Snow Patrol

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Background information <tr><td>Origin</td><td colspan="2">United Kingdom Northern Ireland Scotland</td></tr><tr><td>Genre(s)</td><td colspan="2">Alternative rock Indie rock</td></tr><tr><td>Years active</td><td colspan="2">1994 – present</td></tr><tr><td style="padding-right: 1em;">Label(s)</td><td colspan="2">MCA Music, Inc. Polydor Interscope</td></tr><tr><td textalign="top" style="padding-right: 1em;">Associated acts</td><td colspan="2">The Reindeer Section</td></tr><tr><td>Website</td><td colspan="2">http://www.snowpatrol.com/</td></tr><tr><th style="background: #b0c4de;" colspan="3">Members</th></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;" colspan="3">Gary Lightbody Paul Wilson Jonny Quinn Nathan Connolly Tom Simpson</td></tr><tr><th style="background: #b0c4de;" colspan="3">Former members</th></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;" colspan="3">Mark McClelland Iain Archer</td></tr>

Snow Patrol is an alternative rock band from Northern Ireland signed to Polydor Records. The band was formed in late 1994 in Scotland by vocalist and guitarist Gary Lightbody and bassist and keyboardist Mark McClelland, two students from Northern Ireland who at the time were pursuing an education in Dundee, Scotland.

History

Early years

Originally formed in late 1994 as "Shrug", the band started by performing gigs at Dundee University and the surrounding pubs before changing their name to "Polar Bear" (or "Polarbear") in late 1995.

In mid 1997, they released a three-track EP, Starfighter Pilot, on the Electric Honey label. Richard Colburn, from Glaswegian indie band Belle & Sebastian, played drums on this record, and Stuart Murdoch, from the same band, sang on one of the b-sides. Due to legal threats from an American band with the same name (led by Eric Avery, the former bassist of Jane's Addiction), they became "Snow Patrol". There is a "thank you" to Gary's English tutor Peter Easingwood in the sleeve notes of the original 'Starfighter Pilot'.

At this point, Jonny Quinn, also from Northern Ireland, joined as permanent drummer. With him rounding out the lineup, the band released their next EP Little Hide on Jeepster Records while still living in Dundee (its cover was a blurred photo of a football crowd watching Dundee United at Tannadice Park). A follow-up single "One Hundred Things You Should Have Done in Bed" was a minor independent chart hit. Both of these early singles were heavily promoted by Jeepster - with videos included as computer files on the CD singles, and Snow Patrol starting to appear on television. Their first MTV interview was in 1998, and they briefly appeared on a Channel Four documentary about Jeepster Records (which concentrated mostly on Belle and Sebastian) that same year. Two albums on Jeepster followed: Songs For Polarbears in 1998 (including a slightly remixed version of their debut single Starfighter Pilot) and When It's All Over We Still Have to Clear Up in 2001 (both recorded while the band lived in Glasgow). Also in 2001, Gary collected a group of Scottish independent musicians from such acts as Mogwai together to perform as a "supergroup", "The Reindeer Section", who have so far released two CD albums. Gary also performed vocals on a single by Cut La Roc.

Breakthrough success

It wasn't until after being dropped by Jeepster that guitarist Nathan Connolly joined, and the band signed to the mainstream Polydor label. They gained mainstream success with their song "Run" (which debuted at #5 in the UK singles chart), as well as the album it was from, the 2003 release, Final Straw which was produced by Jacknife Lee. Iain Archer, a touring guitarist and songwriting collaborator from 2001-2003, won an Ivor Novello award for his contribution to the Final Straw album. The record peaked at #3 in the UK albums chart. They followed the success of "Run" up with three more singles from the album, "Chocolate", and a re-release of "Spitting Games", both reaching the top 30, and "How to Be Dead" reaching number 39.

The band's highly successful 2004 album, Final Straw.

The release of Final Straw in the United States in 2004 saw the album notching up well in excess of a quarter of a million sales and becoming the 26th most popular British album of that year. Their single "Run" was the 22nd most played British song on American airwaves, having been played just under 28,000 times on US radio stations in that same year. ^{[citation needed]}

On March 16, 2005, Mark McClelland left the band, with Gary Lightbody stating 'a whole new set of new and unexpected pressures... have unfortunately taken their toll on working relationships within the band, and it was felt the band could not move forward with Mark as a member.' Former Terra Diablo member Paul Wilson replaced him on bass. In April 2005, Snow Patrol declared longtime touring keyboardist Tom Simpson an official member of the band.

In the midst of touring on U2's Vertigo Tour in Europe in the summer of 2005 as an opening act, the band played in London at Live 8. After finishing their opening act duties and extensive 2-year tour of Final Straw in late July, the band took a few weeks off and began writing and recording songs for a new album. Snow Patrol's new version of John Lennon's "Isolation" was released on December 10, 2005 as part of Make Some Noise, Amnesty International's campaign about music with a message.

