It doesn't always rain, surely!

Only a week late this post, but based on my past (and I'm sure future) performances, then that's not too bad.

Last Tuesday me and Susie went to see Travis play at Koko (used to be something else, I forget what, feel free to look it up for yourselves), in one of the concert/football combinations mentioned in a previous post. The last time I saw them play was at my first Glastonbury, possibly 2000, when they headlined and I was front row. It meant I had to get to the stage at about 4, and sit through Reef, Ocean Colour Scene and the Pet Shop Boys (an possibly somebody else, I forget, to see them, but it was well worth it, despite my shoulder doing its popping out trick several times. This time I wasn't that sure what to expect. They had been away for a few years and some of their recent stuff had been a little samey, but I thought it was worth a go, especially at a small venue.

Supporting we had Brinkman, who I remember were tipped at the start of the year by those music afficionados, the Sun, as one of the bands to watch out for in 2007, and I remember checking their stuff out and not noticing anything stand-out, and it was the same during their set. I thought they had 2 or maybe 3 memorable songs, but the rest was all pretty much standard guitar fare. We did get a band sticker to give to Gary at work (his last name is Brinkman) and he was very happy with that when we gave it to him.

The main act, though, was a completely different proposition. When I was transferring all my CDs onto my PC to stick on my iPod, I got to the Travis albums and thought I had lost one as I couldn't find their greatest hits. I looked around for about half an hour, including in drawers and in bags we might have taken on holiday, until I realised that I didn't actually own their greatest hits, as I remember thinking that I didn't see the point seeing as I owned all of their other albums.....I'm so stupid.

The fact I do own all their albums meant that I actually knew about 2/3 of the songs, and most of the words to boot, which is pretty good going for me. Apparently I was quite enthusiastic in my singing (would you expect anything less), and Sooz reckoned I was singing in more of a cockney accent, no idea why that would be. I also had my sore throat so it is more than likely I was out of tune trying to hit notes, like I care.

Fran Healy (lead singer) seemed very pleased to be performing, and his little talky bits in between were very engaging, and the whole band were enjoying themselves. The new songs sat nicely with the old (I think they played 5 new songs, maybe 6), and there was never a moment when I felt bored or was clock-watching, which is always a good sign. My highlights were probably Writing To Reach You (which was possibly the first song that got me interested in the band, and is still my favourite of theirs), Pipe Dreams and Side, but pretty much everything they did was very good.

Of course they finished on Why Does It Always Rain On Me, which is always a good sing-a-long, and I'm very happy we went, as for me, it was even better than when I saw them before.

That's it for a while, my noticeboard is empty of tickets.....Glastonbury 2007 goes on sale on Sunday, wish me luck in my ticket pursuits won't you????