I had VERILY loved 'The Man Who' by Travis when it came out during my first year at Uni. There were a few duff tracks on there, but I really dug "Slide Show", "Writing To Reach You", "Driftwood", "Why Does It Always Rain On Me?" (natch) and "Blue Flashing Light". I was mildly annoyed that they'd abandoned the 'rockier' sound of their first album, but the new songs were strong melodically and had arrived at a bloody awesome time of my life. The drawbridge was down and they rode right up into my brain. Right up.
I was determined to see more live music in my second year and had persuaded Joey B, Wooster and Armes to get tickets for Travis when they announced a UK tour over summer. Wooster was harder to persuade than the other two but I eventually wore down his resolve. The gig had originally been scheduled for Leeds Met, but this was the height of Travis's powers, with "Why Does It Always Rain On Me?" still all over the radio, so it was upgraded to the Town & Country.
We got to the venue earlyish, after the obligatory pint in the Dry Dock, and managed to see most of Remy Zero's set. They were one of those American bands. The ones who are "big in the States" but can't get arrested here. They sounded very 'professional' and everything, but didn't really have any songs. Kind of like Goo Goo Dolls or Third Eye Blind without the melodies.
We got right to the front, at Joey B's insistence, for Travis. As we waited for the band to come on stage we joked about people moshing. Then the band came on and people started moshing. To Travis. Oh kayyyyyy. To be fair they'd top loaded their set with some of their older, more raucous (relatively speaking) tunes, but still...
As the above photograph shows, the front row was pretty much full of girls. They went bloody NUTS for the first few songs. I'm only small and it was like Ben Folds Five all over again, with me trying to counter mosh, just so I could get a breath of air. A few songs in, the girl in front of me fainted. She fell backwards, so I instinctively put my arms out to catch her... except she weighed an ACTUAL ton. I'd heard about 'dead weight' before, but I hadn't realised quite how heavy people are when they're sparked out. I shouted to Wooster to give me a hand, then Joey Armes dashed over as well, but we could still barely hold her, even though she was only slight. A Security Bod was stood in front of the stage and we managed to get his attention. The three of us, plus Security Bod and his colleague, Security Bod 2, then hauled the girl over the barrier and into the waiting arms of the St John's Ambulance.
We got right to the front, at Joey B's insistence, for Travis. As we waited for the band to come on stage we joked about people moshing. Then the band came on and people started moshing. To Travis. Oh kayyyyyy. To be fair they'd top loaded their set with some of their older, more raucous (relatively speaking) tunes, but still...
Copyright Travisonline.com
Fran Healy (far left), and Dougie Payne from Travis survey the T&C crowd. We're stood about three rows back to the left on this picture. Somewhere in the gloom.
As the above photograph shows, the front row was pretty much full of girls. They went bloody NUTS for the first few songs. I'm only small and it was like Ben Folds Five all over again, with me trying to counter mosh, just so I could get a breath of air. A few songs in, the girl in front of me fainted. She fell backwards, so I instinctively put my arms out to catch her... except she weighed an ACTUAL ton. I'd heard about 'dead weight' before, but I hadn't realised quite how heavy people are when they're sparked out. I shouted to Wooster to give me a hand, then Joey Armes dashed over as well, but we could still barely hold her, even though she was only slight. A Security Bod was stood in front of the stage and we managed to get his attention. The three of us, plus Security Bod and his colleague, Security Bod 2, then hauled the girl over the barrier and into the waiting arms of the St John's Ambulance.
An Aside:
I've never fainted, but I've been knocked out twice. Once, when I was playing football, I attempted a diving header in the penalty box, missed the ball and collided with the goal post. My mates ran to get my Dad (we lived nearby) and I woke to find him tearing across the pitch in his Vauxhall Cavalier. A few years earlier, I'd been camping with Scouts and we'd decided it would be fun to throw a metal tent peg at each other. I wasn't looking when my mate chucked said peg in my direction and was hit right above my eye. I was carried to the scout leaders hut and this time I woke to find a young Girl Guide leader, wearing just a black bra, knickers and an open dressing gown, mopping my brow . As a 14 year old boy, I felt that this was probably the greatest thing that had ever happened to me.
The gig itself was decent enough. I was chuffed that they played "20", which I'd heard on a tape that came free with a copy of the NME. It's an acoustic song with lyrics about growing up and, OMG, I WAS GROWING UP AT THE TIME TOOOOOOOO! I was also really impressed with their guitarist, Andy Dunlop. He wrung some lovely screeches, scrawls and scrapes from his semi-acoustic AXE, particularly during "Blue Flashing Light". I've always thought he should have joined a noise-rock band on the side.
Set list (Travis)
- All I Want To Do Is Rock
- Good Feeling
- Good Day To Die
- Tied To The 90's
- More Than Us
- Writing To Reach You
- The Fear
- As You Are
- Village Man
- Driftwood
- Last Laugh Of The Laughter
- Why Does It Always Rain On Me?
- Luv
- Happy
- Turn
- Slide Show
- 20
- Coming Around Encore
- Be My Baby
- Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah
- Blue Flashing Light
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