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 in 1981, he grew fonder of Drums and Music in general. At age 15 in High School 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 Neil joining 'Glass Onion' with Andy Dunlop along with Chris and Geoff Martyn in the early 90's. Years of Gigging and looking for success followed with Fran Healy eventually joining the lineup and the Group then splitting with the Martyn brothers and bringing Dougie Payne in for Bass.

Unlike the other three members of the band, he was not a student at the Glasgow School of Art instead working various Jobs and studying Computer Science for a Pre Degree course. The Horseshoe Bar had been where Fran and Neil met and was also destined to be the bands rehearsal space while they worked up the material that became Travis's first album and beyond.... Travis moved to London in late spring 1996 and lived, rehearsed and toured from their North London base for many years. The resulting success came with their second and third albums: 'The Man Who' and 'The Invisible Band'.

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. Travis continue to play to sell out Festival and Tour audiences across the world today and are the only band from the post Brit-Pop era still in their original lineup playing and Touring.

Neil Primrose has played drums on the Canadian musician Ron Sexsmith's seventh album 'Retriever' + Other Individual album tracks, along with albums by Jamie Scott, Yusaf Islam (Cat Stevens), Magne F and Cyril Paulus. In Scotland, Neil plays with the MOVE Project along with various artists on the Wild Biscuit label. He has also played on various Artist sessions produced by Martin Terefe. Currently, Neil is working with Travis on their new album as well as playing and recording with Glasgow band 'Peloton'. Primrose is known to play (or has played) Ludwig Drums, Yamaha Drums, Sabian Cymbals, Promark drumsticks and Remo Drumheads.

Neil Primrose is the only member of Travis that is not a vocalist. He does however speak on the B-side of Flowers In the Window called "No Cigar" (No Cigar, Dobber).

He is married to Esther, and has two daughters, Lola, who was born in April 2000 and Isla, born in 2002.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]