Travis (band)

The band released their debut album, Good Feeling (1997), to moderate success where it debuted at number nine on the UK Albums Chart^[10] and was later awarded a silver certification from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in January 2000.^[11] The band gained greater success with their second album, The Man Who (1999), which spent nine weeks at number one on the UK Albums Chart, totalling 134 weeks in the top 100 of the chart.^[10] In 2003, The Man Who was certified 9× platinum by the BPI, representing sales of over 2.68 million in the UK alone.^[11] Following this success, the band released their third effort, The Invisible Band (2001) album. The Invisible Band went on to match the success found with their previous album, where it debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and spent a total of four weeks at the top spot, fifteen weeks in the top ten, and a total of fifty-five weeks in the top 100 chart,^[10] as well as peaking at thirty-nine on the US Billboard 200 album chart, spending a duration of seven weeks in the Billboard 200 chart.^[12] A year following the release of The Invisible Band, the BPI awarded Travis with a 4× platinum certification for the album.^[11]


The band's subsequent discography has included studio albums 12 Memories (2003), The Boy with No Name (2007), Ode to J. Smith (2008), Where You Stand (2013), Everything at Once (2016) and 10 Songs (2020).


In 2004, the band released their first greatest hits album, Singles, which spent nineteen weeks in the top 100 of the UK albums chart.^[10] Travis have twice been awarded best band at the BRIT Awards and were awarded the NME Artist of the Year award at their 2000 ceremony,^[13] and in 2016 were honoured at the Scottish Music Awards for their outstanding contribution to music.^[14] The band are widely said by the media to have paved the way for other bands such as Coldplay to go on to achieve worldwide success throughout the 2000s, particularly with the success of The Man Who.^[15]


Craft Recordings celebrated the 20th anniversary of Travis' breakthrough year with two simultaneous releases: Live at Glastonbury '99, plus expanded editions of The Man Who – both of which were released on 21 June 2019.^[16]

Collaborations and solo work[edit]

The band have played with a number of other artists, including Paul McCartney, Graham Nash, Noel Gallagher, and Jason Falkner. Travis guest starred on Feeder's "Tumble and Fall", performing backing vocals at the end of the song. This, because Feeder were recording their album Pushing the Senses and Travis were in the next studio.


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". The sketch 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 to recreate the acoustics.^[43]


In 2010, Travis contributed a live version of their song "Before You Were Young" to the Enough Project and Downtown Records' Raise Hope for Congo compilation. Proceeds from the compilation fund efforts to make the protection and empowerment of Congo's women a priority, as well as inspire individuals around the world to raise their voice for peace in Congo.


Healy released his first solo album entitled Wreckorder in October 2010. Recorded in Berlin, New York and Vermont and produced by Emery Dobyns (Patti Smith, Noah and the Whale), the album features Paul McCartney, Neko Case and Noah and the Whale's Tom Hobden.^[44][45]