TRAVIS surprised fans in LONDON today (October 14) when they turned up for an impromptu gig in LEICESTER SQUARE.
The Glaswegian four-piece – who have been busking all over the UK during the last ten days prior to their UK tour dates – performed a series of songs for the public from their forthcoming hits compilation including ‘Sing’, ‘Driftwood’, ‘Turn’, ‘Flowers In The Window’, ‘Why Does It Always Rain On Me?’ and a cover of Britney Spears’’Baby One More Time’.
The band played the gig in conjunction with the Big Issue, to help raise £1,000 for homeless people.
Singer Fran Healy shouted to the crowd at the start of the gig: “Hello we are Travis. We are here to do some busking. Please throw some money in,” before the group performed ‘Sing’.
During the set, fans threw coins and notes into a guitar case while the band played on.
At one point a policeman even threw in some cash which Healy acknowledged by saying: “Thank you to the police officer for throwing in some money for us.”
As the band brought the set to a close Healy conducted the crowd in a sing-a-long for the introduction to ‘Why Does It Always Rain On Me’ before he performed the hit single.
The street concert was a warm up for the quartet’s final show of their UK tour in London’s Mean Fiddler tonight (October 14).
Speaking after the gig, drummer Neil Primrose told NME.COM: “It has been great fun doing these little gigs. People have been standing here watching us play for over an hour and throwing in money for the Big Issue so it’s pretty good. We’d like to raise more money but at least we’re doing something.”
As reported previously Healy was threatened by a drug addict when they recently busked in Glasgow (October 5). But Primrose said that it was still the most “fun” street gig they had performed.
He added: “Some guy had a needle and he just took it out of the packet. It wasn’t very nice I have to admit. But it was probably the best gig we had done. Today has been pretty good as well though.
“The tour has been going really well too. The reception from the crowd has been awesome. It is good to put all those songs together and put it behind us. We’ve been playing 18 songs to people and they’ve suddenly realised that we’ve been around a long time. It is great because the crowd know all the songs and they sing along.”
The drummer also confirmed that the band will be heading into the studio in a couple of weeks to record the follow up to 2003’s ’12 Memories’.
He added: “We have been working on a new album since April this year. We have written two thirds of it already. It is being overseen by three different producers and we’re going to put down the first few tracks in the next couple of weeks.
Travis release their hits compilation ‘Singles’ on November 1.