Magical Moment Photos

Pat Travers in Seattle on 2-23-78. Photo/Art by Ben Upham.
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PAT TRAVERS MAGICAL MOMENT PHOTOS
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PAT TRAVERS CD’S TO PURCHASE

“He may act Cool about it, But He is in Love with Success”
by David Fricke
November 13, 1979

I’m always cool-looking,” boasts a freshly showered Pat Travers in wet hair and robe but with a laugh that shows he is kidding. “I don’t know what it is about me, but I’m always cool-looking. And as a matter of fact, I can’t wait ’til tomorrow because, as each day passes, I get even cooler.”

That may or may not be true of the Canadian-born Travers, who cuts an undeniably impressive figure on stage with his Gibson guitar, straight shoulder-length hair and wholesome wheat-field look conjured up in a guitar-hero grimace. But thanks to a Top 40 live album Go For What You Know (Polydor) and its sing-a-long raver single, “Boom Boom (Out Go the Lights”), Travers is becoming more famous as each day passes.
Like Peter Frampton with Frampton Comes Alive, the 25-year-old Travers is finally translating four years of road-hogging and opening act slots into big record sales with a “greatest hits” album of his stage standards (“Boom Boom,” “Stevie,” “Makin’ Magic”) played with the blood and thunder that has eluded him in the studio. On the occasion of a Dickey Betts-Travers show at San Francisco’s Winterland, a Bill Graham associate was once quoted as saying that “Betts puts on a good show, but he doesn’t sell tickets. This show sold out fast because of Travers. He’s on the verge of becoming very big.”
That was two years ago and now Travers is big, and while he never doubted his own abilities as musician and entertainer, Travers cheerily confesses that he never expected a live album to pull him through. “We” (being Travers, second guitarist Pat Thrall, bassist Peter Cowling, drummer Tommy Aldridge) “initially recorded the album to fill a gap where we’d been in the studio for three or four months. So we recorded the last few dates of our American tour last January and February. We went to Europe, came back to rehearse the new album, and were actually in the studio recording when it took off.”
Travers, born in Toronto and raised in Ottawa by his widowed mother from age 12 on, started laying the groundwork at eight when he saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. “I just went ‘Wow!’ ” A humble beginning, but once his uncle who owned a music store came home with a guitar (“a hunk of junk”) and some Easy Guitar method books, Travers was on his way. At his first pro gig with a band in Ottawa, “I got stage fright like a motherfucker.” But he got over that quickly when he got paid $25 for the evening’s work.
A stint with Ronnie Hawkins, a period plying his trade in England, and five albums later, Travers commands considerably more than that for a performance now but insists that this is the Pat Travers Band in name only, “that I am only the focal point for four really talented people.”
Drummer Tommy Aldridge (ex-Black Oak) concurs through a long Southern drawl. “It’s to my advantage to be here, but it’s to Pat’s advantage for me to be here, too. We’re all in this together.”
Travers doesn’t try. When he first formed the band in London in ’76, he auditioned more than 70 guitarists to fill out the group and “I couldn’t find anybody worth a shit.” And he didn’t until last year, when Pat Thrall joined in time to record Heat in the Street. “But there had to be a center for this thing,” insists Travers, trying to draw a parallel.
“If you think of Boston, who do you think of? Tom Scholz. It’s the same kind of deal here, except,” he laughs mischievously, “I don’t make everybody play basketball after the show.”
And just as people recognize Tom Scholz’s lanky six foot-plus frame and wide horse-like smile on the street, Travers is beginning to enjoy the public recognition a hit record can bring…sort of. He remarks that shortly after he moved into his Miami home last year, “I was out by my pool, the pool cleaner was out there, too, except he didn’t know who I was. So he walks up and says to me, ‘Has anybody told you that you look a lot like Pat Travers?’ ” . Travers, an easygoing Canuck who’s taken five years of touring in stride, was impressed. “That,” he concedes, “was weird.”

PAT TRAVERS BAND DISCOGRAPHY:
1976 Pat Travers
1977 Makin’ Magic
1977 Putting It Straight
1978 Heat In The Street
1978 The Pat Travers You Missed Mini-Album (EP)
1979 Live! Go for What You Know (live 1978)
1980 Crash and Burn
1981 Radio Active
1982 Black Pearl
1984 Hot Shot
1990 School Of Hard Knocks
1991 Boom Boom (live 1990)
1992 BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert (live 1977 & 1980)
1992 Blues Tracks
1993 Just A Touch
1994 Blues Magnet
1995 Halfway To Somewhere
1996 Lookin’ Up
1997 King Biscuit Flower Hour (live 1984)
1998 Blues Tracks 2
2000 Don’t Feed The Alligators
2000 Boom Boom – Live At The Diamond Club 1990 (CD & DVD)
2003 Etched In Stone (2-CD live 2002)
2003 P.T. Power Trio
2003 From The Front…Live! (DVD-Audio live 1984)
2005 PT=MC2
2006 P.T. Power Trio 2
2007 Boom Boom (Out Go The Lights) (live)
2008 Stick With What You Know – Live In Europe (live 2007)
2009 Travelin’ Blues
2010 Fidelis
2012 Blues on Fire

To see more Pat Travers Photos click on:
PAT TRAVERS MAGICAL MOMENT PHOTOS

PAT TRAVERS ROCKING OUT IN SEATTLE, WA. ON 2-23-78. PHOTO/ART BY BEN UPHAM.

