star History in the Making star

logo Dougie Payne remembers things past with the help of assorted TRAVIS trinkets.


sunshine superstars Backyard of Travis's first London home, 1996
It was the very first glorious summer we lived in London. Our landlord looked exactly like Super Mario. We always thought he was burying people.
 

later Laminate for Later with Jools Holland, 1996
Suddenly, we were in a TV studio with Lionel Ritchie and Sting and Tricky, all these famous people. Lionel was just amazing. We watched him rehearse "Easy," just him on the piano, and me and Andy were singing the backing vocals to each other.

 
Team photo outside Bearsville Studio, New York State, 1996
Bear Studio That was where we did the first album up in the Catskills. [Producer] Steve Lillywhite's next to me. The rest were all engineers, the bosses, and the cook, BP. On the wall of the studio was this photo called the Founding Fathers, which is all the people that founded the studio along with loads of other famous musicians. So we set the photo up just the same as the original.
 

congrats Travis's first fan congratulations card, 1997
Ah, that was from this group of wee lassies called the Glitter Girls. They were the original U16 Girls, that was what they called themselves. But now they're 19, so we may have to change the title just for them.

 
wedding At the wedding of publisher Charlie Pinder, 1996
This is the wedding of the man who gave us our first publishing deal. I remember there was a big, red double-decker bus that took us from the wedding to the reception. I was wearing my Beatles suit.
 

Scottish Inns bar of soap, 1997
soap We were driving through middle America. We'd just finished a show and it was about 3 a.m. Then over the hills there was this golden sight, which was this sign saying "Scottish Inns." We thought, "Fantastic! We have to stay there." And it was fucking Bates Motel. The rooms smelt like dead people. I walked in and tripped over something. As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I realized there were 10 or 15 people in sleeping bags on the floor. I totally shat myself.

 
promo Promo poster for first single "U16 Girls," 1997
That was the first poster my girlfriend had seen, so she took a quick snap. It was in Camden somewhere. The surfboard design was by John Squire, as a tribute to Brian Wilson, and he gave it to the Warchild auction. Andy Macdonald [Travis's label boss] bought it, and it was one of the only things in the Independiente office when we went in. So we used it for the first single.
 

Father Jack laminate from Leo Finlay benefit gig, 1997
Leo Ah yes, very appropriate picture. Leo was a journalist, and one of the last interviews he did was with us. But after we recorded the album, we found out he was dead. Awful, awful news. We were up in the bar after we plaayed, and this guy comes up to us and was going on about how he loved the band. After about 15 minutes, Frannie goes, "So what do you do?" He says, "Oh, I'm a bass player." "Oh, right," says Frannie. "What band?" "Radiohead." We were so embarrassed! But then Colin introduced us to Nigel Godrich, and two years later, he did our album.

 
100 Club 100 Club gig, 1997
We did two nights in the 100 Club when everything was starting to kick off. The most significant thing was that Noel Gallagher was there and really liked us. We were going, "So why didn't you come up?" And he was like, "Oh, I didn't want to bother you."
 

the whole lot Taped-together passes
That is pretty much all my passes from all the shows in the first year of touring. I stuck them all on top of each other. If you take that apart, it'll be like a cut tree, the rings showing you how old it is. I'll wait another few years, then open it up with great ceremony.

 

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September 1999

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