Sheffield Arena: Monday 4th March (Travis)

Member Name: missbrowneyedgirl

Product:	Travis
Date:	05/03/02 (277 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent performace of 'Fear', Great quality entertainment, Free (to me)

Disadvantages: Lack of legroom

I'm a Travis fan. At least in my opinion I'm a fan. I don't follow them around the country screaming, pin pictures of them on my wall, wear their t-shirts or graffiti 'I love Travis' around the world but I do own their two most recent albums, which I listen to and enjoy quite frequently. However much as I enjoy their music, I wouldn't have thought they would give much of a live show... I was to be proved wrong.

I wouldn't have bought tickets to see them. Partly because I didn't think the show would be up to much, but mainly because I knew they were playing at Sheffield Arena. I see some of you are confused and others are in the know, so to speak. Well I'll enlighten you all and apologies to those who already hold this information. In exchange for a bits of work our company do for the Arena, complimentary tickets to events arrive on my desk every so often.

I was really quite excited when the tickets arrived as the event had been 'Sold Out' for quite some time and I didn't think we would be going. However, on Monday afternoon in the midst of my 48-hour weekender hangover, I can't say I was pleased when I recalled the event. I'd have much preferred to go home and huddle in the corner of my bed for a while, but as I had offered my taxi services to the rest of my colleagues it wasn't really an option.

The tickets clearly stated that the doors opened at 6:30pm, with the 'special guests' (happening to be The Doves in this case) taking to the stage at around 7:30pm. I quite wanted to see The Dove splay. I'm convinced I really like at least one of their songs, although I don't recall its title, or the tune either if I'm honest! Anyway, to cut a long story short the refreshment queue and colleague collections prevented me from seeing any reasonable amount of their set, so I wont comment, except to say they were pleasant when they left the stage.

Again we had pr
ime seats close to the front-right of the stage. This time I didn't feel like standing, as I had at the Stereophonics, but I did have a problem with the legroom, or to be more precise lack of it. I'm not particularly tall but there just wasn't enough room for my legs between my seat and the one in front. My colleagues, all being male, go around this problem by spreading their legs around the seats in front, which as a lady (stop laughing at the back!) wasn't really an option to me...;)

Anyway, this was all soon forgotten as the music started. Very cheekily, I thought, the introduction to Lemon Jelly's Staunton Lick boomed from the stage closely followed by the entrance of five scruffy blokes and a lot of cheering from the crowd. Of course, the aforementioned scruffs were Travis (plus one for live purposes, who unfortunately we weren't introduced to).

First came drummer Neil Primrose closely followed by guitarist Andy Dunlop, bassist Douglas Payne and front man, singer and songwriter Francis (Fran) Healy. They did look more like they were about to clear out their garages, with their denim dungarees, jeans and old t-shirts but as they launched into 'Sing', from their latest album 'The Invisible Band', this was soon forgiven.

You see, Travis aren't about looking flash in matching suits. The Glaswegian band formed in the early 90's to bring melody back to the music of the time, and some ten years later they have clearly succeeded. If you know of their music, you'll be thinking about a collection of beautiful, happy and painful songs each with it's own very distinct edge, and this is what Travis are about. It's simply the music, and enjoyment for all concerned.

The stage was backed by a huge white sheet screen, which was revealed in sections, by the removal of the black drapes in between the first three songs. These could be seen dropping away in the darkness of the stage, on
ly to disappoint the viewer with a plain white screen as a result!

There were also 12 TV screens on poles arranged into an arc behind the band, which were again used for the show visuals. Theses were mainly a display of colours with the odd bit of imagery creeping in, such as the never-ending train during the performance of 'Last Train' and the hilarious video of Fran car surfing.

One of the most memorable displays was during the performance of 'Driftwood' where the screen showed three large circles in primary colours. Into each of these a silhouette of a trampolining girl with long pigtails appeared. The other incredible use was during the performance of my favourite song 'Fear' where the screen was filled with flames. This and the clever lighting actually made it seem incredibly hot in the Arena, with the enhanced performance of a lot more oomph only adding to the effect!

There was an odd moment during the performance of 'Slide Show' where a seemingly identical screen was hoisted in front on the stage, hiding the band from only those in the middle of the arena. Onto this a slide show of photographs was projected, which seemed a little pointless as surely this could have been shown on the backdrop screen. However, a photo of the boys mooning soon brought the house down, and even made Fran giggle during singing, so again this was soon forgotten.

Perhaps the best use of the backdrop was during the performance of 'Coming Around'. Fran talked for a while about how after seeing the giant screen, all he could think about was using it with his Playstation2. A little banter with the crowd later, he had pulled a young lad, called Mark I believe, out of the crowd, given him the PS2 controller and set him playing Gran Tourismo 3 for the duration of the song! It made Mark's night and the rest of the crowd had a good giggle at his Playstation face on the large screens that swamped the stage sides!


I was expecting the show to really concentrate on the songs from 'The Invisible Band' but it turned out that 'The Man Who' got much more of an airing. I have included a track listing from the show, but please not that this isn't comprehensive or indeed chronological!

~ From The Invisible Band ~
Sing, Side, Flowers In The Window, Last Train, Coming Around

~ From The Man Who ~
Writing to reach you, Fear, As you are, Driftwood, Turn, Why does it always rain on me, Slide show, bonus track (Saturday Evening?)

~ From Good Feeling ~
All I want to do is rock (the first song Travis ever performed as a band), I love you anyways, Happy (appropriately the last song of the evening)

And also a song I believe was called 'Twenty' which was the first song Fran ever wrote.

The band was surprisingly interesting to watch with the exception of Neil Primrose who didn't seem to get much camera action! Andy Dunlop put in an astounding performance of constant bouncing, bending an rolling which sharply contrasted with Douglas Payne's excellent 'swing your pants' shimmy as per Trevor and Simon used to! Fran seemed to join in with whichever he preferred at the time, whilst darting from one side of the stage to the other.

Fran also talked a lot between the songs and at the point he brought the house lights up, he seemed genuinely surprised by the large size of the crowd. This all added to the appeal of the band, their music and the evening. However, I must apologise to Travis as we ducked out in the final few bars of Happy. You see, this meant we avoided the 45 minute traffic queue (like the one we sat in after the Stereophonics concert). Sorry guys!

The remaining UK tour dates are as follows and I'd really recommend that you try and catch one of the dates. I was a genuinely surprising and entertaining show. With hindsight, I'd definitely pay to see Travis ag
ain:
05/03/02 NEWCASTLE Arena
07/03/02 ABERDEEN Exhibition Centre
08/03/02 and 09/03/02 GLASGOW SECC
11/03/01 CARDIFF International Arena
12/03/02 WEMBLEY Arena
13th March - Wembley Arena
15/03/02 MANCHESTER Evening News Arena
16/03/02 - BELFAST, Odyssey Arena
18/03/02 - ABERDEEN, Exhibition Centre
19/03/02 - GLASGOW SECC
22/03/02 LONDON Arena, Docklands

For more information have a look at:
http://www.Travisonline.com
http://www.nme.com

Summary: