Quote:

"This is a fantastic idea,” Travis’ Fran Healy said. “I will be anywhere they want me to be at any time and I will cancel any engagement to take part."

Fran talking about the band's involvement with a new (in 2004) recording of Bob Geldof's Band Aid single Do They Know It's Christmas for its 20th anniversary (single here!)

Cited from XFM

Quote:

I mean, you can get “people power” and all the rest of it, but politicians – they’ve proven they don’t listen to anything we say (and I mean “we” as “people”); they just don’t care. So I think we need someone who’s really quite conscientious, and someone who wants to make a change, and who doesn’t – who isn’t solely thinking of the dollar and the yen and the Euro. And we need someone like that to let people with good ideas and a good heart in the back door of politics, ‘cos it’s a wall that you can’t get over or around; it’s just full of businessmen. Unless you’re really, really loaded, like Bono or Bill Gates or something, then you’re not going to get anywhere with these people. All they know, and all they listen to, is money. That’s what you’re up against, and that’s hard.

Fran responding to a question about getting involved in social justice issues

Travis – XFM Interview, May 2007
Interviewees: Fran Healy, Dougie Payne

Quote:

"Giving people tools, to work for themselves, is where aid is going. It is no longer putting a bandage on a wound. The old saying 'give a man a fish and he can feed himself for a day, but give a man some fish hooks and equipment and he can feed himself for a lifetime' it's a cliché but it's true."

Fran responding to a question about long-term aid solutions, whether current aid is working, and why we can't just throw money at development issues

Cited from Save the Children

Quote:

"If you take a firework, and you think of the casing of the firework, then you take the warhead of the firework, that's the song, right? That's this little song, in the warhead, the little sort of cone at the top. And, then there's the casing, filled and packed with all of that gunpowder. And that gunpowder is the marketing of the band, the radio station, the record companies, it's the media, all of that stuff packed in there tightly.
Then someone lights the firework and it shoots into the night sky and explodes and for miles around everyone can see this beautiful glitter, this massive, big umbrella of colorful light and everyone comes around and sees this and they're aghast. They're like, "Oh! My goodness."
And this glitter gradually fades away like the band fades away and the record company fades away because the record company goes bankrupt and the radio station changes their name. All of this stuff disappears.
Now, I'm getting to the point, when you look to the sky at the point where the point of this explosion happened, there's a little star and that star is the song. And the song, like the star, we use these songs, to navigate through life, like sailors do when they're at sea.

Now, you look up there to the sky and there's all the stars or these songs, to navigate through life. We just used to get that star up there. Now these days, people are lighting off these fireworks and they don't have any songs, just a big giant explosion. All you see is glare and when that fades away from the sky, there's nothing left in the sky and that's the idea, you know?"

from a random (but insightful) Interview with Fran :D

the boy with a cryptic name wrote:

This is a great idea for a thread Christine and thanks for doing most of the work :)

The firework quote is beautiful. Fran's amazing through the whole interview. The interviewer obviously can't control such eloquence :P

"Fran - I was born in Stafford, England.
(Q)-That is in Scotland?
No that's England. "

*shakes head*

Quote:

Fran: And I’m gonna vote for The Darkness.
Dougie: I’m gonna vote for My Chemical Romance, ‘cos the wee fella looks like he cares...
Fran: [chuckles] Yeah...
Dougie: He always looks like he’s crying...


in response to the question, What band would you vote for to rule a country?

XFM interview, May 2007

gromit373 wrote:

hahaha that one is hilarious :)

no worries, glad to have a real reason to quote them all the time...

here's a short one at the end of the same XFM interview from the second quote:



hehee, dougie always cracks me up :)

Quote:

Music is escapism. It's a balm from consciousness. I just get fed up with being aware and conscious. I'd like nothing more than to be asleep. I hate being woken up. If I could sleep forever, I would be happy. Being conscious, you judge, you do all the things you fight against; whether you do it outwardly or inwardly, you're still doing it. You expend a lot of energy trying to be civil and trying to be civilised. And I think that's fair enough, because otherwise we'd all be running about, shagging and killing people in the streets. In that order. But that's the world we're living in. Resisting is pointless. And if were a balm to all that, then great."

From the Guardian Weekend, 23 June 2001 courtesy of he-ey.org

Quote:

"We recently played a show in Edinburgh and we have a crowd of people that come to our Scottish shows, it's usually a load of kids who are either terminal or have just been diagnosed and it's always a real privilege to meet them all. That brings it home when you've got people who are really young with cancer about how volatile a situation it is. You're not helpless – you've got a very good chance of recovery at that age – but it makes you angry to think that nice young kids of that age can get something like this. But cancer doesn't have any favouritism – it strikes where it strikes and you don't have a choice in the matter."

Fran on playing a cancer benefit gig
The Scotsman, 02 November 2008

gromit373 wrote:

it's great sharing these w/ people who at least appreciate fran, instead of my friends who, well, think i'm a bit obsessed....

Quote:

TheWB.com: What’s your top break-up and make-up song?

Fran Healy: Top break-up song … wow, that’s a good one. It’s a very vivid memory, being 12, desperately in love, with my first love. I can remember crying to “Crazy for You,” by Madonna. It’s also memorable because I was absolutely obsessed with Madonna at that time. To this day, I still bear a major grudge against Sean Penn.


WBlog Interview w/ Fran Healy

Quote:

Everyone in the business was talking about what the new model is in the music industry. We figured the new model is just to write good records. Make records, put them out more often and create your own history rather than waiting for it.

We were eager because we'd had a long break for two years and felt we really needed to do a catch-up. It's exciting. None of us can wait to get into the studio and the reaction from the fans has been totally brilliant.

We had five shows where we performed all the songs that are going on the record. It's brave going out and playing songs no one has ever heard before, but it went well.


Fran Healy, interviewed by Lindsay Clydesdale, right before they put together Ode to J. Smith
Daily Record Interview Feb 2008

Quote:

I am happy to say we know everyone here. It's like school or a family thing. Paul McCartney's not the grandad because he can still kick like a mule - he's actually the father. You've also got Bono who is sort of our cool uncle and the rest of us are like kids running about playing chasing games. It's great!

Fran Healy in London at Live8, 2 July 2005.