Before Travis Were Bland

Younger readers of this blog (if there is such a phenomenon) will be surprised to read that there was a time when Travis were not always totally bland.
Although there was the occasional portent of what was to come the majority of the tracks on their 1997 debut album Good Feeling on the Independiente label were perfectly acceptable indie rock/pop tunes as the two tunes below demonstrate. I even went as far as to acquire the CD single of the first track.
(There are not too many tracks in my collection with the word Happy in the title as I found out a few years ago when I went to make Mrs CC a Happy compilation. Plenty of sad songs in the soul and country sections though)

After that I'm afraid it all began to go down hill rapidly. They ended up selling shed loads of records and Fran Healy took to wearing a hat indoors.
My brother knows a guy who was in the band but got binned shortly before they made the big time.
Understandably, perhaps, he is a tad bitter (the guy that is as opposed to my brother)

It is reassuring to note, however, that Travis remain absolutely huge in Hungary

Travis - Happy

Travis -All I Want to do is Rock