BORN: 1954, Toronto, Ontario, CanadaOne of a handful of hard rock musicians to emerge from Canada in the 1970s, Pat Travers stands sort of midway between Randy Bachman and Bryan Adams historically, but has never developed too much more than a cult following in America. Travers started out in his brother's Toronto-based band, but he moved to London in the mid-'70s and set up his own group, which included Peter "Mars" Cowling on bass and Roy Dyke on drums.
Their first major gig was at the 1976 Reading Rock Festival, and this led to a recording contract and a debut album the following year for Polydor. Roy Dyke was later replaced by Nicko McBrain, who later joined Iron Maiden and was succeeded by Clive Edwards. Travers' music, solid, commercial blues rock, sold moderately well. He had a moderately large following, and even one recognized concert signature tune, "Boom Boom (Out Go the Lights)," drawn from the traditional blues repertory.
The failure of his 1984 album Hot Shot despite the presence of the high-energy title track ended his Polydor contract, however, and it wasn't until 1990 that he recorded again. He has since moved between labels with some intermittent success in a purer blues vein, most notably on Blues Tracks (1993) and Blues Magnet (1994). ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide