Traffic

Traffic was an English rock band from Birmingham, formed in 1967 by Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood and Dave Mason. They began as a psychedelic rock group influenced by The Beatles when releasing early pop singles, and diversified their sound through the use of instruments such as keyboards, reed instruments, and by incorporating jazz and improvisational techniques in their music.

Traffic's singer and keyboardist Steve Winwood experienced success as a musician prior to joining Traffic, becoming the frontman of the Spencer Davis Group at age 15 in 1963 . The Spencer Davis Group released four Top Ten singles and three Top Ten albums in the United Kingdom, as well as two Top Ten singles in the United States. Winwood left that group in April 1967, and formed Traffic with drummer Jim Capaldi, guitarist Dave Mason and multi-instrumentalist Chris Wood, after playing together as musicians at a club called The Elbow Room in Aston, Birmingham. Soon afterwards, Traffic's four members went to a cottage in Aston Tirrold, Berkshire to write and rehearse new music.

Traffic signed to Chris Blackwell's Island Records label (of which Steve Winwood's elder brother Muff Winwood later became an executive) and their debut single "Paper Sun" was a UK hit in mid-1967. The second single, Mason's psych-pop classic "Hole in My Shoe", was an even bigger hit, and it became one of their best-known tracks, but it set the stage for increasing friction between Winwood and Mason, the group's principal songwriters. From the beginning, they were quite popular in their native England, though success elsewhere was slower in coming. Their first three albums combined psychedelic rock with elements of folk and soul music.

Around 1971, Mason left for good (having been in and out of the band from the beginning), and the the band experienced a variety of personnel changes. The resulting band added some jazzy elements to their style, and the compositions tended to stretch out over longer lengths. With their albums The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (1971) and Shootout at the Fantasy Factory (1973) their popularity in the US grew. After one more album, personnel problems resulted in the band calling it quits (but for a brief reunion in 1994 without Wood, who had died in 1983). Winwood, Mason, Capaldi, and Wood all pursued solo careers, with Winwood garnering the most success.

Capaldi and Winwood reunited as Traffic in 1994 for a one-off tour, and they recorded and released a CD of all-new material Far From Home, but it was made without Chris Wood, who had died in 1983 from alcohol-related causes. Traffic was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 15, 2004. Find out more at: http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=:difixqr51dse~T1

Research info gathered at: www.lastfm.com


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