Pat Travers-
“Standing on the Threshold of Rock Stardom”
by Andy Mellon
Winnipeg free Press
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
January 21, 1978

Recent years have seen the emergence of a growing number of hot Canadian rock guitarists capable of holding their own alongside their many talented American and European contemporaries.
In addition to veteran axemen like Domenic Troiano and Walter Rossi, whose latest studio albums contain some of their most inspired playing to date, this country has begun to develop a solid nucleus of exciting young players.
Both Alex Lifeson of Rush and Rik Emmitt of Triumph have been commanding considerable attention outside of Canada, while several other lesserknown guitarists are finally beginning to make a name for themselves.
Pat Travers’ reputation is already well-established among many Winnipeg hard rock funs. Although he hardly qualifies as a household name elsewhere, the Ottawa-born guitarist has been building a loyal following simultaneously in North America and Europe the past couple of years.
Travers left Canada several years back and relocated in London, England. He eventually assembled his current band, which consists of drummer Nicko McBrain and bassist Peter “Mars” Cowling, landed a recording contract and quickly released a pair of records, “Pat Travers” and “Makin’ Magic”.
With the release of his third album, “Putting It Straight”, Travers stands on the threshold of stardom. From the opening “Life In London”, a timely commentary on the current British scene, through the final notes of “Dedication”, this talented 23 year old puts everything he has into every track.
“Life In London” is a sheer blast of energy with some fiery guitar work and a tough, gritty vocal which is astonishingly reminiscent of the great Johnny Winter. It also provides ample evidence of Travers’ dramatic improvement as a songwriter in general and as a lyricist in particular on lines like “Life in London is bittersweet, Spray canned slogans along the street, Some kind of revolution in the town, Oh razor blades and safety pins you look like a clown. What’s going down, It’s just the same old sounds, You know that energy has always been the drug for me . . . ”
Travers and the band set a relentless, pace on fast-paced rockers like “Runnln’ From The Future” and funky, blues-flavored numbers such as Gettin’ Betta”.
He’s joined by Thin Lizzy’s Scott Gorham for some lively guitar interplay on “Speakeasy”, and gets in plenty of flashy playing on an instrumental called “Off Beat Ride”.
Now that he has upgraded his material (all eight selections are Travers originals) to the point of respectability, there’s no doubt In my mind that Pat Travers is well pn his way to a place of prominence in the hearts of hard rock fans everywhere.
Travers spent much of the latter part of 1977 in and, around. Toronto, which will serve as the base for a full-scale assault in North America, which should be starting up very soon. Here’s hoping that his extensive tour schedule will include his first-ever Winnipeg appearance.

PAT TRAVERS BAND DISCOGRAPHY:
1976 Pat Travers
1977 Makin’ Magic
1977 Putting It Straight
1978 Heat In The Street
1978 The Pat Travers You Missed Mini-Album (EP)
1979 Live! Go for What You Know (live 1978)
1980 Crash and Burn
1981 Radio Active
1982 Black Pearl
1984 Hot Shot
1990 School Of Hard Knocks
1991 Boom Boom (live 1990)
1992 BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert (live 1977 & 1980)
1992 Blues Tracks
1993 Just A Touch
1994 Blues Magnet
1995 Halfway To Somewhere
1996 Lookin’ Up
1997 King Biscuit Flower Hour (live 1984)
1998 Blues Tracks 2
2000 Don’t Feed The Alligators
2000 Boom Boom – Live At The Diamond Club 1990 (CD & DVD)
2003 Etched In Stone (2-CD live 2002)
2003 P.T. Power Trio
2003 From The Front…Live! (DVD-Audio live 1984)
2005 PT=MC2
2006 P.T. Power Trio 2
2007 Boom Boom (Out Go The Lights) (live)
2008 Stick With What You Know – Live In Europe (live 2007)
2009 Travelin’ Blues

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO SEE PAT TRAVERS PHOTOS:
PAT TRAVERS PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM

PAT TRAVERS IS "MAKIN' MAGIC" LIVE IN SEATTLE, WA. ON FEBRUARY 23, 1978. PHOTO BY BEN UPHAM.