The follow-up

The band completed recording Eyes Open in December 2005, with Jacknife Lee returning for production, and this album was released in the UK on May 1, 2006, with the first UK single "You're All I Have" having been released on April 24, 2006. The album was released in North America on May 9. While "Hands Open" was the first American single, "Chasing Cars" pushed its way onto the download and pop charts after it was heard in the second season finale of the television show Grey's Anatomy on May 15, 2006. Due to the song's surprise popularity, it was released as an overlapping single in early June and the video was re-recorded to include clips from the show. Also, it was featured in another television show "One Tree Hill" during its season finale. Another of their songs, "Open Your Eyes", was heard on the season finale of another medical program, ER, on May 18, 2006, the The 4400, and the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy on September 28, 2006.

The band was forced to postpone a majority of the American Eyes Open tour after polyps were discovered on Lightbody's vocal cords, and failed to heal after initial postponement of three dates on the tour. Dates were rescheduled for September. The year would continue to be difficult on the band for the U.S. legs of their tours, as they were also forced to cancel two west coast festival appearances in mid-August due to the threat of terrorist attacks on U.S.-bound flights from the UK. Two band members made it to the U.S. while two were stuck in London. Sequentially, they all made it to the lone U.S. tour stop in Boston days later but failed to recover any of their luggage, forcing them to shop for clothes on Newbury St. that afternoon. Their gear arrived hours before showtime, just in time for sound check.

Earlier on in the year at the Pukkelpop festival in Hasselt/Kewit Belgium, in which security problems regarding the bands equipment at Heathrow airport meant they lost all their instruments in customs, but managed to bring two of their acoustic guitars with them. This seen two members of the band perform a short acoustic set, with Gary Lightbody saying Next time we'll bring our equipment on the plane, even if it kills us!.

The band also had to cancel appearances in Germany and France after bassist Paul Wilson injured his left arm and shoulder.

Eyes Open on the 26th November 2006 became the UK's best-selling album of the year so far shifting 1.2 million copies.

Band members

Current Line-Up

• Gary Lightbody: lead vocals, guitar
• Paul Wilson: bass guitar
• Jonny Quinn: drums/percussion
• Nathan Connolly: guitar
• Tom Simpson: keyboard

Previous Members

• Mark McClelland: Bass Guitar

Trivia

• In the early days, the band used to pretend to be members of the Scottish twee-pop band Belle & Sebastian in order to gain free entry to the Student Union club at the Glasgow School of Art.
• Many of their songs, including most from Songs for Polarbears, are songs with titles that do not appear in the lyrics. Eyes Open is the first album of the band's that largely bucks this trend.
• Gary Lightbody has a side project called The Reindeer Section, a supergroup comprising members of famous Scottish bands including Astrid, Belle & Sebastian, Idlewild, Teenage Fanclub and Mogwai. They have released two albums to date on the Belfast label Bright Star.
• The band considers U2 to be one of its biggest influences.
• The band was the final ever act to perform on long-running BBC music show Top of the Pops with Chasing Cars on the show's penultimate edition.

Discography

Albums

Songs for Polarbears <center>(August 31, 1998) <center>Jeepster Records/Never Records <center> #143 UK

When It's All Over We Still Have to Clear Up <center>(March 5, 2001) <center>Jeepster Records <center> #129 UK

Final Straw <center>(August 4, 2003) <center>Black Lion, Polydor UK, Fiction (UK) Interscope (U.S.) <center> #3 UK, #91 US

Eyes Open <center>(May 1, 2006) <center>Interscope Records <center> #1 UK, #26 CAN, #27 US, #3 AUS, #1 IRL, #21 GER, #1 NZ

EPs

Starfighter Pilot <center>(1997) <center>(Electric Honey)

Live and Acoustic at Park Ave. <center>(2005) <center>(Polydor UK)

• PSYC 405 (2006)

Charting Singles

¹ Re-Issue
² US only

Other Singles

1998 "Little Hide"
1998 "One Hundred Things You Should Have Done In Bed"
1998 "Velocity Girl/Absolute Gravity"
1999 "Starfighter Pilot/ Remixes"
2000 "Ask Me How I Am"
2001 "One Night Is Not Enough"

DVDs

• Live at Somerset House (2004)

Side-projects

• Cut la Roc - La Roc Rocs (collaborated on two tracks)
• Mogwai - Rock Action (Gary Lightbody collaborates on one track)
• The Reindeer Section - Y'All Get Scared Now, Ya Hear! (2001)
• The Reindeer Section - "You Are My Joy"
• The Reindeer Section - Son of Evil Reindeer
• The Cake Sale - The Cake Sale (Gary Lightbody collaborates on one track)

Compilations

• It's A Cool Cool Christmas (2003)
• The Trip Created By Snow Patrol (2004)

Misc

• "I Am An Astronaut"; on the charity album Colours Are Brighter - October 2006

Major tours

• Final Straw US Tour (Winter/Spring, 2004; Fall, 2004 w/ Eisley; Spring, 2005 w/ Athlete)
• U2 Vertigo Tour (Openers on select dates in Europe, Summer 2005)
• SXSW Promo Tour w/ Republic of Loose (Winter, 2006)
• Eyes Open US Tour w/ Augustana and Aberdeen City on select dates (Summer/Fall, 2006)
• Chasing Cars Tour w/ OK GO and Silversun Pickups (Spring, 2007)

External links

• Snow Patrol Official website
• Snow Patrol at MySpace
• Aversion.com Interview: Snow Patrol
• Interview: Nathan Connolly of Snow Patrol - Eyes Open

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