Neil Primrose (born 20 February 1972) is the drummer of the Scottish rock

quartet In music, a quartet or quartette (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers; or a musical composition for four voices and instruments. Classical String quartet In classical music, one of the most common combinations o ...

Travis.

Biography

Primrose was born in

Cumbernauld Cumbernauld (; gd, Comar nan Allt, meeting of the streams) is a large town in the historic county of Dunbartonshire and council area of North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the tenth most-populous locality in Scotland and the most populated t ...

. His father, a power station engineer, was posted to

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

, and this was followed by a series of moves across the northeast of England during the first ten years of Primrose's life. At the age of 15 in high school in Glasgow he was playing drums with friends in local bands. From the age of 17, the next step was going for as many auditions as possible and looking for like-minded players to form a group. This led to his joining the band ''Glass Onion'' with

Andy Dunlop Andy Dunlop (born Andrew Dunlop, 16 March 1972, Lenzie, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland) is a Scottish musician, who is the lead guitarist of Scottish indie band, Travis. Biography Dunlop attended Lenzie Academy. The band Travis got their brea ...

along with brothers Chris and Geoff Martyn in the early 1990s. After years of touring and looking for success, the line-up changed with Fran Healy eventually joining the line-up and the group then splitting with the Martyn brothers and bringing

Dougie Payne Douglas Payne (born 14 November 1972) is the bassist and backing vocalist of the Scottish band Travis. Career Payne was born in the south side of Glasgow, and was educated at Woodfarm High School. He was also a member of the local 28th Glasg ...

in for bass guitar. Eventually, the name for the band was changed to Travis. Unlike the other three members of the band, Primrose was not a student at the

Glasgow School of Art The Glasgow School of Art (GSA; gd, Sgoil-ealain Ghlaschu) is a higher education art school based in Glasgow, Scotland, offering undergraduate degrees, post-graduate awards (both taught and research-led), and PhDs in architecture, fine art, and ...

instead working various jobs and studying Computer Science for a pre-degree course. Initially, Travis rehearsed in

The Horse Shoe Bar The Horse Shoe Bar (or Horseshoe Bar) is a public house on Drury Street, Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as b ...

where Primrose and Healy had met for the first time. The material for their first two albums was, in part, written and refined here. Travis moved to London in late spring 1996 and lived, rehearsed and toured from their North London base for many years. Travis' début album ''Good Feeling'' was released in 1997 with positive review, but lukewarm performance in the charts. Their 1999 follow-up, ''

The Man Who ''The Man Who'' is the second studio album by the Scottish rock band Travis. The album was released on 24 May 1999 through Independiente. It saw a change in musical direction for the band, moving away from the rockier tone of their debut '' ...

'', proved to be far more successful, selling millions of copies worldwide, shortly followed by

The Invisible Band ''The Invisible Band'' is the third studio album by Scottish rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also re ...

in 2001. During this period, Travis had several UK hit singles, including ''Sing'' and ''

Why Does It Always Rain On Me? "Why Does It Always Rain on Me?" is a song by Scottish band Travis, released as the third single from their second studio album, '' The Man Who''. The song became the group's international breakthrough single, receiving recognition around the w ...

''. Before the recording of Travis' fourth album, '' 12 Memories'', Primrose suffered a life-threatening spine injury while he was swimming on holiday in France. This led to the cancellation of several subsequent tour dates – most significantly a headline slot at V Festival. Primrose made a full recovery and was back on stage and

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

with the band within months – including

Isle of Wight Festival The Isle of Wight Festival is a British music festival which takes place annually in Newport on the Isle of Wight, England. It was originally a counterculture event held from 1968 to 1970. The 1970 event was by far the largest of these early ...

and

Live 8 Live 8 was a string of benefit concerts that took place on 2 July 2005, in the G8 states and in South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 conference and summit held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland, from 6–8 July 200 ...

in 2005. As of 2021, Travis have released six more albums and continue to tour worldwide. Primrose has played drums on the Canadian musician

Ron Sexsmith Ronald Eldon Sexsmith (born January 8, 1964) is a Canadian singer-songwriter from St. Catharines, Ontario. He was the songwriter of the year at the 2005 Juno Awards. He began releasing recordings of his own material in 1985 at age 21, and has ...

's seventh album ''Retriever'' and other individual album tracks, along with albums by Jamie Scott,

Yusaf Islam Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou; ), commonly known by his stage names Cat Stevens, Yusuf, and Yusuf / Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His musical style consists of folk, pop, rock, and, later i ...

, Magne F and Cyril Paulus. In Scotland, Primrose plays with the MOVE Project along with various artists on the Wild Biscuit label.

Personal life

Primrose is married to Esther, and has two daughters. In 2007, Primrose gained his first racing licence and has since driven in many racing events including the Classic Le Mans series and the SPA 25Hr FunCup.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Primrose, Neil Travis (band) members 1972 births Scottish rock drummers British male drummers Living people People from Cumbernauld 21st-century drummers Britcar drivers