His father, a power station engineer, was posted to Middlesbrough, and this was followed by a series of moves across the northeast of England during the first ten years of Primrose's life.

Unlike the other three members of the band, Primrose was not a student at the Glasgow School of Art instead working various jobs and studying Computer Science for a pre-degree course.

Travis' début album Good Feeling was released in 1997 with positive review, but lukewarm performance in the charts.

[2] Before the recording of Travis' fourth album, 12 Memories, Primrose suffered a life-threatening spine injury while he was swimming on holiday in France.

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.