Snow Patrol

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

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.

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'scampaign about music with a message.

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, and 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. "Open Your Eyes" was also featured on The 4400 on July 30, 2006 near the end of the episode entitled "The Ballad of Kevin and Tess," as well as the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy on Septmeber 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 soundcheck.

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

  • Songs for Polar Bears
  • When It's All Over We Still Have to Clear Up
  • Final Straw
  • Eyes Open

Major Singles

  • Run
  • You're All I Have
  • Hands Open
  • Chasing Cars