Snow Patrol



Snow Patrol are a Northern Irish-Scottish rock band, formed in Dundee, Scotland in 1994, consisting of Gary Lightbody (vocals, guitar), Nathan Connolly (guitar, backing vocals), Paul Wilson (bass guitar, backing vocals), Jonny Quinn (drums), and Johnny McDaid (piano, guitar, backing vocals). Initially an indie rock band, the band rose to prominence in the early-mid 2000s as part of the post-Britpop movement.

The band were founded at the University of Dundee in 1994 by Lightbody, Mark McClelland, and Michael Morrison as Shrug. After briefly using the name Polarbear, releasing the EP Starfighter Pilot (1997) and losing Morrison as a member, the band became Snow Patrol in 1997 and added Quinn to its line-up. Their first two studio albums, Songs for Polarbears (1998) and When It's All Over We Still Have to Clear Up (2001), were commercially unsuccessful and were released by the independent record label Jeepster Records. The band then signed to the major record label Polydor Records in 2002.

Connolly joined Snow Patrol in 2002, and after their major-label debut album, Final Straw, the following year, the band rose to national fame. The album was certified 5× platinum in the UK and eventually sold over 3 million copies worldwide. Their next studio album, Eyes Open (2006), and its hit single, "Chasing Cars" – the most widely played song of the 21st century on UK radio – propelled the band to greater international fame. The album topped the UK Albums Chart and was the best-selling British album of the year, selling over 6 million copies worldwide. In 2008, the band released their fifth studio album, A Hundred Million Suns; then, in 2009, they released their first compilation album, Up to Now; and, in 2011, released their sixth studio album, Fallen Empires. The band released their seventh album, Wildness, on 25 May 2018. The band's third compilation album, "Reworked," was released in November 2019 to celebrate its 25th anniversary. It included reworked versions of old songs, three new tracks and a tour to follow its release.

During the course of their career, Snow Patrol have won seven Meteor Ireland Music Awards and have been nominated for six Brit Awards. Since the release of Final Straw, the band have sold over 16 million records worldwide.

Early years (1994–1997)


Snow Patrol were originally formed in early 1994 by University of Dundee students Gary Lightbody, Mark McClelland, and Michael Morrison under the name Shrug. The band started by performing gigs at the university and surrounding pubs such as Lucifer's Mill. Their first EP was entitled "The Yogurt vs. Yoghurt Debate." In 1996, they changed their name to Polar Bear (or Polarbear) to avoid issues with any American bands that were also named Shrug. Shortly afterwards, drummer Michael Morrison left the band after suffering a breakdown and returned to Northern Ireland. In mid-1997, Polar Bear released a three-track EP, Starfighter Pilot, on the Electric Honey label. The band again renamed, this time to Snow Patrol in 1997, because of a naming conflict with another band of the same name fronted by Jane's Addiction's ex-bassist Eric Avery. At this point, Jonny Quinn, from Northern Ireland, joined as permanent drummer.

Songs for Polarbears and When It's All Over We Still Have to Clear Up (1997–2001)
Snow Patrol joined independent label Jeepster in 1997, home of Belle & Sebastian. Jeepster had the same idea for Snow Patrol as the approach they had with Belle & Sebastian, who had become popular by word-of-mouth, without heavy promotion. The band were happy to be associated with an indie label, because it provided them greater independence than a major label. At that time, they were quoted as saying they expected Jeepster wouldn't expect them to have a strict work ethic or focus too much on promotional efforts.

Snow Patrol's debut album was Songs for Polarbears, released in 1998 after the band had started living in Glasgow. Lightbody was then working at the Nice n Sleazy's Bar in Sauchiehall Street. The album was a critical success, but did not make any impact commercially. The same year, the band came close to getting featured in a worldwide advertisement for Philips. Gomez was ultimately signed. In 1999, the band won the "Phil Lynott Award for Best New Band" by Irish music magazine Hot Press. In 2001, still living in Glasgow, the band followed up with When It's All Over We Still Have to Clear Up. Like its predecessor, the album was praised by critics, but did not sell.

The band began to work harder and tour more. They slept on fans' floors after concerts and pretended to be members of Belle & Sebastian to get into nightclubs. They owed rent to their landlords and used to receive regular visits and letters from them when on tour. After the failure of the second album, the band began to realise that the label's lax attitude towards management and record promotion, qualities that had initially attracted the band to Jeepster, was likely holding them back. The band's manager at the time was Danny McIntosh. Lightbody has described him as "the angriest man in pop: great, great man". He has said that he loved the band "with every atom in his body", and was never angry towards them. He has credited him with keeping the band together in those years. McIntosh had a gold coloured splitter bus in which the band used to travel to play concerts.

