INTERNATIONAL travellers, fear not. When you see the drummer from Travis ahead of you in the queue for airport security, do not worry. Although Neil Primrose's neck is made largely of metal, he will get through the detector just fine. "It's actually OK," says Primrose, who broke his neck diving into a hotel swimming pool in 2002 and had to be revived by fellow band members Dougie Payne and Andy Dunlop. "Whatever grade of titanium they've used doesn't set it off."
Ever the fighter, Primrose was back behind the drum kit in a matter of weeks. By the following year, he was ready to power himself through the band's fourth album, 12 Memories, and now believes music was the perfect therapy. That's not to say he isn'
t reminded of the injury every day. "It is painful still," he says. "I walk two or three hours a day as well as playing drums and that keeps me fit. But it's never far from your mind. The mild paralysis in my left arm is like having pins and needles all the time. But you learn to overcome it and almost separate it from the rest of your nervous system and put it to the back of your mind."
His brush with death brought his tight-knit band closer together. Having spent six years working their way up through the Glasgow music scene before the release of 1997's Good Feeling, Travis were already a water-tight operation. The shock of Primrose's injury took their sense of unity one step further. "It's definitely given us something to work for," he says. "We're really close anyway. We've been together for 18 years, it's like a brotherhood. We've spent more time together than we've spent with our parents or our loved ones. If my accident had happened to any of the other guys we'd still be in the same position: you want people to get better and you want to get back to work."
This kind of fraternal compassion is a Travis hallmark. Lead singer Fran Healy is associated with at least eight charities, including Save The Children, and at their Scottish dates, they always hold backstage meet-and-greet sessions for young cancer patients. "We recently played a show in Edinburgh and we have a crowd of people that come to our Scottish shows, it's usually a load of kids who are either terminal or have just been diagnosed and it's always a real privilege to meet them all. That brings it home when you've got people who are really young with cancer about how volatile a situation it is. You're not helpless – you've got a very good chance of recovery at that age – but it makes you angry to think that nice young kids of that age can get something like this. But cancer doesn't have any favouritism – it strikes where it strikes and you don't have a choice in the matter."
Healy lost his grandfather and his uncle to cancer and spoke of the experience thus: "The worst thing was seeing my uncle in the Belvedere Cancer Unit in Glasgow with all these guys on death row. I left there swearing I'd never smoke another fag." So it's no surprise to see them among the headliners of this month's St Andrew's Day Concert in support of Versus Cancer. Taking place at Glasgow's SECC, it is the latest in a series of gigs organised by the charity, which was set up in 2005 by ex-Smiths bassist Andy Rourke with businessman Nova Rehman.
"Travis has a brand name that people can use and if it's for a good cause – and it is close to my heart for a lot of reasons – then I'm all for it," says Primrose. "I lost a very dear friend of mine in 2005 – Richard Burns, ex-world rally champion, who died of a brain tumour, aged 34. I've also got two friends who have just recently been diagnosed with cancer – great people, healthy people, cancer has no mode of operation."
As the drummer sees it, the battle against cancer is not just a matter of finding a medical breakthrough. The rise of the disease is a product of western lifestyles and he believes we need better education. "As a nation we've become very sloth-like," says the father of two daughters. "Fitness is something we all need to be looking at and, diet-wise, if you go back to our parents' generation there wasn't the same amount of junk food around. It's difficult to preach to people about buying organic vegetables when they only have a certain budget, but if in any way people can get a little bit of guidance, I think it can help in cutting down the figures."
The idea of Versus Cancer is to stage one-off concerts starring "living legends and new talent", raising funds in the process. Rubbing shoulders with Travis at the Glasgow gig are new kids on the block Sergeant and the Attic Lights, chart favourites Alphabeat and the Fratellis, and old hands Echo and the Bunnymen, New Order's Peter Hook and Andy Rourke himself.
For Travis it's a great chance not only to play for a worthy cause, but to perform new material to a home crowd. "Dynamically things are always different depending on the venue and the crowd," says Primrose, delighted at the positive reception for the newly released Ode To J Smith. "Songs do take on a totally weird angle some nights. It keeps it interesting. We're really enjoying playing the new stuff."
The down-to-earth musician squirms at the idea of celebrity ("It's such a hollow word"), but is happy to use his fame if it can make a difference. If banging the charity drum attracts the kind of flack routinely doled out to Chris Martin of Coldplay and Bono of U2, then Primrose is ready to take it on the chin. "I'm not that bothered what people think," he says. "We've never tried to be cool. If you go on your instincts, you're usually right. Bono uses his status to get things done and if that's for the benefit of people, then good luck to him." v
St Andrew's Day Concert in support of Versus Cancer, SECC (0870 040 4000, or
www.secctickets.com) Glasgow, November 28
The full article contains 1071 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
