New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The multi-platinum album from Scottish rock band Travis, The Invisible Band, is set to be reissued to celebrate its 20th Anniversary. The deluxe edition features the original album remastered by GRAMMY Award-winning engineer Emily Lazar, all the original B-sides and a selection of completely unreleased demos, live sessions and alternate takes - to be released December 3rd on Craft Recordings. The band have today premiered "Swing," a previously unheard early working version of their UK top 3 single "Sing".
A special limited-edition 20th Anniversary box set features the material across two CDs and two 180-gram heavyweight, ultra-clear vinyl LPs, cut at London's Air Studios. The set includes an extensive book with unseen session photography, handwritten lyrics and essays from the band plus contributions from the original producer Nigel Godrich. A limited number of hand-numbered prints, signed by all four of the band, are available via the
Travis official store.
The Invisible Band will also be reissued on standard black vinyl, available for the first time on the format since its original release. A limited green vinyl pressing is available via independent record stores, as well as a 2-CD standard edition.
The band have today also announced The Invisible Band in Concert tour across North
America and the United Kingdom in April/May 2022. This marks the first time the seminal album will be played in full, plus material from 2020's 10 Songs and more from the group's extensive catalogue of hits. Tickets for the UK dates are available now; existing tickets to UK dates remain valid. The US tour general on-sale is this Friday, 8th October here.
Frontman Fran Healy says, "The Invisible Band is 20!! I hadn't listened to the whole album for a while. It's a lovely piece of work from the big singles like 'Sing' and 'Flowers in the Window' to 'Afterglow' and 'Last Train'. It sounds great at 20! We're also taking it on the road. We're really looking forward to playing live again."
Now certified 9x Platinum in the United Kingdom, The Man Who's success may have seemed impossible to build upon, but when it came to crafting a follow-up, Travis' natural composure became their greatest asset.
Andy Dunlop (guitar) recalls, "Making the first post-success album is never going to be easy. Suddenly pressures and expectations sit on the shoulders of an already creatively challenging process. But things shouldn't be easy, and all the best things very rarely are."
Returning to the studio with The Man Who's co-producer Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Beck, Paul McCartney),
Travis crafted a near-perfect 45-minute album praised by Q magazine for having some of "the best and most fully crafted" songs of their career to date. Neil Primrose (drums) says "Recording at Ocean Way Studios, seeing what LA had to offer while staying at the Chateau Marmont have left strong memories."
Lead single "Sing" remains the band's highest-charting single in the UK (No.3), while its follow-ups, "Side" and "Flowers in the Window," saw the band consolidate their indie-pop formula, helping The Invisible Band to match its predecessor's No.1 position in the UK album chart, while taking
Travis into the US Top 40 and Top 10 in Germany, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, Sweden, France, Italy and Norway. Dougie Payne (bass) says, "from a distance of 20 years, lovely memories do come back."
On getting to revisit the album with a tour, frontman Healy remarked "To support the re-issue of The Invisible Band on vinyl on its 20th birthday we are bringing it all back home... well, home to where the album was recorded, with a tour of the US. It's been such a long time since we toured America. We cannot wait to get out there and play the album live. I was asked the other day what the gig would be like. I said 'Imagine taking your album out and placing it on the turntable and suddenly all the lights go out and the wall of your living room opens up, and there is Travis, playing it live, for you, with beautiful lights and stories and then once we play the album we throw in a bunch of hits. Then the wall closes and you think damn, I burnt my dinner.' Like I said we can't wait. The Pandemic has been hard for all musicians so this will be a tour to remember."
View Travis' The Invisible Band in Concert tour dates below and visit TravisOnline.comfor ticket information.