Jeepster dropped Snow Patrol in 2001, a decision that was criticised by Hot Press magazine as brainless. By July 2001, many major labels had started showing interest in Snow Patrol, but the band were cash-strapped and had no record deal. Lightbody sold a major part of his record collection to raise money to keep the band going. Lightbody calls the time "miserable", but was confident of getting signed to another label quickly. However, the music scene in the United Kingdom had turned its attention to American bands and British bands were not getting signed. The band spent this time constantly writing songs. Lightbody, bored at this point, assembled The Reindeer Section, a Scottish supergroup, and found a record label to release the group's recordings. Quinn said that though the time was hard for everyone involved except for Nathan, the question of splitting up never arose. It was during this time the band wrote "Run" (which had been around since 2000) in a room on an acoustic guitar, which later became the band's breakthrough single. The band's "low point" came when they played a concert to 18 people at a popular strip club in High Wycombe. The show took place in a shoddy VIP area, and the management had to unscrew poles used by pole dancers to make space for the band to play, something that Gary would later joke about whilst performing at a sold out Wembley Arena. Quinn calls the show "horrendous". Desperate for attention, the band raised £200 to nominate themselves for a Mercury Prize, but failed to get shortlisted.

Final Straw (2002–2005)
In 2002, the band started to be managed and published by Jazz Summers of Big Life.

Guitarist Nathan Connolly, previously a member of the band File Under Easy Listening had been working in an HMV store room in Belfast at the time. Connolly and the band had a mutual friend, who introduced them to him. Connolly moved to Glasgow to join the band in the spring of 2002.

During Lightbody and McClelland's years at the University of Dundee, they had been noticed by Richard Smernicki, a senior student. Through Richard, brother Paul too had come to know the band. Richard graduated in 1996, two years before Lightbody and McClelland, to become Polydor's Scottish A&R representative. Paul became Polydor's Press and Artist Development Manager and Fiction's label manager. Later, Jim Chancellor, an A&R executive for Fiction, and fellow talent scout Alex Close approached the band in Glasgow to listen to their demos, and judged them on "the quality of the songs", according to Lightbody. Chancellor introduced them to producer Jacknife Lee, who despite having been a guitarist in 1990s punk rock band Compulsion had no rock production experience at that point, being known at the time for his work with Basement Jaxx and Eminem.

Final Straw was released on 4 August 2003, under Black Lion, a subsidiary of Polydor Records. Its music was along the same lines as the band's first two albums, and no attempt was made to change the sound to something more radio-friendly. The album, along with "Run" (which debuted at No. 5 in the UK Singles Chart), gave the band their first taste of mainstream success. The record peaked at No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart. They followed the success of "Run" up with three more singles from the album: "Chocolate", as well as a re-release of "Spitting Games", both reaching the top 30, and "How to Be Dead" reaching number 39.

The release of Final Straw in the United States in 2004 saw the album sell more than 250,000 copies and become the 26th-most popular album in the UK of that year. In mid-2005, during their tour to support Final Straw, the band toured with U2 as an opening act on the Vertigo Tour in Europe. The band then returned to the United States to continue touring in support of Final Straw. That summer also saw Snow Patrol playing a short set in London at the worldwide benefit concert 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 10 December 2005 as part of the Amnesty International campaign, Make Some Noise. The song was later issued on the 2007 John Lennon tribute album, Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur.

Eyes Open and worldwide success (2005–2007)
On 16 March 2005, McClelland left the band, with 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." At the end of March 2005, former Terra Diablo member Paul Wilson was announced as the official replacement for McClelland and Snow Patrol also declared longtime touring keyboardist Tom Simpson an official member of the band.

The band completed recording Eyes Open in December 2005, with Jacknife Lee returning for production, and this album was released on 28 April 2006 in Ireland, and the UK on 1 May 2006, with the first UK single "You're All I Have" having been released on 24 April 2006. The album was released in North America on 9 May. While "Hands Open" was the first American single, "Chasing Cars" pushed its way onto the download and pop charts after it was heard during an emotional scene of the second-season finale of the television show Grey's Anatomy on 15 May 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. "Chasing Cars" was also nominated for 'Best Single' in the 2006 Grammy Awards.

The band were 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 August and September. The year would continue to be difficult on the band for the US 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 US-bound flights from the UK. Two band members made it to the US while two were stuck in London. Subsequently, they all made it to the lone US 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 show time, just in time for sound check. The band also had to cancel appearances in Germany and France after bassist Paul Wilson injured his left arm and shoulder.

