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| Travis discover that FirstFoot
is writing an article about them |
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In the Beginning was the Word, and
the Word was Music. And lo, Music begat Rock n Roll. Rock
n Roll begat Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly, who in turn begat
The Beatles. And the Beatles, for their sins, begat the
bastard child that was Oasis.
The point is, every musical
act in history has "borrowed" from what's gone before,
and Travis are certainly no exception. Some say they sound
like a cross between Oasis and Radiohead with a bit of Teenage
Fanclub and Paul McCartney thrown in for good measure. Nothing
wrong with that, if you like that kind of thing.
It would appear, however,
that for some reason, of all contemporary Scottish bands,
popular opinion of Fran Healey and his merry band of fellow
former art students is more acutely polarised than most. People
either love 'em or hate 'em. The Gallacher brothers, with
whom the band have toured, have publicly professed themselves
to be big fans and that, for many folk, is more than ample
reason to regard them with utter disdain and write them off.
Their supporters (of whom,
it must be said, there are many) will tell you that "Flowers
in the Window", a truly McCartney-esque piece, and "Why
does it always rain on me?" are musical masterpieces
that rank amongst the finest pop songs ever written.
Their knockers, on the
other hand, will argue that tracks like "Sing",
which, pretty though it is, repeats the word "sing"
about 14 million times, demonstrate a lyrical ineptitude only
marginally less excruciating in its banality than such erstwhile
classics as "Agadoo" or "Una Paloma Blanca".
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| Fran shows that there are no
hard feelings when he meets FirstFoot |
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These same cynics will
tell you that the reason why it always rains on you, Frannie
boy, is because at heart you're just a dirty hippy who could
do with a good wash.
The truth, however, as
ever, probably lies somewhere in-between the two extremes,
and in fairness it is perhaps still too early to judge the
real contribution of Travis to musical posterity.
The jury is still out on
this one.
So for now, on the back
of three largely not-bad, half-decent albums, we'll have to
give the boys that peculiarly frustrating Scottish judicial
verdict of "Not Proven".
TRAVIS TRIVIA
FOOTNOTE
| 1 |
Their first single "All I
Wanna Do is Rock" was originally called "All
I Wanna Do is Fuck", but not surprisingly the record
company insisted on the change. This is perhaps less
of a cop-out than it might at first appear, given that
the original derivation of the word "Rock"
was American negro slang for, you guessed it, "Fuck".
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| 2 |
The name "Travis"
is taken from Harry Dean Stanton's character in the movie
"Paris, Texas". So now you know. |
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