Song of the Day #24 - Travis - Another Guy

After a short and not very successful solo career for Fran Healey, it's wonderful to see the boys in Travis back together. Not that I was ever in doubt that they would make something together soon again, it was just so obvious that Fran needs the rest of them to make something brilliant. That said, it was quite obvious that they needed a break and regroup. Ok, let's not think more of that whole thing, but happier thoughts! I have been a huge Travis fan since I bought both The Man Who and The Invisible Band in one go back in the beginning of the 2000's. Standing on the platform waiting for my train home I flicked through the songs on my portable cd player (Yes, thoose before i-something, those you could walk with) and realized that I thought every single song on the cds was brilliant. The saga continues with something in the region of 10 Travis concerts over the years, strange weather phenomena to "Why Does it Always Rain on Me" on the Quart festival etc. etc. etc. By now Travis feel like family, a safe place to return too.

It was, as you can imagine, with much anticipation after all of that, that I clicked on the link on YouTube to hear their new song. Again I experience a love at first sight, it just works and hits me in the right spot. And as always, the videos are inventive, full of good acting and makes you laugh. I can't wait to hear the rest and to see them on a stage somewhere in Norway soon. (Other Travis related posts..)

Fran Healys first singel from his solo album

I have for months been awaiting Fran Healy of the band Travis' new solo album. As followers of this blog will have noticed, I am huge fan of Travis. I think I might be just as big fan of Andy Dunlop's guitarsolos as Fran's writing skills though. They have been a little up and down the last years too, I think, though I really liked their last album where they went a little back to their rock'n'roll roots. Anyhow I was eager to hear Fran's new song, but at the same a little prepared that it would be a bit boring maybe. And yepp, I am sad to say, but I was right. It's a very cute little pop song, but not particularly catchy, the lyrics seam quite random and a bit boring, and yepp I really miss the sound of the rest of the band. It's just quite frankly a little blend. I don't hate it, but it doesn't give me a little kick like a lot of Travis songs do. Let's hope there are other stuff to come from the album that I will like better or/and that Travis will come back soon. I am sure they will and sometimes you have to try something else to see what you are missing ;)

Here you can judge for yourself:
http://www.spin.com/articles/exclusive-song-travis-fran-healy-goes-solo

Fran is also writing a quite amusing little blog and he wrote about trying to fill inn for Tom Cheplin of Keane the other day. Very well written. Here.

Live: Travis at Rockefeller, Oslo

Photos by stormy at http://www.travisonline.com

So, here we go again, me and Travis. Just as I walked out from Rockefeller last night I realized that I now have seen Travis 7 times in 6 different venues. It must be only in Norway and in UK that you can have done that. As I am sure all of you have realized by now, the story of Helene and Travis go back quite far. I am not sure if they know that I exist and to be quite honest, I kind of like that. Well, I always tend to be out of the heap of people that jump around and instead jump around at the side like a freak among people standing still, so maybe... hehe.. During Turn last night I did a quite psycho "bend-back-and-the-throw-my-arms-forward" and I am quite mr Dunlup cought that one..

Anyways,.. I got to Rockefeller around 8.30 and my friend was passing outside and said they just passed her. For me and her it was just so great to be back at Rockefeller together and to see a band that we also have such good memories of seeing together. The highlight was when it started raining during "Why does it always rain on me". That was an amazing moment for anyone I think. But Rockefeller is Rockefeller. It's a quite small venue and quite intimate, so the concerts there are NEVER bad. I just love the place. So great memories and such a great atmosphere.

To our slight surprise, the place was not full. We knew that the concert wasn't sold out and we spent some time there thinking "why, people must be crazy to don't see this". We took our places at the right side, the Andy-side. This time it was quite randomly, but as a guitarist I love to see what he does and also there is a chance that great things might happen during "All I wanna do is rock", like stage diving, climbing and whatever he feels like.

