There were two big Britpop success stories in 1999 and neither of them came from Wigan or Manchester. Welsh band Stereophonics has gone stratospheric in the past few months, moving from minor rock trio to major league triumph and upgrading from small venues to big stadia with Oasis-like ease. In comparison, Glasgow group Travis is still small beer, but its second album, The Man Who . . , has risen quietly to the top of the charts, becoming the sleeper hit of the year and taking the music industry by surprise.
Put it down to good tunes such as Turn, Writing To Reach You and the stupendously catchy Why Does It Always Rain On Me, most of them penned by the band's singer and spiritual leader, Fran Healy. He's sitting in front of me now at the Westbury Hotel, dressed in threadbare denims and grubby sandals, and looking like a busker who has sneaked in off Grafton Street to get out of the rain. With him is the band's bassist, Dougie Payne, dressed a little neater in his T-shirt, but not much neater. Outside it's summer, it hasn't rained for a month, and The Man Who . . . has just gone into the charts at Number One. "When we first heard we were Number One, we just went, uh, yeh. It just didn't sink in at all," confesses Dougie. "That was after 13 weeks - lucky for some. I just hope there's no bad feelings from Boyzone, because we knocked them off the Number One spot."
The honour of knocking Boyzone off the top is usually reserved for the likes of Westlife and B*Witched. So, did it feel like they were striking a blow for `real' rock music? "The charts have been dominated for months and months by that kind of pop," agrees Dougie, "but we're pop too, and it's nice to be at Number One, because it felt for quite awhile, looking at the Top 20, that they were culling guitar bands from the charts. There was just the Stereophonics and us, and that was it. But it's good to see good songwriting getting appreciated."
If you'd tuned in to Top of the Pops during Travis's summer reign, you'd have witnessed Fran, resplendent in sandals, clutching acoustic guitar, and looking like a hippie who had hi-jacked the studio and was intent on liberating the charts from the tyranny of the pop clones. Fran, however, was surprised at the reaction from the teeniegroups.
"One of the lads from that boyband, Westlife, came up to me and said he really admired us because we were a `proper' band. He was really in awe of us, and they were at Number One at the time! I suppose we are a proper band, because we didn't meet through an advert in the paper, or for any other reason than we were mates, and that's why we'll be together for a very long time."
Travis began life in 1990 when Fran, Dougie and guitarist Andy Dunlop were attending Glasgow School of Art. It wasn't long before Fran found music a more compelling passion than painting, so he dropped out of art college and began writing songs instead.
Drummer Neil Primrose completed the Travis line-up, but it wasn't until 1996 that things started to kick off for the Scots foursome, when they bagged a publishing deal with Sony and signed to the newly-formed Independiente label. Their debut album, Good Feeling, hit the UK Top Ten, fuelled by exuberant single, U16 Girls, and the subtly-crafted More Than Us.
Fran believes it's the quality of Travis's songs which will help them transcend the usual "next-big-thing" fads. While bands such as Embrace and Gay Dad have failed to live up to their hype, Travis has thrived, quietly building a devoted fanbase and refusing to pull the "we're the best band in the world" stunt. And, despite Healy's rather folkie appearance, he's got no time for self-styled pop gurus who spout rhyming gobbledegook.
"What's the point in opening your mouth unless you have something to say?" he declares. "A lot of people confuse being able to sing with having something to sing about. If they rhyme "door" with "more", suddenly they're poets. I think a lot of bands saw Oasis giving it loads of mouth, and thought, maybe if we do that we'll get some attention too. But all they do is just embarrass themselves."
With "real" rock reclaiming the upper levels of the pop charts, and good songwriting regaining supremacy, it could soon spell bedtime for the boy-blands and girl-groups of the world. Britney Spears needn't lose any sleep over it, however, because the B-side of Travis's current hit, Turn, features the band's own rendition of - yes - Baby One More Time.
"Rock bands, boybands, it doesn't matter as long as it's a good song," says Fran. "I don't care if it's played on a fiddle, a guitar or keyboard. If it's done with love and respect, that's all right by me. I'll just go where the good songs are. I just want to get rid of shite songs, whether it's shite songs played on the guitar or danced to by five boys."
Travis plays two shows at the Olympia - on Monday and Tuesday. The album, The Man Who . . . is out now on Independiente
