Neil Primrose (musician)

For other people of the same name, see Neil Primrose (disambiguation).

Neil Primrose
Primrose (back) in Toronto, Canada with Travis.
Background information
Birth name	Neil Primrose
Born	20 February 1972 (1972-02-20) (age 39) Cumbernauld, Scotland
Genres	Rock, Britpop, Alternative Rock
Occupations	Musician
Instruments	Drums, percussion
Years active	1994–present
Associated acts	Travis

Neil Primrose (born 20 February 1972, Cumbernauld, Scotland) is the drummer of the Scottish rock quartet Travis.^[1]

Biography

Primrose's father was a power station engineer, so his family moved wherever the job took him. A posting to Middlesbrough was followed by a series of moves across the northeast of England that spanned the first ten years of Primrose's life. Returning to Glasgow, he made friends with Ronnie who played the drum in an Orange marching band.

Unlike the other three members of the band, he was not a student at the Glasgow School of Art. Primrose studied computing at the College of Commerce in Glasgow. He worked as a barman at the Horseshoe Bar in the city centre, where he met Fran Healy, Dougie Payne and Andy Dunlop. After meeting in Horseshoe Bar, he was the obvious choice for their drummer; he was enamoured with his parents' record collection that he spent his formative years wishing he was Levon Helm.^{[citation needed]} They formed the rock band Glass Onion, which soon became re-named as Travis.

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 of the V Festival that year. Primrose made a full recovery and was back on stage and recording with the band within months - including Isle of Wight Festival and Live 8 in 2005.

Primrose played drums on the Canadian musician Ron Sexsmith's seventh album, Retriever. Primrose is known to play (or has played) Ludwig Drums, Yamaha Drums, Sabian Cymbals, Promark drumsticks and Aquarian drumheads.

He is married to Esther, and has a daughter, Lola, who was born in April 2000. Primrose took paternity leave and Travis recruited a new drummer for part of their tour.

He made his vocal debut on a b-side of "Flowers in the Window", on the track, "No Cigar".

References

1. ^ Phares, Heather. "Biography: Travis". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p132643/biography. Retrieved 7 June 2010. 

Persondata
Name	Primrose, Neil
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	20 February 1972
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death