Arriving at the OVO Hydro, the lovely Scottish weather of wind and rain that we have come to expect from gigs in Glasgow at this time of year, didn’t stop revellers queuing in anticipation to see the amazing Travis perform. Once inside we had time to grab a quick drink before heading to the arena for the first support act, Juanita Stein.
The Melbourne born performer is most prominently known for being the lead singer of the Aussie band ‘The Howling Bells’ but often tours with her own solo work, as was the case tonight. The crowd were just starting to gather while Juanita took to the stage, but she made the most of the acoustics in the arena environment and her hauntingly perfect voice carried well across the crowd, who seemed happy overall by the singer. Juanita just released her new album ‘The Weightless Hour’ at the end of November and will be on tour in 2025 with dates both in Glasgow and Edinburgh, so check her out if you like melodic folk with an undercurrent of country, I know I will be adding her to my playlist.
After a short interval, Hamish Hawk took to the stage as the final support act of the night. Spawning from Edinburgh, Hamish began his musical journey early on in life at secondary school, before coming back to it while studying at the University of St. Andrews, where he released his first solo record ‘Aznavour’ under the guidance of Scottish artist King Creosote. Since then, the young singer has been making waves in the music scene, and already has an American tour under his belt from his time accompanying musician Brendon Massei in 2017.
On to Hawk’s performance this evening and he did not disappoint, the crowd received him well and it was obvious he had fans here to watch him just as much as Travis. I had never heard Hamish before, although I’m not sure how, but my initial thoughts were that his voice was giving me Morrissey/Franz Ferdinand vibes, which I loved, and if this support set was anything to go by, I would definitely like to see him again in his own headline show. Travis, I am sure, would’ve been happy to have the young performer with them and he warmed the crowd up nicely for the main act of the evening.
Travis, need I say more? The Scottish heavyweight champions are firm favourites among the Gen X to Gen Z generations, but I was pleasantly surprised to see younger fans in the crowd too, as I am sure Travis were. Their music has almost done a full circle and come back into the spotlight again. Travis formed in the early nineties in Glasgow, with their name coming from a character played in the movie ‘Paris, Texas (1984)’. They have had nothing but success since, releasing their first Album ‘Good Feeling’ in 1997 and went on to have major breakthrough’s with their albums ‘The Man Who’ (my favourite) and ‘The Invisible Band’ both reaching to the top of the UK Albums chart and US Billboard 200. They have had so many hits that they even released a Greatest Hits album back in 2004.
Travis have been on their ‘Raze the Bar’ tour of the US and UK, Glasgow being the final night, and quite aptly so. Walking out to the theme tune from the tv show Cheers, ‘Where Everybody knows your name’, it felt like they had finally arrived home. Fran Healey looked over the moon to be back in Glasgow, like an excited little child in a candy store. They kicked off proceedings with the song ‘Bus’ from their new Album ‘LA Times’ and went straight into the massive hit ‘Driftwood’ which had the crowd singing and cheering along. He then went on to sing a song called ‘Good Feeling’ which he explained he had written following a break-up he had in 1995 and named this part of a series, of F-You songs (as he calls them).
Fran seems to use his song writing as a type of therapy in part, with songs like ‘Reoffender’ being about domestic violence between his parents, and the song ‘closer’ being written for his good friend who recently passed away, then ‘Raze the Bar’ centred around a favourite bar that was closed due to the rent being raised so much, and the landlord being unpleasant about it (although Fran used a certain C word to explain this).
Whatever Fran is singing about, he likes to make sure the audience understand the message behind the song, and I very much enjoyed this storytelling part of the show. He even urged the crowd to donate to the local foodbanks on the way out instead of buying merch, probably much to the dismay of his manager he explained.
Going back to the song ‘Closer’, this was a special moment in the evening, with Fran asking the crowd to raise their modern technology and use their phone torches as a type of candle, asking everyone in the arena to think of someone close to them, that loved them unconditionally but isn’t with them this evening. It was amazing to see the thousands of tiny white lights around the Arena and the emotion this evoked in people.
To finish off the evening, Travis came back to the stage after an encore for an epic performance and cover of ‘Mull of Kintyre’ and they weren’t alone, joining them were The Red Hot Chilli Pipers, who blew the roof off so to speak, especially when the crowd heard the pipes. Along with giant sing-a-long lyrics on the screen behind Travis and the support acts also joining them on stage, it was definitely the big highlight of the evening, for Travis and the crowd.
After a short speech on his ‘soap box’ as Healy referred to it, speaking of there being more foodbanks in the UK than McDonalds restaurants, and then urging the youngsters in the crowd to start bands and keep music alive, Travis went on to play their finale of the evening. Fan favourite ‘Why does it always rain on me’, which the whole crowd sung along to. Healy forgetting the lyrics at one point, as he was so overcome with emotion at hearing the crowd sing in unison.
When the second chorus arrived, Fran exclaimed ‘are you ready for the snow’ to which canons streamed out millions of little white squares into the arena, ending the night perfectly.
