T in the Park T in the Park 2000
(thanks
to Ian Aitken for the photo)
It
was clear from the start that this was to be the landmark performance
at this years T. Travis have been regulars, even playing in the
comedy tent one year, but this year they were headlining the Main
Stage, which is no more than they deserve. That this was their home
territory added to the occasion and all the ingredients were ready
for a memorable evening.
The
rain had missed its cue. Having tipped down towards the end of the
Macy set it lightened up to fine drizzle for Travis. Anyway we were
all used to it by then and everyone's mood seemed to be peaking
at just the right point.
The
largest crowd of the weekend gave Fran a huge roar when he arrived
on stage, which was greeted with a 'we are not worthy' bow from
the main man before getting straight into it with All I Want To
Do Is Rock from the Good Feeling album. The largest crowd of the
whole weekend were roaring their approval from the start, plenty
of jumping and dancing and lots of singing along.
"Oh
man, what a night" Fran declared, understandably emotional.
After their staggeringly unforgiving workload over the past 15 months
there can't have been a more tailor made occasion for the home faithful
to demonstrate their pride in this hugely successful band.
Onwards
then with some more old favourites, Good Feeling and U16 Girls before
embarking on a rendition of the more anthemic songs from The Man
Who; Writing To Reach You, Fran swapping to an acoustic guitar for
As You Are, Driftwood, Why Does It Always Rain On Me, Turn. Travis
were in fine form, playing and singing passionately their melodic
tunes which at no point disappointed and were the perfect anecdote,
not that we needed one, for being soaked. The songs were punctuated
with Fran's philosophy lessons, the wind and sun story "you
can't make someone do what they don't want to do", the crowd
cheered but then he could have said anything this evening and we
would have cheered.
"It's
like playing in front of your family" he said. The crowd agreed.
A memorable and fitting end to a Scottish weekend that the weather
failed to dampen (err…not literally you understand).
review by Stuart McCandlish
photos by Stuart McCandlish & Neil Greenway
more pages about Travis