PAT TRAVERS BAND-
“CANADIAN ROCKERS MAKES THE U.S. SCENE”
BY LARRY KELP
THE OAKLAND TRIBUNE
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA JUNE 24, 1977

For someone who wields his electric guitar like he’s trapped behind enemy lines and has to shoot his way out, Canadian rocker Pat Travers comes up with some funny statements, like: “I’m no guitar hero by any means, and don’t want to give that impression. I don’t know why audiences are so fascinated by the guitar; I always wanted to be a drummer myself.” The 22-year-old Canadian who moved to England to become popular is about ready to embark from New York on his first tour of the United States. Coming like an advance warning of his talent is his second album, “Makin’ Magic,” a straightforward rock record except for a couple of cuts. One in particular, “Stevie,” is quiet with many subtle studio effects. Impossible to duplicate live. Of course “Stevie’s” the one the radio stations picked up on, and in the Bay Area the FM stations are playing it to death.
Mildly surprised, Travers is also pleased, for if there’s one thing he wants to do it’s get rid of any preconceptions that listeners (and his record company, Polydor) have about him. To read the hype sheet Polydor puts out, you’d think Travers is a disciple of Jimi Hendrix, moving to England as Hendrix did a decade earlier, to build a power trio and conquer toe world with his guitar in hand.
No way, says the musician, “In fact, we were a three piece unit simply because it took till now to find another person who could play with us. We went through about 35 before California guitarist Ross Record joined. And I’d like to add another musician.”
Even so, be may be stuck when it comes to performing “Stevie” on his July American tour. And that’s what fans will want to hear. “On stage we do a fast paced 90-minute show of rock and roll. But I don’t know how we’ll do ‘Stevie’ because it’s all overdubbed studio work with guitars recorded at different speeds. I lost a few brain cells doing that one,” he laughs, “like in the middle there’s a section that sounds like a digital sequencer but really I was playing a guitar part over a rhythm track at half-speed which was then played back at normal speed. “The mixing was the most difficult part. I knew exactly how I wanted the piece to sound beforehand; it’s a song about my little brother and the result is fairly close to what I’d hoped to get, “Maybe we’ll have to use some pre-taped parts in the show and play along with them. The Who have had good luck doing that”.
Travers’ story so far sounds good, thanks to luck and insight (and talent): Born in Toronto, he took up guitar at 15, played for a few years in Ronnie Hawkins’ band (Hawkins, a gutsy rockabilly singer, gained fame as the man whose backup band became the Band), but in 1975 packed his guitar and headed for London, “Canada wasn’t conducive to my career, and while there were more opportunities in the States, I figured they probably didn’t need another hot shot guitarist at that point. Plus, he chuckles, “someone paid for my plane fare to England.”
Checking the ads in Melody Maker, (England’s Rolling Stone), he dug up a bassist and drummer, and spent his last pennies making a demo tape, which attracted his manager, David Hemmings, and led to a record contract.
The first album was done quickly, sounding like the group’s performance. For the next two years Travers and cohorts (drummer Nico McBrain and bassist Peter “Mars” Cowling played the clubs, doing five tours of that country and one of Europe. “I had no idea what I was doing when I first got to England”, he explains, “and it cost money to play in clubs. Only once, when we opened for the Troggs, did we see a profit. Bands play there for the exposure and to sell records.” European bands usually come to their first American tour hoping to attract enough attention to their music and records to bring them back as a headline act. Thanks to “Stevie,” Travers’ future looks good in the States.

PAT TRAVERS BAND DISCOGRAPHY:
1976 Pat Travers
1977 Makin’ Magic
1977 Putting It Straight
1978 Heat In The Street
1978 The Pat Travers You Missed Mini-Album (EP)
1979 Live! Go for What You Know (live 1978)
1980 Crash and Burn
1981 Radio Active
1982 Black Pearl
1984 Hot Shot
1990 School Of Hard Knocks
1991 Boom Boom (live 1990)
1992 BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert (live 1977 & 1980)
1992 Blues Tracks
1993 Just A Touch
1994 Blues Magnet
1995 Halfway To Somewhere
1996 Lookin’ Up
1997 King Biscuit Flower Hour (live 1984)
1998 Blues Tracks 2
2000 Don’t Feed The Alligators
2000 Boom Boom – Live At The Diamond Club 1990 (CD & DVD)
2003 Etched In Stone (2-CD live 2002)
2003 P.T. Power Trio
2003 From The Front…Live! (DVD-Audio live 1984)
2005 PT=MC2
2006 P.T. Power Trio 2
2007 Boom Boom (Out Go The Lights) (live)
2008 Stick With What You Know – Live In Europe (live 2007)
2009 Travelin’ Blues

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO SEE PAT TRAVERS BAND PHOTOS:
PAT TRAVERS BAND PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM