Neil Primrose | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Neil Primrose |
Born | Cumbernauld, Scotland | 20 February 1972
Genres | Rock, Britpop, Alternative rock |
Occupation | Musician |
Instrument(s) | Drums, percussion |
Years active | 1989–present |
Neil Primrose (born 20 February 1972) is the drummer of the Scottish rock band Travis. [1]
Primrose was born in Cumbernauld. His father, a power station engineer, was posted to Middlesbrough, and this was followed by a series of moves across the northeast of England during the first ten years of Primrose's life. At the age of 15 at high school in Glasgow he was playing drums with friends in local bands.
In 1989 at the age of 17, Primrose started his drumming career when he was going for as many auditions as possible and looking for like-minded players to form a group.
This led to him joining the band Glass Onion with Andy Dunlop along with brothers Chris and Geoff Martyn in 1990. After a while of looking for success, the line-up changed with Fran Healy joining the line-up in 1991 and the group then splitting with the Martyn brothers and Dougie Payne soon joining the band as the bassist in 1994. Eventually, the name of the band was changed to Travis.
Unlike the other three members of the band, Primrose was not a student at the Glasgow School of Art instead working various jobs and studying Computer Science for a pre-degree course. Initially, Travis rehearsed in The Horse Shoe Bar where Primrose and Healy had met for the first time. The material for their first two albums was, in part, written and refined here. Travis moved to London in late spring 1996 and lived, rehearsed and toured from their North London base for many years.
Travis' début album Good Feeling was released in 1997 with positive review, but lukewarm performance in the charts. Their 1999 follow-up, The Man Who , proved to be far more successful, selling millions of copies worldwide, shortly followed by The Invisible Band in 2001. During this period, Travis had several UK hit singles, including Sing and Why Does It Always Rain on Me? . [2]
Before the recording of Travis' fourth album, 12 Memories , Primrose suffered a life-threatening spine injury while he was swimming on holiday in France. This led to the cancellation of several subsequent tour dates – most significantly a headline slot at V Festival. Primrose made a full recovery and was back on stage and recording with the band within months – including Isle of Wight Festival and Live 8 in 2005. As of 2021, Travis have released six more albums and continue to tour worldwide.
Primrose has played drums on the Canadian musician Ron Sexsmith's seventh album Retriever and other individual album tracks, along with albums by Jamie Scott, Yusaf Islam, Magne F and Cyril Paulus. In Scotland, Primrose plays with the MOVE Project along with various artists on the Wild Biscuit label.
Primrose is married to Esther, and has two daughters.
In 2007, Primrose gained his first racing licence and has since driven in many racing events including the Le Mans Classic and the SPA 25Hr FunCup. [3]
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Travis are a Scottish rock band formed in Glasgow in 1990, and composed of Fran Healy, Dougie Payne, Andy Dunlop, and Neil Primrose. The band's name comes from the character Travis Henderson from the film Paris, Texas (1984). The band released their debut album, Good Feeling (1997), to moderate success where it debuted at number nine on the UK Albums Chart and was later awarded a silver certification from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in January 2000.
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Marmalade are a Scottish pop rock band originating from the east end of Glasgow, originally formed in 1961 as The Gaylords, and then later billed as Dean Ford and the Gaylords, recording four singles for Columbia (EMI). In 1966 they changed the band's name to The Marmalade and were credited as such on all of their subsequent recorded releases with CBS Records and Decca Records until 1972. Their greatest chart success was between 1968 and 1972, placing ten songs on the UK Singles Chart, and many overseas territories, including international hits "Reflections of My Life", which reached No. 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart and No. 3 on the UK chart in January 1970, and "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", which topped the UK chart in January 1969, the group becoming the first-ever Scottish artist to top that chart.
12 Memories is the fourth studio album from Scottish alternative rock band Travis. The album was released on 11 October 2003 on Epic Records. In comparison, the album is a much more mature and lyrically darker album, focusing on issues such as the 2003 Iraq invasion, politicians, psychological crisis and domestic abuse.
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Good Feeling is the debut studio album by the Scottish rock band Travis. The album was released on 8 September 1997, on Independiente Records. All four singles released from the album reached the UK Top 40.
"Boulevard of Broken Songs" is a popular mash-up mixed by American DJ and producer Party Ben in late 2004. The mix consists of elements from American rock band Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", English rock band Oasis's "Wonderwall", Scottish soft rock band Travis's "Writing to Reach You", and American rapper Eminem's "Sing for the Moment", which itself samples American hard rock band Aerosmith's "Dream On". "Sing for the Moment" was used solely because Party Ben did not have "Dream On" on hand and was on deadline for his Sixx Mixx radio show. Later versions used Aerosmith's original.
Francis Healy is a Scottish musician. He is the lead singer and lyricist of the band Travis, having written nearly all of the songs on their first six studio albums along their ninth and tenth, with the seventh and eighth containing material written by other members of the band. Healy released his debut solo album, titled Wreckorder, in October 2010.
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"J. Smith" is the first single from Indie band Travis' sixth studio album Ode to J. Smith, released as a limited-edition E.P. on both 10" vinyl and as a download, with only 1,000 copies made of the 10-inch. The song reached #1 on the UK Indie Chart on 6 July 2008, mainly due to strong downloads.
Beggars Opera was a Scottish progressive rock band from Glasgow, Scotland, formed in 1969 by guitarist Ricky Gardiner, vocalist Martin Griffiths, and bassist Marshall Erskine (bass/flute). After working together building parts of the M40 Motorway near Beaconsfield, the three lads moved back to Glasgow to look for an organist and drummer and recruited Alan Park (keyboards) and Raymond Wilson (drums). After an intensive time in rehearsal, they took up residency at Burns Howff club/pub in West Regent Street in the centre of Glasgow. Tours of Europe followed and the band found success in Germany, appearing on German TV's legendary Beat-Club, then at the first British Rock Meeting in Speyer in September 1971.
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