I got home from Glasgow and Aberdeen 2 days ago, and have re-lived the memories by sorting out my pictures and videos. Nothing will ever beat this trip! I met boardies and made friends I'd never have if it wasn't for this brilliant band :)
I know the pictures don't quite fit the text everywhere, but I could'nt remember which pics were taken during which songs. Still hope you'll enjoy this review and picture overload, lol! I had the time of my life, and I was gonna write my experience down anyway, so why not post it.
There's also a video of them soundchecking WDIAROM in Aberdeen.
Barrowlands, Glasgow - December 30th 2007.
Got up at 4am and drove to the airport. Two flights later and I'm in Edinburgh on the train to Glasgow. After the worlds fastest hotel check-in I met up with peno and Lotte from the board, and got to know a fair few of the other incredibly boardies queueing for the show. Just missed Dougie, but got to speak with Andy before the show. He was his usual sweet self, and after a quick chat, a picture and an autofgraph we got back in the queue. It was so unreal to stand there alongside boardies from literally all over the world. It felt incredibly natural to talk to them, like they were lifelong friends. They're not just screen names on the board anymore, they're real live people, lol! And bloody nice ones as well ;)
We rushed in when the doors opened at 7pm. After beeing called to the side to have my bag checked, I kinda lost the ones I had been queueing with, but got second row spot in front of Fran (could have settled for first row far far far left or right, but nah.. lol), behind some other boardies I hadn't met before, and this way got to know even more great boardies!
The first support, 1990's, were quite alright. Couldn't help but stare at their cute drummer, and the guitarist's, ehem well horsey, teeth though :P
Nick and Maria from The Taste had lots of charisma, and I liked them alot, though it felt like they didn't quite get the crowd going. Their perfomance will stay with me for a while for another reason as well, as one of the girls I had been talking to suddenly fainted and fell back into my arms! She got carried over to the security folks and went out to get some water. She'd come all the way from Finland, and fortunately she came back in time for Travis :)
I was a tad dissapointed that the guys didn't enter through the crowd as usual, but quickly got over it as they launched into Selfish Jean. From there on I only remember bits and pieces as I went into the usual omg-I'm-seeing-Travis-live-trance, lol :P
Eyes Wide Open has become one of my favorite live songs, along with Beautiful Occupation. Especially Eyes Wide Open has an energy to it that I particulary love.
Since I'm kinda going through all the songs I wanted to mention I love the beginning of Writing To Reach You, especially live. Again one of my top favorites. Nothing special to say about Love Will Come Through other than I loved every chord of it ;-) Despite the minor technical problems the guys put on one heck of a show, and how great was it to sing along to every song, knowing that everyone else around you did the same :-)
Re-Offender was a highlight for me, as it's probably my favorite Travis song. It was powerful to see them perform it up close, and I half expected to see some evil looks beeing exchanged between the guys (Yeah, I've watched the video one too many times - Anton Corbjin is a genious!!). Nice of them to start the song over when Fran's guitar didn't co-operate, which meant 1,5 Re-Offender for me ;)
Pipe Dreams was nice, as it used to be a big favorite - something I shared with the girl in front of me *Eeeek, they played it!!*
Sing, Side and Turn are legend songs, and I will never forget the sound of everyone singing every word as if it was their last, and seeing Fran's expression as he stepped back from the microphone to take it all in.
Turn, tuuurn, turn turn turn..
My Eyes is another favorite, and I couldn't help but look at Dougie thoughout the whole thing. He's got exciting times ahead :-) Closer was nice, and has probably never felt more perfect than right there at the Barrowlands, surrounded by new friends I wouldn't have if it wasn't for this great band. Driftwood is an utterly brilliant song, but I kinda ruined it for myself by over-playing it a few months back, lol! It's not the song's fault though, and I'm sure it'll be back on top of my favorites list in a short while. Either way, when played in Glasgow every Travis song becomes a memorable experience.
Still don't know the full lyrics to Good Feeling, lol, so therefore I didn't fully feel the song. I need to listen more to that album I guess. But the Claes-part (or Claus as most would call him..) is always great fun. AIWDIR on the other hand is always brilliant live, and I loved Andys diving into his guitar after getting back onstage from his crowdsurf :P
It was my third time seeing the busking version of 'Flowers' this year, but I never tire of it. All five gathering up front singing and having a great time.Travis in general has this kind of, in lack of better words, 'we're-just-friends-having-fun-together' vibe which I love :)
'..but I am here to help you with the load'
And besides, I was probably one of the few who understood what Claes said, lol! Love it when Fran makes him speak Swedish :P
The setlist shows they were supposed to do 3 Times And You Loose after 'Flowers', and I would have absolutely loved that, but the reversed Slideshow and Blue Flashing Light more than made up for it! Slideshow is an incredible song. They included Happy as well which was a nice surprise.
