- Good Feeling (September 8, 1997)
- The Man Who (May 24, 1999)
- The Invisible Band (June 11, 2001)
- 12 Memories (October 13, 2003)
- The Boy with No Name (May 7, 2007)
- Ode To J. Smith, (To Be Announced, 2008)[7]
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B-sides, covers and other artists
Travis is notable in that their B-sides outnumber their album tracks. The same single is sometimes even released with a different B-side. Travis has also done a number of covers, whether recorded as B-sides for singles, or performed live. Songs that Travis have covered include:
- Joni Mitchell's "River" and "The Urge for Going"
- The Band's "The Weight"
- Mott the Hoople's "All the Young Dudes"
- Elton John's "Rocket Man"
- John Lennon's "Gimme Some Truth"
- The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun"
- AC/DC' "Back in Black"
- Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds"
- Queen's "Killer Queen" with Jason Falkner
- David Bowie's "Heroes"
- The Ronettes' "Be My Baby"
- Queen's "Killer Queen"
- Britney Spears' "...Baby One More Time"
- Jimmy Webb's "Wichita Lineman"
- Graham Nash's "Another Sleep Song"
- Bob Dylan's "You're a Big Girl Now"
- Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better"
- Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know" (a modified live acoustic version titled "After Mark and Lard Go")
The band have also played with a number of other artists, including Paul McCartney, Graham Nash (of Hollies and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young fame), Oasis' Noel Gallagher, and Jason Falkner. Travis also guest star on Feeder's "Tumble and Fall", performing backing vocals at the end of the song. This was because at the time Feeder were recording their album Pushing the Senses, Travis were in the next studio and they ended up recording together.
An adaptation of the Oasis song "Half the World Away", as performed by Healy, was used as the intro music for a sketch in The Adam and Joe Show entitled "The Imperial Family", which itself was a parody of The Royle Family (to which the Oasis song lends itself as the theme music).
In June 2007, Travis participated in BBC Radio 2's project to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. All the album's tracks were re-recorded by contemporary artists, supervised by the original engineer, Geoff Emerick, using the same 4-track studio equipment. Travis contributed a rendition of "Lovely Rita". The band wanted to be as faithful to the original as possible, even to the extent of recording the guitars in the stairwell of Abbey Road Studios in order to recreate the acoustics.[8]
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Son of Rambow
Travis very briefly appeared as extras in the film, Son of Rambow. The band dressed up as the PE, Science, History and English teachers that they appeared as in their Driftwood music video.
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References
- ^ 'Travis get Closer' video interview with stv.tv/music, March 2007
- ^ NME review of 'The Boy With No Name', May 2007
- ^ Fran Healy Album 6 - Blog 1
- ^ Dougie answers questions
- ^ Leaving record label
- ^ J Smith vinyl
- ^ Travis Announce New Album And Club Dates
- ^ BBC Radio 2: Sgt Pepper's 40th Anniversary
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Interviews
- Video Interview 99Matters.com: "What is really important to you?", Nov. 2007
- Time Off interview, May 2007
- The Music Magazine interview, March 2007
- Sunday Chart interview, July 2007
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External links
- Official site
- Official MySpace page
- Turkish Fan Site
- Hi5 Music Travis
- Travis - Video Interview: "What is really important to you?"
- BBC review and pics of 2007 tour
- Russian Fan Site
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