It was so good to wake up in my own bed today.

Touring is a strange life. You miss a lot of stuff. My pillow. The smell of my pillow. Our cat, Ambi. The garden. Watching the squirrels, and birds do their thing. Going to the shops to get croissants in the morning.

I was picked up today by Alberto at 3.30pm. He is the sweetest man. We always have the best chats.

We played at The Hammersmith Apollo 2 Christmases ago. I remember it being quite sedate. After the show I found out that you weren?t allowed to drink or smoke in the venue and it was all seated so no wonder!

This time they have taken all the seats downstairs out and allowed drinking etc. It made all the difference.

After soundcheck we presented the crew with platinum discs of 12 Memories for their hard work over the past year. I think everyone was chuffed. I want one!

London shows can go either way. Goodways or shitways. When we first started playing in London it tended to be icy. Over the years the shows have gotten warmer and warmer.

We are a strange band I think, an anomaly in amongst all the other touring bands. When we play it is very much an all-inclusive experience. There is no we?re up here and you?re down there shit. I don?t believe it when I go to see other bands and if they try it on I usually walk.

Our stage presence can sometimes be disconcerting if you have a mass of folk who maybe have never seen us live. It takes a while for the penny to drop that a Travis show is a little bit different and more so in London but like I say, since a couple of years it has gotten warmer for us in the capital. There is still that unknown factor and so we were all a little nervy before stepping on the stage.

Once there though, it was apparent that it was going to be good. The crowd were all up for it and we all had a great night. After the show I went straight in the car and was in bed before the aftershow bar closed. Tomorrow I will aftershow it.

another great travis gig i enjoyed the atmosphere there, nice small venue and my 3rd gig on the tour.

Once again I found myself outside a London venue, queuing to see Travis, with the added attraction of Keane, who I was very excited about seeing.
Unlike December's gig, we were waiting in daylight, which made for a very friendly and jolly queuing experience!
Travis always perform for the audience, not all bands do this. You really feel like they are your friends.
The band are skilled at conveying their warmth and appreciation of their fans; corny maybe, but true. It all seems to be part of the "Travis live" experience.
As always, the gig was pure quality, the music excellent, and with added warmth and charm- perfect!

Last december jmorgain, Glasses 8-), Chucky and I decided to go to London for one Travis concert in march (...actually we wanted to go to Glasgow first place, but it was too current ? well, one day we will) so we booked everything and my sister and I surprised my nephew Chris with the tickets at Christmas ? he went crazy of joy and we're all looking forward to the 28th of march.
We right connected the concert with a little vacation in London. We arrived to the Carling Apollo about 2:30 in the afternoon ? far too late for me, I was bugging everyone to "let?s go" since 12 o?clock, haha...we weren?t the first ones there, but the most people were sitting on the stairs or went away again for a while and we took our positions right at the front barrier. About 5 Glasses 8-) finally arrived too ? still tired from her beauty sleep in the hotel when the rest of us was totally excited about the concert already. The doors opened about 7pm and the lady at the access ripped off my ticket in slooooow moooooootion, aaargh, I suppose it was deliberately just to torture me!! But we all managed the front row again. It was so cool...so we waited for the beginning, ate cookies, asked one of the securities to take our picture, which he did and chatted a while. Keane supported this time...I?ve never seen them before and I only knew 2 songs of them at that point: "Everybody?s changing" and "Somewhere only we know" I really enjoyed their show, brilliant voice, cool melodies! I remember that we were surprised how low the stage was...maybe a meter from the ground. The equipment of Travis was brought up and we became more and more excited, than the lights turned off and Travis appeared. They started with "U16 Girls", which was the coolest opener ever! :-D I noticed that all my reviews sound a bit similar, because it was often a similar set so I think I?ll sum it up a bit more this time and leave out all the song details...the selist is shown up below anyway.
The floor on the venue was bevelled to the stage so during the first songs we felt like the whole audience was lying on our backs but by and by we got more space to move. "Midlife Krysis" Fran dedicated to the older ones in the crowd and to the ppl on the balcony who booked seats *lol*...I think I could get hundred years ? I still wouldn?t like to seat on a concert, especially not on a Travis concert. Before they played "Somewhere Else" Fran told a little bit about (...erm, I hope I understood it all correctly) the instrument Dougie plays in it. He said they bought it in Ikea in Germany and there is a German adage that says "Idioten kaufen alles!" (idiots buy everything!)...he looked down at us at asked "yeah? Is that right?"..we agreed by cheering loudly, so cool that they knew some Germans were there or even recognized us *bigfatsmile* btw. Fran played nearly the entire gig with an open fly / zip, even after the encore break it was still open, haha...and when he realized himself he showed it quite cavalierly to the crowd like "oh..erm...look at this! x-)
After the encore break Fran came back alone on stage and played "Flowers in the window", but not without a microphone this time, I suppose the room was much too large ? but still only a voice and a guitar, amazing ! :-)
"More than us" was next and it was so great, I?ve heard it once before on my last show in London 2 years before but this time it was even more beautiful. I remember my nephew (...who?s voice is breaking just now) was singing along to it and Glasses 8-) told him "hey, you?re singing wrong!" *lol*...made him laugh x-)
They ended with "Happy" and that made us just...HAPPY!!! We were jumping and singing along like mad :-)
Great show again, and a great set too. The English crowd was amazing btw. Outside I noticed ? what I never saw home in Germany that kind ? there were sooo many drunk people (well..kids)..I mean not just drunk...nearly clinical dead!!! I already noticed that 2 years ago at the London show. They couldn?t been realizing anything from the concert, haha *shakes head* We were waiting outside the venue for Travis (...and had to stand next to a huge blot of vomit from a drunken girl, ugh! *laughs*)...but we weren?t lucky, after 2 o?clock in the morning we were told Travis were gone already. Anyway...it was such a great experience again to see Travis live in the UK. Glasses 8-), jmorgain and Chucky stayed one more day and attended also the next show at the same venue on 29th, but I had to leave because of my exams. I remember I was so down when I was sitting in the plane, because it was just the time of the gig and to all my luck someone stole my bag on the airport back home...well, but not even that could spoil the great time I had again on my meantime 8th Travis concert...the 9th is wishful expected :-)

great gig. they played all the classics - was so good to hear a set start with u16 girls againa nd end with happy. really great venue and great gig!