It’s not every day a 90s rock legend appears in a Scottish pub to perform karaoke, but when they do, they make sure they impress.
Just days before Christmas Travis frontman Fran Healy shocked unsuspecting fans after he took to the stage at The Horseshoe bar in Glasgow, where he played one of the band’s most beloved tracks.
Sporting bright red hair and a blazer, the 51-year-old British musician treated pub-goers to a spontaneous performance of the band’s 1999 classic, Why Does It Always Rain On Me?, earning plenty of praise in return.
Taking to X, Healy shared video footage from the surprise performance writing: ‘When in the Horseshoe Bar after 9pm… and they put your song on…’
He also shared it on Instagram, telling fans: ‘When you’re having a pint in the @horseshoe_glasgow after 9pm and your song comes on…See you all at the Hydro tonight for the LAST SHOW OF THE YEAR!!!! COME ONNNNN!!! BRING YER SANTA HATS’.
Excited fans quickly reshared the post and commented their thoughts. George Stroumboulopoulos said: ‘This made me teary-eyed. Beautiful.’
Cass In The Attic called it ‘fabulous’ and added: ‘I hope they carried you off stage shoulder high!!’ While Moray Swan jokingly quipped: ‘That guy singing isn’t half bad. He might have a future in this’.
‘Brilliant! Class is permanent and Fran simply oozes class. Imagine being in that Bar when that legend gets up and belts out that little number? What a top bloke’, AJTToon wrote.
The song is a memorable one for fans of Travis as it was released as the third single from their second studio album, The Man Who and quickly became the track that earned them international success.
Becoming their first top-10 hit on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number 10, as well as earning chart success in Europe, North America, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, the tune has an almost magical story attached to it.
While still relatively new and unknown at the time, the group played at Glastonbury the same year the song was released and gave an unforgettable performance.
Despite the day being full of sunshine and warmth, the band – Healy, bassist Dougie Payne, guitarist Andy Dunlop, and drummer Neil Primrose – did something no other artist had done before: They made it rain.
Travis have recalled the fateful day multiple times, most recently when Healy and Dunlop appeared on Kate Thornton’s White Wine Question Time podcast in 2021.
Healy said while on stage, he told the crowd he could see ‘a big cloud coming’ in the distance. ‘No one believed me,’ he said, ‘until we played this song.’
Within the first few chords of Why Does It Always Rain On Me? being played, rain began pelting down on the crowd, and Healy said the band felt as though they had done an ‘average show’.
‘It was a big chance for us, and we sort of blew it, and it was like “Better luck next time, lads.” We just left. We just left Glastonbury!’ He said.
‘It was really one of those things that just passed me by,’ Dunlop added. ‘I mean, people looked miserable, and it was raining. It wasn’t really one of the things that you felt, “Oh, this is history!”‘
The following day, the story was all over the news and earned the band not only new popularity but also the title of ‘the band of the weekend’ and, later, the band who quite literally made it rain at Glastonbury.
The group’s second studio album, The Man Who, went onto dominate the UK charts in the following weeks, taking out the number-one spot before winning Best Album at the Brit Awards the following year.
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