WDIAROM and Back In Black made up the perfect ending to a perfect night.. The set list did not dissapoint, couldn't have asked for anything better (well maybe they could have played 3 Times..).
Will most definetly never forget this night for as long as I live.. Thanks to Fran, Andy, Neil and Dougie and all the Travis-fans who made it extremely incredible to celebrate the New Year in Scotland :)
If anyone's still reading here's a few highlights:
- Frans home made t-shirt where the text came off as he got sweatier :P
- The tea light man on the streets of Glasgow, lol!
- Fran throwing his badly tuned guitar off stage and continuing without it!
- The many classic Travis moments; Fran jumping from the drums, Andy swaying over his guitar and crowdsurfing, Dougie beeing his usual sex-on-legs self and Neil, well Neil had an exeptionally good looking hat :P Seriously, I loved it!
- Turn..
- The fact that so many boardies were there :)
Hogmaney, Aberdeen - December 31st 2007.
My day started off with a quick visit to The Glasgow School of Art as it was right next to my hotel. Truly unreal to see the actual place where Travis was formed.. Next came a beautiful train ride up to Aberdeen where the first sounds I heard were the first chords of sing (the sound that Fran seems to have head alot lately. Around 150 thousand or so ;-) Go Clay, lol!) - Travis were soundchecking! I hastily made my way up Union street and watched the guys do their rehersal. It was perfect Travis-weather, aka it was raining, and they ended with WDIAROM especially for us :)
I returned later to find eledh, sara and the other boardies from last nights Barras gig waiting for the gates to open. We ran up Union street and got front row center spots. Loved that everyone got their own Scottish flag at the entrance!
The supporting bands were alright. I found The Taste to be better tonight than at the Barras. Also spotted Fran in his black hoodie lurking behing a speaker to the side of the stage very much enjoying Maria and Nicks performance ;-) Later Dylan and Jo was watching daddy-Dunlop from the same spot.
When Travis came on I pretty much stared dreamingly at the band, singing continuously from start till end, only disrupted by the new year countdown. Selfish Jean and Eyes Wide Open were fantastic in front of such a big audience. The guys beside me had yelled for Travis since the first band came on, and when they finally did the whole crowd joined in creating an atmosphere I'll never forget!
Re-Offender for the second day in a row was grrreat :D I filmed the whole thing, but got so carried away I forgot to point my camera at the guys like every 10 seconds, lol!
Turn was the last song before counting down to midnight, and Sing the first song of the new year. Never have Ioved those songs more. There was a funny yet awkward moment when a drunk girl raided the stage and caught Dougie off guard just as they were wrapping up Sing. She tried to steal his mic and couldn't keep her hands off him :P I have a hillarious picture with Dougie trying to get his mic back and one of the tour staff guys in the background wondering what to do :P
Fran: 'Did she touch yer bawbag?!'
Doug: 'Just a little bit'
They did 14 songs, and still had to cut some due to the time pressure with midnight and all ;) Otherwise the set list was great, and with 20 000 people sharing the pleasure of having Travis onstage, singing along, it's bound to be out of this world! I'd say this even topped last nights Glasgow show :) The guys played their socks off, leaving us nothing but great memories from when 2007 turned into 2008! :)
Also got to meet Andy, Dougie and Neil after the show, which made up for me having to leave straight after the Barrowland show missing the guys there (not to mention Clay and Nora..).. They were as sweet as ever staying to chat for a while with us crazy ass fans :P The flower-hat that Dougie is sporting was a gift from a boardie. I swear he has never looked better :P He also gave us some answers to very important questions, like what really happened in that bathroom clip from the singles dvd, lol :P
Eledh showing Dougie her tattoo.
I wish the band and boardies all the best for the year to come!
Wow, that's a fantastic review! You let us feel your excitement without getting boring or repetitive. I really enjoyed reading it!
The pictures are great as well, like you said, the one with the girl, Dougie and the security guard is awesome! :D
It's good to hear you had such a good time, your excitement is infectious!
Aww, thanks. I was worried about just that, that it'd be too repetitive. I kinda just belt out my appreciation for all of their songs. And it's bound to be slightly annoying to hear me obsess about how great everything was. I tried to squeeze in some critizism, but failed miserably, lol :P
Wow ur pics are great. Glad u had a good time. I was stood really close to u at the Glasgow gig =D
You did? I didn't recognize you or else I would have come up and said hi :) Were you to the left or right of me? Aww well, there's always a next time right?
Wow ur pics are great. Glad u had a good time. I was stood really close to u at the Glasgow gig =D
You did? I didn't recognize you or else I would have come up and said hi :) Were you to the left or right of me? Aww well, there's always a next time right?
When I was facing the stage you were on my right! I didn't recognise you though either =D