The concert started up with lots of new songs from the new album and they were just amazing live... And as I listen to them now, they of course sound even better having seen them live. I haven't seen the boys so filled with energy for years... Everything was just flowing and there were extrem amounts of jumping, running, hugging during songs and smiling up there. I ended up at about the 5th row so really really close and me and my friend kept laughing about Dougie. He just stands there beaming at the audience and it kind of feels like he sees you everytime... hehe.

During "Love will come through" it really started to get crazy. Fran ordered everyone to be a metronome with swinging their hands back and forth, before he song and we kept it going. I think he was a bit surpised, because in the middle of the song he said something like it must be hurting our arms and said we could just move from side to side instead. So we did, but of course raised our hands again a little later. We can take that pain for such a great band.

Around this time Fran told a very cute story about his son Clay. Last time in Norway he had brought back a bottle of Norwegian bottled water. Clay was somehow totally crazy for this water and called it Norway water. So when his father had asked him earlier that day what he wanted from Norway, the answer was "NORWAY WATER". It turned out that the backstage had a whole fridge of Imsdal Norwegian Water, so you can imagine Clays reaction to a whole fridge of Norway water. Apparently he almost lost his marbles.. hehe

"Sing" and "Side" was great as always and "Side" even had an extra long and rocky solo amazing. Then came "Falling Down" and Fran jumped into the audience and song the whole song from there. That basically meant that he was gone in the middle of the crowd duing the whole song as there is no way he can be taller than Norwegians. But a beautiful stunt and gave the whole song a lot of extra feeling. (see photo above, thanks to "stormy" on the Travis homepage, he was clooser than me.:)

Then there was time for the legendary U16 girls, and I jumped around like a crazy person and you could see who had been Travis fans for a long time and not.

At the end of the set it was time for "All I wanna do is rock" and it was amazing as always. Andy did the climb this time and I can not understand how he don't break bones or fall down. Great showmanship... hehehe. "Before you where young" was amazing.. It was something really passionate about it that really got to me.. And Turn (one of my favorites, and maybe the lyrics that has ment to much to me) I was basically going totally crazy.

After that it was time for a little break. I was getting tiered and I can only imagine how the boys felt. Exspecially Dougie in a very very cool-looking, but must be very hot coat.
Fran and Andy emerged back on stage and did the dumbfoundingly good cover of Kate Perrys, "I kissed a girl" where they even shared a mic just to make fun of the lyrics. That guitarriff makes the song so so much better. I have to sit down and learn that. I have done great success with Hit me baby for a few years now ;)

The concert ended in familiar fashion. All the boys linded up with the arms around each other at the front of the stage and did "Flowers in the window" and it's always quite cute. I realized that Neil had really big problems hiting the tambourine at the right places.. hmm.. ;)

The whole thing ended, not surprisingly with "Why does it always rain on me?". And we even did the jump to the whole last courus thing with Fran ordering everyone to stand up... Very good, as I can't belive how people can sit on a concert like that.

I went home beaming, bought a bottle of Norway water on the way and was really happy with a heart filled with THANK YOU.

It's hard to descirbe.. I can write words as amazing, good feeling, very electric performance, but it's one of thoose events that your really had to be there, so make sure you are next time won't you. To me, it seams that they are just getting better and better.. They seam more and more sure of themselves, and as for me, I hope for more rock albums and that they keep going a lot longer.

And oh, I have from a reliable source that Neils timing was due to severe drunkeness and that he wasn't the only one.. hehe... Well, that kind of just makes it better in a way.. I mean.. All I wanna do is rock ;)

Great collaborations: Travis and Noel Gallagher

I found out that I also need a series about great collaborations. This will include great performances of two acts (artists, bands etc.) together of some form. To start it off is the quite amazing performance of Travis' "All I wanna do is rock" while on tour with Oasis. This must have been in 1997 I think. I saw Oasis on that tour and really wonders if I actually also saw Travis warming up... I have to find out if they were in Oslo. Anyways, I had this bootleg for a lot of years before I finally got to see the footage of it through YouTube about a year ago. I wish I could have seen Andy's guitar-playing too. I am sure we will return to him when I one day will write about great guitarists and great guitar solos. He and All I wanna, will be there.. hehe.
Without further ado: Travis and Noel: