Hello.
Today was nice. Lazy drive down to Reading from London on the tour bus. Had a bunk siesta and awoke outside a very windy venue. Fans were holding onto lampposts, others were tumbling across the carpark like empty cardboard boxes. I saw one fan up a tree. He?d been blown up there. Shocking.

Soundcheck was alternative. We played a skiffle version of The Beautiful Occupation, a reggae version of The Humpty Dumpty Love Song, but played More Than Us straight.

Reading has always been a good gig for us. We played Reading on our first outing 7 years ago and have been back many times. We headlined the Reading festival 3 years ago.

God we were shitting it. There were loads of really hardcore ROCK bands playing before us and we thought we?d get sockfulls of shit thrown at us. It turned out to be a great show.

I must apologise again for the lack of photographs in this diary. The camera situation is not a good one. Mine is going wonky. It takes 2 pictures and the battery runs out.

The Quake 3 Arena tournament is getting interesting. Addiction is setting in. Giles is getting better. Dougie still finds it hard running and shooting and tends to stay in a corner and blast from there. This makes him an easy target though, much to his frustration. Games are getting more heated. The pre cursor to the Re-Offender video is perhaps on the way? muhahahahaha.

Tonight?s show was excellent. The crowd were magic. There was waving, cheering, booing, lots of friendly relaxed faces to look at. We played Back in Black at the end of the show too. Also, thanks to all the wonderful singers every night, especially the folk that get to sing the last line in the last verse of WDIAROM. Very funny.

After the show we resumed our virtual assault on each other. Some friends of family came backstage. They were in school bands and both were drummers. One band was called 2 Left Feet and the other was called Fist Full Of Cleavage.

Met Jules and Wendy outside the venue. Their 51st gig. Spoke to Get Happy from the board on a fans moblie. He was in Cleveland. Nice man. He is bummed that he isn?t seeing More Than Us live. We will play it on the next US tour.

Sat up writing until 6am. Later and later these nights become. I reckon I can turn day back into day again by the end of the tour.

i remember arriving at the gig at around 445pm on the saturday afternnon having rushed home from the local B&Q where i work. I remember this gig well as i was standing write infront of andy!! this was my 1st gig rite at the front!! i remember being 1 of the only people who knew the words to 20 when fran sung it!! another great gig fantastic so after this 1 it was on to Bournemouth......

This was the first ever gig i went too. I've been to a couple more now but Travis was the best one i've been too. I loved Keane at the start they really got the crowd in the mood. When Travis came on it was fantastic though. I loved how Fran chatted with the crowd, it gave it a really good atmosphere and he was really funny. I've never seen anyone else do that. The music though: it was grrrreat! They sounded even better live and i just couldn't help but sing along to every song. I loved Fran doing his own little Flowers in the Window, dedicating it to the lighting guy made it even better. Dougie was hilarious on the glokenspiel (don't think thats how u spell it). I loved the final song though, the cover of Back in Black. FANTASTIC, it was an unforgettable gig!

When I first heard that Travis were set to play the Rivermead Leisure Complex in Reading I just knew that I had to be there. Especially because I work just over the road from the Rivermead at the Evening Post! So I ordered my tickets in December 2003 as a Christmas present to myself. I bought two for my Mum & Dad as well, as they also like Travis! The three tickets were very quick in arriving.

Then in February it was announced that Keane were to be the support! Could this gig get any better, I thought? At this time they had only released Somewhere Only We Know, but were tipped as being the band of 2004 (Which they are).

I ordered a red Travis Re-Offender paint splodge t-shirt on-line at the weestore to wear to the gig, which arrived within a week. I was ready for my first Travis gig!

After much anticipation, and walking past the venue every working day, Saturday 20th March 2004 finally came round. The day was spent playing Travis songs, until the time had come at 4pm for the short drive to Reading. We parked in the Holiday Inn car park near the river, as I knew that the Rivermead car park would be a nightmare! It was extremely windy that day, but at least it didn't rain.

We had a meal and a beer at the Toby Carvery next to the Rivermead on Richfield Avenue. I left feeling very full, hoping that I'd still be able to bounce! On arrival at the Rivermead at 6pm, there was only a small queue in front of us in the barrier. It soon became clear that we would be able to get right close down the front!

