February 1998...that’s a long time ago, almost 10 years now. In these 10 years I’ve seen Travis live 5 times. Each time I’ve had a smile on my face for the following 2 weeks. Added up, this makes 10 weeks of constant smiling! All thanks to the Travis guys, who I saw for the first time on 4th February 1998 in a very small club called Hechelei (changed its name by now) in Bielefeld.
A few weeks before that gig I had been at an Ocean Colour Scene gig at the same club. I had never heard of Travis before but since the OCS gig had been so great I wanted to go to a gig at that club again as soon as possible. One of my friends had heard “Tied to the 90’s” on the radio and said we should go to that Travis gig. So luckily that's what we did.
I remember that I was standing in the front row on Dougie’s side, which I immediately knew had been a good choice due to his smiles :) Unfortunately I can’t remember the setlist but for some reason I remember they played
All I want to do is rock
More than us
Tied to the 90’s
and Happy as the last song, which was dedicated to the crowd. I guess they played most of the songs from Good Feeling because The Man Who hadn’t been released by then.
Although I don’t remember many details from the gig I remember the atmosphere. Everyone was in a good mood and smiling, band and audience, although I think that I wasn’t the only one that evening who hadn’t known Travis before the gig.
The following day I bought Good Feeling and a new Travis fan was born :) I saw them in Hamburg this month and it’s just so lovely how they can make us smile, sing, jump, dance and laugh each and every time. And it feels like it’s even a little more every time. It never gets boring and I hope many many gigs will be added to the tour history/archive at least until 2018. (I’ll be talking about 20 weeks of constant smiling by then…)