page_title: Travis (band)
section_title: Formation and early years (1990–1993)
hierarchical_section_title: Travis (band) / History / Formation and early years (1990–1993)
caption_attribution_description: English: Travis (band) logo
context_page_description: Travis are a Scottish rock band formed in Glasgow in 1990, composed of Fran Healy, Dougie Payne, Andy Dunlop and Neil Primrose. The band's name comes from the Harry Dean Stanton character Travis Henderson from the film Paris, Texas.
  The band released their debut album, Good Feeling, to moderate success where it debuted at number nine on the UK Albums Chart and went onto achieve a silver certification from the BPI in January 2000. The band went on to achieve greater international success with their second album, The Man Who, which spent nine weeks at number one on the UK Albums Chart, totalling one-hundred and thirty-four weeks in the top 100 of the chart. In 2003, The Man Who was certified 9x platinum by the BPI, representing sales of over 2.68 million in the UK alone. Following this success, the band released their third effort, The Invisible Band album.
context_section_description: The band that would become Travis was formed by brothers Chris Martyn (bass) and Geoff Martyn (keyboards) along with Simon Jarvis (drums). Andy Dunlop, a school friend at Lenzie Academy, was drafted in on guitar. The line-up was completed by a female vocalist, Catherine Maxwell, and the band's name became "Glass Onion", after the Beatles song of the same name. Neil Primrose joined to replace Jarvis.  Parting company with their singer in the spring of 1991, they auditioned for a new vocalist. Having met each other through Primrose pouring him a pint, an untrained art student, Fran Healy, then joined after being invited to audition by Primrose. Healy joined the band on the day he enrolled at The Glasgow School of Art, in the autumn of 1991. Two years later, with the option of music holding more appeal, Healy dropped out of art school, and inspired by songwriters such as Joni Mitchell, assumed songwriting responsibilities. With brothers Chris and Geoff Martyn on bass and keyboards, in 1993, the fivesome released a privately made CD, The Glass Onion EP, featuring the tracks "Dream On", "The Day Before", "Free Soul" and "Whenever She Comes Round". 500 copies of the EP were made and were recently valued at £1000 each. Other songs they recorded but were left off are "She's So Strange" and "Not About to Change".
  The band won a talent contest organised by the Music in Scotland Trust, who promised £2,000 so that Travis could deal-hunt at a new music seminar in New York. Two weeks before they were due to leave, however, the prize was instead given to the Music in Scotland Trust Directory. When sent a copy of the directory, the band noticed that it seemed to feature every single band in Scotland—except for them.
  The band showed promise but had yet to evolve into a decent line-up capable of fulfilling it and spent several years treading water. According to their publisher Charlie Pinder: "They were a band that everyone in the A&R community knew about and would go and see every now and then. But they weren’t very good. They had quite good songs; Fran always did write good songs." While on a visit to Scotland, American engineer and producer Niko Bolas, a long-time Neil Young and Rolling Stones associate, tuned into a Travis session on Radio Scotland, and heard something in the band's music which instantly made him travel to Perth to see them. Healy: "He told us we were shit, took us in the studio for four days, and taught us how to play properly, like a band. He was ballsy, rude, and New York pushy. He didn't believe my lyrics and told me to write what I believed in and not tell lies. He was Mary Poppins, he sorted us out." The band recorded a five-song demo, which included the song "All I Want to Do Is Rock".
caption: The Travis logo used by the band since 1999. It has been used on all releases with the exception of Good Feeling and Ode to J. Smith
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