Poor Travis. They’ve had their day. Back in ’97/’98, you couldn’t turn on the radio without hearing them. They were everywhere. Every other trolley in the checkout queue at Tesco had a wee copy of ‘The Man Who’ next to the nappies, bottled water and whatever else the masses were buying. Everybody loved them. As Noel Gallagher said of ‘Wonderwall’, “Once the nerds get involved, man, it goes insane. That song made me £4 million, £4 million count ’em, in one year alone.” And boy, the nerds loved Travis. I say ‘loved’ in past tense, cos they don’t love them anymore. They’ve all moved on to James Morrison or Paulo Nuttini or Coldplay (are they still relevant?) or bloody Snow Patrol or someone. Point is, no-one buys Travis albums anymore. Which is a shame, cos they’ve still got a good knack of complementing the jangling 12 string acoustic ‘n’ electric guitars with a decent melody. Like this. Selfish Jean. On constant repeat round our house. I don’t care that it’s square, nerdy and not trendy. I don’t care that it sounds like ‘Lust For Life’ on Smarties rather than heroin. I don’t care that there’s a daft line about wiring chocolate biscuits to a car alarm. I don’t even care that Teenage Fanclub and the Trashcans do it better, it’s a fantastic record and that’s what matters. Travis are an outdated band for outdated people like me, but more fool you for disgarding them around 2002. It’s not too late to redeem yourself.
Still got it 10 years later
Plain Or Pan 
Travis has been unplayed on the iPod and the CDs have been languishing on the shelf, but alright, you’ve convinced me. Got tix to an upcoming Travis gig. I know you from somewhere else and read your blog religiously. Thanks for the freebies. Cheers mate.
Yes, but Travis will endure … like Badfinger and Honeybus
… great songwriting always gets the recognition it deserves in the end.