US TOUR DATES 2022
04/05 Dallas, TX - Majestic
04/06 Austin, TX - ACL Live @ Moody Theatre
04/08 Anaheim, CA - House of Blues
04/09 Los Angeles, CA - The Orpheum Theatre
04/10 San Francisco, CA - The Masonic
04/12 Seattle, WA - Neptune
04/15 Minneapolis, MN -
State Theatre
04/16 Chicago, IL - Park West
04/18 Toronto, ON - Massey Hall
04/20 Boston, MA - The Orpheum Theatre
04/21 New York City, NY - Terminal 5
04/22 Philadelphia, PA - Keswick
04/23 Washington, DC - Lincoln Theatre
04/25 Cleveland, OH - House of Blues
04/26 Indianapolis, IN - Old
National Centre
The Invisible Band 20th Anniversary
Deluxe Edition box set tracklist
LP1: Original Album (2021 Remaster)
Side A
1. Sing
2. Dear Diary
3. Side
4. Pipe Dreams
5. Flowers In the Window
6. The Cage
Side B
1. Safe
2. Follow The Light
3. Last Train
4. Afterglow
5. Indefinitely
6. The Humpty Dumpty Love Song
LP2: B-Sides (2021 Remaster)
Side A
1. Ring Out The Bell
2.
Killer Queen
3. You Don't Know What I'm Like
4. Beautiful
5.
Driftwood (Live at Barrowlands)
6. All The Young Dudes (Live at Barrowlands)
Side B
1. You're A Big Girl Now
2. Ancient Train
3. Here Comes The Sun (Live @ Top of the Pops Awards)
4. A
Little Bit Of Soul
5. Central Station
6. No Cigar
CD1: Original Album (2021 Remaster)
1. Sing
2. Dear Diary
3. Side
4. Pipe Dreams
5. Flowers In the Window
6. The Cage
7. Safe
8. Follow The Light
9. Last Train
10. Afterglow
11. Indefinitely
12. The Humpty Dumpty Love Song
CD2: B-Sides & Bonus Tracks
1. Ring Out The Bell
2.
Killer Queen
3. You Don't Know What I'm Like
4. Beautiful
5.
Driftwood (Live at Barrowlands)
6. All The Young Dudes (Live at Barrowlands)
7. You're A Big Girl Now
8. Ancient Train
9. Here Comes The Sun (Live)
10. A
Little Bit Of Soul
11. Central Station
12. No Cigar
13. Swing *
14. Flowers In The Window (Acoustic) *
15. Dear Diary (Demo) *
16. Last
Train (Demo) *
17. Sing (Live on BBC) *
18. Flowers In The Window (Live on BBC) *
[*previously unreleased]
Formed in Glasgow in 1990,
Travis (Fran Healy, vocals, guitar; Andy Dunlop, lead guitar; Dougie Payne, bass; Neil Primrose, drums) came of age during Britpop's heyday, but always stood at a remove from that scene's barely contained mania. When the Britpop hangover kicked in at the end of the '90s, Travis' gentle, uplifting songs were the perfect antidote for the chaos of the preceding years. From its title on down, Good
Feeling set the mood: an upbeat album unafraid to wear its emotions on its sleeve. By the time
Travis took to Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage in 1999, delivering a career-defining performance, they were poised to become household names, opening the door for a new generation of introspective songwriters to come through.
Entering the new millennium as one of the biggest bands in the UK following the success of sophomore album, 1999'sThe Man Who (now certified 9x platinum, with over 2.7 million albums sold in the UK),
Travis spent the remainder of the '00s developing their sound without ever forgetting their core commitment to songwriting. The Invisible Band (2001) consolidated the group's status as the grown-ups' indie rock band of choice, while 2003's 12 Memories revealed a newfound electronica influence. 2007's The Boy With No Name was the band's most eclectic album to date, and, in the years since, the group have only continued to build on their enduring appeal. 2008's Ode to J Smith included the fan-favorite single 'Something Anything', while Where You Stand (2013) and
Everything At Once (2016) returned
Travis to the UK Top 5. Travis' emotionally charged and deeply heartfelt ninth studio album, 10 Songs (2020), marked another new chapter in the band's extraordinarily prolific and unflappable career. 10 Songs is yet another body of work that showcases the band as one of the UK's finest song writing exports.