On 26 November 2006, Eyes Open had become the UK's best-selling album of the year, overtaking previous leader Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not by Arctic Monkeys. Despite very strong sales for Take That's comeback album Beautiful World, Eyes Open marginally earned the title of the UK's best-selling album of 2006, with 1.6 million in sales. The album reached platinum certification in the US as well, selling over 1,000,000 copies, and it maintained a spot in the upper quarter of the Billboard 200 list for over fifteen weeks, on the heels of the popularity of "Chasing Cars". The band also holds the distinction of having one of iTunes' top downloaded albums and songs of 2006. Ahead of the band's February tour, Eyes Open topped the Australian charts some eight months after its release on 22 January 2006. Back home in Ireland, Eyes Open became one of the best selling albums of all time, staying at the top of the charts from the end of 2006 to early–mid-2007, and remaining in the charts to the present.

At the 2007 Grammy Awards, "Chasing Cars" was nominated for Best Rock Song, and at the 2007 Brit Awards, the song was nominated for Best British Single.

1 September 2007 saw Snow Patrol headlining a "home coming" mini-festival in Lightbody and Jonny Quinn's home town of Bangor, County Down. Around 30,000 people came to see the band.

A Hundred Million Suns (2008–2009)
Lightbody stated that recording for the follow-up to Eyes Open was to begin in Autumn 2006, with Jacknife Lee returning a third time for production. Since then the band stated that they wished to take a year off after the back-to-back tours of Final Straw and Eyes Open and intended to emerge at the end of 2008 with their next album.

A post, dated 23 May 2008 on the band's official website stated that recording for the next album had been under way for a week; they began on 19 May 2008. The new album, entitled A Hundred Million Suns, was released on 24 October 2008 in Ireland and 27 October in the UK and US. The first single entitled "Take Back the City" was released in Ireland on 10 October 2008. Filming for the music video to "Take Back the City" took place on 11 August 2008 in Central London. The music video was directed by Alex Courtes.

The band kicked off their Taking Back the Cities Tour on 26 October 2008. Singer Miriam Kaufmann tours with the band and sings backing vocals, most notably on "Set the Fire to the Third Bar", which originally featured Martha Wainwright. The 'UK & Ireland Arena tour' ended on 23 March. The final show was played at the Odyssey in Belfast to a 9,000 strong crowd including family and friends of the band, and the Northern Irish football squad. It also reported that the band played to an estimated 200,000 fans during the tour.

The band next visited South Africa to play a couple of dates at the Coca-Cola Zero Festival, supporting Oasis before beginning a European leg of the tour. In June they supported Coldplay for a month on the Viva la Vida Tour, and joined the U2 360° Tour in July/August.

The band also released a compilation album featuring tracks from the band's 15-year history, Up to Now, on 9 November 2009. It includes thirty tracks spanning two CDs, of which three are original new songs. "Just Say Yes", a song written by Lightbody and earlier recorded by Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger and X Factor star Diana Vickers, was released as the lead single on 2 November. The album additionally contains past singles, covers and rarities, including songs from the band's side-project The Reindeer Section. The band expressed wishes to make a tour documentary in the future, on the lines of U2's Rattle and Hum.

In December 2009, the PPL announced "Chasing Cars" was the most widely played song of the decade in the UK. The same month, in a UK poll conducted by Channel 4, it was voted the nation's favourite "song of the noughties". In January 2010, the band were nominated in three categories in the annual Meteor Awards. The band also played at the event, scheduled on 19 February 2010 at The RDS.

Fallen Empires (2010–2012)
Snow Patrol said they would enter its "next phase" with their sixth album. The band took a new musical direction, and Connolly advised fans to keep an open mind regarding the new material. On 12 January 2011, Lightbody launched a blog to give details about the progress of the next release from the band.

Snow Patrol released the single "Called Out in the Dark" (remixed by Fatboy Slim) for radio airplay on Thursday 21 July 2011 on BBC Radio 1 on Zane Lowe's radio show. According to official sources, the single itself would be released independently and as part of an EP later on and the UK release date was said to be 4 September. More details on the EP were announced on 3 August, when the group's website revealed the artwork and track list contents. Along with the new single, the release contained three new tracks entitled "My Brothers", "I'm Ready", and "Fallen Empires". In addition, it was revealed that the EP was intended to be a digital release limited to the UK and Ireland.

Shortly after the premiere of the new lead single, the quintet's official website confirmed the news that the name of the new album would be Fallen Empires. Fallen Empires was released on 14 November 2011 in the UK and was launched at O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire. Singer-songwriter Johnny McDaid, after being involved in the album as a guest musician and songwriter, would then join the band on the subsequent tour and eventually become a full member of Snow Patrol.

The second single from Fallen Empires was "This Isn't Everything You Are", released on 13 November 2011.

Greatest Hits (2013–2018)
The band released a compilation entitled Greatest Hits on 14 May 2013. The single version of the song "The Lightning Strike (What If This Storm Ends?)", featured in trailer of the 2013 animated film Epic, made its compilation album debut upon the release.