The doors opened dead on 7pm, and the queue began moving! On entering the Rivermead and being given a Keane album flyer (Managing to avoid my camera being taken), first impressions were that I was here to play basketball! Cue trainer squeaks and looks upwards towards the nets. Everyone rushed forward to get a good position. Second row! My mum waited there to save our position whilst me and my dad went to the toilets at the back (Which were marked for the ladies!) Keane's equipment was all set up on the stage just in front of us. At about 7.30pm, the gig pre-music started, including David Bowie & Blondie tracks to name a few. By this time, the basketball court has filled up nicely!

Then at 8pm, on came Keane to a great reception! I was very excited when they started to play their live opener Can't Stop Now - it's still my favourite Keane song! I was 2 rows back from Tom Chaplin. By the time that radio favourite Somewhere Only We Know was played, everybody in the gym was singing! They finished with Bedshaped, which left the crowd wanting more. Keane are the best support for Travis...ever!

Keane setlist:- Can't Stop Now (Brilliant!) > Everybody's Changing (Introduced as the new single) > Bend And Break > We Might As Well Be Strangers (Great live) > Somewhere Only We Know (Everybody sung) > This Is The Last Time > Bedshaped.

After a wait of about half an hour and the techies moving all of Keane's equipment and replacing it with Travis' (many, many) guitars, at 9pm the opening chords of More Than Us started up with Fran wandering on to the stage! Next up was Dougie, followed by Andy, Neil & Adam Wakeman (My Mum was excited because she didn't know it was Rick's son). I was only 2 rows back from Fran, and took loads of photos on my digital camera!

Some of the most memorable highlights of the gig were:-
Current single Love Will Come Through, which went down very well; introduced with "Available in all good record shops".
Fran:- "This one's dedicated to all you not so young members of the audience at the back, here's Mid-Life Krysis!
Dougie's hilarious hip swaying dancing and glockenspeil playing on Somewhere Else and throwing his hitter to the techies to his right.
Andy's amp climbing and guitar raising performance on All I Want To Do Is Rock, which totally surprised my Mum!
Fran sitting down on the stage right in front of me to do 20 and Flowers In the Window acoustically on his own. He was sweating a lot under the lights.
Dougie singing current b-side Know Nothing, and him keeping looking at me because I knew all of the words!
Fran putting his towel over his head, and then throwing it into the audience - I just missed, it went behind me - got to touch it though!

Fran holding his microphone stand over the crowd for me and the rest of the crowd to sing the chorus to Why Does It Always Rain On Me? Lots of jumping!
Even more jumping when Happy started up - the best song to end a Travis gig with!
As a bonus they played Back In Black, the AC/DC cover and totally rocked out and off the stage! When they finished there was much cheering and waving. Walking Down the Hill was played over the speakers as I walked over the empty plastic drink cups to get to the merchandise stall. I bought a Tour programme and a black 12 Memories tour t-shirt. The whole thing was over by 11pm. Ah, great memories...

Travis setlist:- More Than Us > U16 Girls > Re-Offender > Writing To Reach You > Pipe Dreams > Quicksand > Sing (And we did) > Love Will Come Through > The Fear > The Beautiful Occupation > Side > Mid-Life Krysis > As You Are > Driftwood > Somewhere Else > All I Want To Do Is Rock > The Humpty Dumpty Love Song > Turn
Encore > 20 (Fran Acoustic) > Flowers In The Window (Fran Acoustic) > Know Nothing > Why Does It Always Rain On Me? > Happy > Back In Black

During the gig Fran talked about enjoying coming to Reading, saying that they had played there on many occasions, but that they were scared of all the rock fans when they played the Reading Festival in 2001 just down the road. He said that they would definitely be back!

See you the next time you are in Reading lads!

wow! dat gig woz amazing! i woz right in da front row in front of dougie! i woz counting down 2 this gig frm wen da tickets went up 4 sale!! i woz estatic! my m8 hayz came wit me, b4 she woznt a huge fan of travis but da gig soon changed her mind, now she loves em!!
i hav frm this gig a tour poster which woz on da wall in Rivermead (lol!) towel frm da stage, set list n my ticket stub!! being at da front is def da best place 2 b 4 a gig!!

u guys sure now how 2 make da audience feel special!! xx