A Good Feeling as Travis return to Birmingham to play second album The Man Who

Released 19 years ago, The Man Who sounds as fresh today as it did then. One of the most successful British albums of the last 20 years, with almost three million sales, it spawned the timeless singles, Writing To Reach You, Driftwood, Turn and possibly the band’s most iconic song, Why Does It Always Rain On Me?

It made Travis household names and paved the way for such bands as Coldplay.

The band will play the album from start to finish during a unique concert at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall on Monday.

“Songs are like emotional bookmarks in time,” says frontman Fran Healy. “When you hear a song you are transported to those times and feel strong echoes of the feelings you felt. Rarely does an album have this ability so performing The Man Who once again will be a joy!”

Produced by Nigel Godrich, The Man Who spent an astonishing 11 weeks at number one. It was the biggest selling UK album in 2000, propelled by an incendiary Glastonbury performance in the rain.

Recognition quickly followed including Ivor Novello Awards for Best Songwriter and Best Contemporary Song for Why Does It Always Rain On Me? and Brit Awards for Best British Band and Best British Album.

To date, Travis have enjoyed two number one albums, five top 10 singles, two Brit Awards and more than eight million record sales in their illustrious career. They released their latest critically acclaimed album Everything At Once in 2016.

Guitarist Andy Dunlop says the band captured the zeitgeist when they released the record.

“It was very different from our first record, Good Feeling. We did a lot of it in France then with Nigel Godrich in London. It came out to bad reviews almost. I remember sitting with a lot of the broadsheets and Q gave it tow out of five. But it was a record that played the long game. It kept rising and rising over the course of those singles. Now everyone considers the album a success.

“I think the thing was that it was a really honest record. It was just songs from heart. I think in France we had about half the songs then I remember being at RAK with Nigel and knowing we’d got something good. There was a sense of taking a risk. Now, it doesn’t seem like a risk.”

The band’s performance at Glastonbury was a turning point. Andy recalls: “We did the Glastonbury show and it rained. Going back to even think about it is remarkable. The show itself was alright. It was an afternoon on the second stage at Glastonbury. When it rained, everyone was talking about it. It was the first sunny Glastonbury for a couple of years. Then it started raining. Then people were quite upset. It wasn’t a joyous moment. But as the weekend progressed it became a mythical moment.”

The Man Who created huge expectation for Travis with their record company pushing for them to repeat its success. The band, however, knew they couldn’t do the same thing twice and so flew to Los Angeles to record The Invisible Band. Gradually, the success of The Man Who started to weigh on them.

“That level of success has an effect. When we wrote it, we weren’t successful. But after that, there was an expectation that weighed to a certain extent. We managed to keep moving forwards for a few more records.”

The garlands that came with The Man Who were enjoyable, however. “Winning things like Brits is great. You kind of think of it as a mad time. We were carried on a wave. It’s only afterwards when you realise what happened. The moments are great but you don’t have time to stop and think. You just keep moving forwards. Five years later, you think about the headlines at Glastonbury.”

Andy says Travis didn’t set out to become one of Britain’s most successful bands. “We were almost successful by accident. We didn’t design ourselves to be a successful band. We wrote a record that people liked. We weren’t trying to fulfil expectations or ambitions. It was about what we wanted to do. You hope people will come with you. There are some bands who can write by design and look at what’s popular or what’s big. We’ve never been that band. That’s not part of our make-up.”