# Mike Travis – Musician and actor who became a creative force in jazz and theatre: Video, Photos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2023/10/10/mike-travis-musician-and-actor-who-became-a-creative-force-in-jazz-and-theatre-video-photos/
- Published: 2023-10-10T00:02:59+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Mike Travis, who has died aged 78, was a drummer and actor who was a creative 
force from London’s late 1960s and early 1970s jazz scene to Scotland’s thriving
alternative theatre circuit and beyond.**

From residencies at Ronnie Scott’s London jazz club, becoming a founder member of
prog band Gilgamesh and playing with more best musicians, Travis worked extensively
with theatre companies such as Wildcat and Communicado.

With the former, Travis appeared in shows such as The Beggar’s Opera (1986), 7:84
Scotland founder John McGrath’s epic, Border Warfare (1989), and The Celtic Story(
1998). With the latter, he was a founder member of the Cauld Blast Orchestra, formed
by clarinettist Karen Wimhurst to play her music for Jock Tamson’s Bairns, Liz Lochhead’s
Robert Burns and Hugh MacDiarmid inspired play performed at Tramway as part of the
1990 Glasgow Year of Culture.

Travis also appeared in The Ship (1990) and The Big Picnic (1994), Bill Bryden’s
two monumental stage productions at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Govan. The first
was an elegy to Glasgow’s shipbuilding history, the second an equally elegiac First
World War saga.

Travis appeared extensively at the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, taking part in
two productions of Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children (1986 and 1998); Forbes
Masson’s Faustian musical, Stiff! (1999); Guys and Dolls (2001); and The Man of 
La Mancha (2007). Non-theatrical musical adventures included playing with Dick Gaughan
on his 1996 album, Sail On, and leading his own bands, Solaris, and Mike Travis’
EH15. Travis was regarded as the engine room of each project, driving the pace and
setting the tempo with an understanding of a range of musical styles, but with a
generosity that left space for all to have their moment.

Michael John Travis was born in Falkirk, one of three brothers to Mary (nee Gordon)
and Desmond Travis, who were both teachers. His siblings included his brother Des,
who also became a drummer. The family moved from West Lothian to Edinburgh when 
Travis was ten, and he attended George Watson’s College, where his father taught
English.

Travis developed an interest in blues and traditional Scottish music from an early
age, and worked in the record department of Cairns Bookshop on Forrest Road, in 
the thick of Edinburgh’s underground music scenes of which he would become a part.
Travis initially took up guitar, joining a trad band whose ranks included school
pal Robin Williamson, who would later form folk psych pastoralists The Incredible
String Band.

Travis soon realised that while there was a glut of guitarists, there were fewer
drummers. Switching instruments, after leaving school in 1961, he started gigging
around Edinburgh’s jazz and beat club circuit. He then went to London with The Buzz,
a band formed from The Boston Dexters, featuring Tam White on vocals. Going into
the studio with sonic DIY maverick Joe Meek, the band recorded You’re Holding Me
Down, a furious piece of pre-punk freakbeat penned by guitarist Johnny Turnbull,
and released as a single in 1966. Regarded as one of Meek’s most unhinged productions,
You’re Holding Me Down has appeared on numerous psych/garage compilations.

Travis established himself on the London jazz circuit after joining pianist Reg 
Powell’s Trio at the Pickwick Club, a fashionable haunt frequented by film and music
business royalty. The trio backed singer Jon Hendricks, which led to the likes of
Roland Kirk, Annie Ross and Percy Heath sitting in.

Travis went on to establish himself at Ronnie Scott’s Old Place, then the playground
of a new wave of jazz players, including the likes of Mike Westbrook, John Surman,
Keith Tippett and Chris McGregor. Travis joined the London Jazz Four, with pianist
Mike McNaught, bassist Brian Moore, and flute and sax player Jim Philip. The band
recorded two albums, including The Elizabethan Songbook (1969).

The LJ4 morphed into progressive rock band Atlantic Bridge, and, with Daryl Runswick
on bass, released a self-titled album in 1970. The same year, Travis, McNaught and
Runswick joined trumpeter and flugel horn player Henry Lowther to record Lowther’s
Child Song album, a classic of its era.

In 1972, Travis joined Gilgamesh, after being recommended to keyboardist Alan Gowen
by percussionist Jamie Muir, with whom Travis had played with in Edinburgh, and 
who was departing Gowen’s band to join King Crimson. Gilgamesh lasted three years
and one studio album. During a double quartet gig with Hatfield and the North, Travis
was spotted by bassist Hugh Hopper, who recommended him to Japanese percussionist
Stomu Yamash’ta for his band, East Wind.

![Musician and actor who became a creative force in jazz and theatre | The  Herald](
https://www.heraldscotland.com/resources/images/17254287/?type=og-image)

Travis also joined Hopper’s band, appearing on Monster Band (1974, released 1979)
and Hopper Tunity Box (1976). Travis was co-credited alongside Hopper on North and
South (2014), a recording of a 1995 Aberdeen show that made up volume three of a
ten CD box set of unreleased work by Hopper.

Travis moved back to Scotland in 1978, and briefly joined Cado Belle, featuring 
singer Maggie Reilly, for a tour of Ireland. Travis worked tirelessly on the central
belt jazz circuit, becoming one of the go-to drummers for the Platform Jazz organisation,
who brought international jazz stars to Scotland. Travis duly played with American
sax and flute player James Moody, trumpeter Art Farmer, guitarist Charlie Byrd and
many others.

Around 1981, Travis became involved in Scotland’s burgeoning political musical theatre
scene, which often featured live soundtracks that fused Scottish traditional music
and contemporary rock with popular theatre forms. Travis was a natural fit, and 
with Wildcat became an actor musician in shows such as Confessin’ the Blues, Hot
Burlesque, 1984, and A Bunch of Fives. After The Beggar’s Opera at the Lyceum, Travis
provided music for 13 of the theatre’s Christmas shows, also providing live sound
effects from an array of percussion instruments.

With Wildcat composer David McNiven, Travis played drums and percussion on assorted
BBC Scotland Comedy Unit shows, including A Kick Up the Eighties (1981), City Lights(
1984-91), Naked Video (1986) and Rab C. Nesbitt (1988-2011).

On the traditional music scene, he played with Clan Alba, Caledon and Ceolbeg, and
on albums by clarsach player Savourna Stevenson, composer Edward McGuire and former
Ossian harpist Billy Jackson. Travis also played with Michael Marra and Glasgow 
Improvisers’ Orchestra. In 1996, Mike Travis’ EH15 released its sole album, The 
View From Where.

In 2006, Travis and his wife Wendy moved to France, where they lived until 2015,
when they returned to Scotland. They briefly lived in Edinburgh before settling 
in Duns in the Scottish Borders for the remainder of Travis’ rich and colourful 
life.

Travis is survived by Wendy, their daughter Rebecca, their son Dan, and his brothers,
Chris and Des.

![Mike Travis Discography | Discogs](https://i0.wp.com/i.discogs.com/CRHizhkppJUkRwSc5v5LSqozWuryNxV0t8e_Y6fUg1Y/
rs%3Afit/g%3Asm/q%3A90/h%3A587/w%3A600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9BLTI5OTQ3/
Mi0xNDE0ODAwOTIy/LTM0OTcuanBlZw.jpeg?resize=640%2C626&ssl=1)

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