The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Travelling life
Fran Healy, singer
How often do you travel?
A lot, with Travis. We took last year off, but the year before we were on the road for eight months, doing about 90 shows. We go everywhere, from America to Asia and Europe.
What do you need for a perfect holiday?
Heat, the sea and quiet. I love the feeling when you float on your back, close your eyes for 10 minutes and it’s like you’ve floated about five miles out to sea.
What is your earliest travel memory?
A disco at a caravan park in Arbroath, Scotland, when I was about eight. I didn’t want to dance, but eventually I did and I didn’t stop for about four hours. My family was just crying with laughter.
Most adventurous travel experience?
At Christmas in 2003, we went to Karasjok, in northern Norway, and spent five days being drawn over the frozen tundra by six huskies. Through the forest, we were hanging on to our sleds, ducking under trees and I fell off once, too. Then, out in the wilderness, it was completely white. I’ll always remember that vision of what looked like a petrified forest where all the trees were made of ice. It felt like being in Narnia.
And most relaxing destination?
A little rented house on St Barts in the Caribbean. A friend had been and it looked great, so I went for four weeks with my wife, Nora, and son, Clay. It was my first proper chill-out holiday. We drew, played guitar and I wrote some songs. We went back a few times. I’d run down the hill to the beach, then sit on my own for an hour by this deserted house, looking out to sea. We went in low season and it was beautiful and laid-back, but we learnt from the locals that it gets too busy during the high season when all the rich and famous are there. I see press pictures of Rihanna putting on suntan lotion and think, “I know that beach”.
Most memorable place you’ve performed?
The best festival I’ve played is Sommerfesten on the Norwegian island of Giske. Everyone brings food and shares it. Our shows in Mexico have always been wonderful. I remember during our first visit there, as the airport doors opened, hundreds of people were screaming and shouting… for us. We felt like the Beatles.
Best holiday ever?
In 1985, when I was 12, I went on a holiday to Blackpool with my aunt, uncle and cousin. Pleasure Beach was the highlight, tricking my auntie into going on terrifying rides. She thought the pirate ship gently rocked side to side, but it went upside down and all her change fell out of her handbag. It was really fun.
Favourite hotel?
The Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, a proper
Favourite bar?
Black & White, also in New York, where the DJs play amazing music. It’s very unpretentious, dimly lit and you always have a great night. The guys who run it are just very cool.
Worst travel experience?
When I was 12, my mum and I went on a disastrous package holiday to L’Estartit in Spain on a bus full of crazy Glaswegians. We stayed in a tent and I fell out with my friend. I got sunstroke and diarrhoea. On the way back, the bus broke down and we were stuck on the road for nine hours.