Snow Patrol headlined the Tennent's Vital festival in August 2013 and performed a special warm-up show in London before the festival. Lightbody said in an interview that "[they] were going to do the show so that [they] haven't gone rusty". After the show, the band announced that Simpson would leave the band. At their Tennent's Vital concert, Lightbody announced that it would be Simpson's last night with the band.

Wildness (2018–present)
The follow-up to Fallen Empires was initially due for release in 2016. Previous reports suggested new material would be released in 2015. Lightbody told NME that he had to overcome a bout of writer's block and that the songs written for the new album were scrapped before being replaced by new "mind-boggling" material.

On 28 January 2018, the band's social media announced the upcoming release of their seventh studio album, entitled Wildness, which was released on 25 May 2018. The promotional video simply showed lead singer Gary Lightbody floating on a raft with a piano and seemingly trying to phone someone who is engaged.

They embarked on their Wildness Tour to promote the album, and opened for Ed Sheeran during the fall 2018 leg of his ÷ Tour in North America, in addition to their own headlining shows.

In November 2018, they released What If This All The Love You Ever Get?-EP, featuring remixes of the track of the same name from Wildness. The band released their third compilation album "Reworked" on 8 November 2019, to be followed by a tour.

Recognition
The success of Snow Patrol has influenced the thriving Belfast music scene positively. This includes Lightbody, who returned to the city and now lives there. The band's kindness towards local bands, partly by founding Polar Music, and Lightbody being an active part of the Oh Yeah Music Centre has resulted in high optimism in the scene.

Musicians, such as Ozzy Osbourne, Bono (of U2), Michael Stipe (of R.E.M.), and Nikki Sixx (of Mötley Crüe and Sixx AM), have also expressed their admiration for Snow Patrol. Terri Hooley, founder of the Good Vibrations label and a lifelong supporter of local Northern Irish music, has expressed pride in bands like Snow Patrol.

Other activities
Snow Patrol have founded Polar Music, a publishing company run through Kobalt Music. The venture is independent from the band's publishing deal with Universal Music. Polar Music will sign artists regardless of their genre, as drummer Jonny Quinn explained: "there is no agenda—if it's good enough and we believe in it 110%, we will sign it." Quinn, and his fellow band members Connolly and Lightbody are acting as A&R. The company's first signing was Johnny McDaid, previously of the Northern Irish band Vega4. Quinn has said that they wish to sign artists to a one-album deal, and do not want to put undue pressure on the artists with a bigger, multi-year deal. Polar Music had its first chart hit in the first week of October 2009.

Gary Lightbody and Tom Simpson are both fans of the football club Dundee F.C. In 2008, they met the club's board of directors to find ways to financially help the short-of-cash club. The band also owns a stake in the Houndstooth Pub in New York City.

Philanthropy
On 25 November 2007, Snow Patrol performed an acoustic session for the charity Mencap, at Union Chapel, Islington. They were one of the main bands to take part in the project, called "Little Noise Sessions" which was curated by Jo Whiley.

In 2009, Gary Lightbody and Nathan Connolly donated plectrums and certificates to the Music Beats Mines project that aims to clear unexploded mines/landmines from conflict zones. The items were auctioned on eBay.

Band members
Current members
 * Gary Lightbody – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, piano, keyboards (1994–present)
 * Jonny Quinn – drums, percussion (1997–present)
 * Nathan Connolly – lead guitar, backing vocals (2002–present)
 * Paul Wilson – bass, backing vocals (2005–present)
 * Johnny McDaid – keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2011–present), (Touring: 2007–2011)

Touring musicians
 * Richard Colburn – keyboards, drums, guitars, percussion (1996–1997, 2008–present)
 * Iain Archer – guitar, backing vocals (2001–present)
 * Colm MacAthlaoich – trumpet (2001–present)
 * Miriam Kaufmann – backing vocals (2006–2007, 2008–present)
 * Troy Stewart – guitar (2008–present)

Former members
 * Mark McClelland – bass, keyboards, piano (1994–2005)
 * Michael Morrison – drums (1994–1996)
 * Tom Simpson – keyboards, piano, samples (2005–2013), (Touring: 1997–2005)

Timeline

Studio albums

 * Songs for Polarbears (1998)
 * When It's All Over We Still Have to Clear Up (2001)
 * Final Straw (2003)
 * Eyes Open (2006)
 * A Hundred Million Suns (2008)
 * Fallen Empires (2011)
 * Wildness (2018)
 * Reworked (2019)

Contributions
Gary Lightbody is featured on a track entitled "The Last Time" from Taylor Swift's 2012 album Red.

Snow Patrol released the 22nd album in the Late Night Tales series of mix albums by artists, which has been curated by Lightbody and Simpson. The band covered the INXS song "New Sensation" for the occasion. Lightbody has also spoken of plans to release songs from the Listen... Tanks! project (with Snow Patrol producer Jacknife Lee) and Tired Pony, a country group.

The band contributed the song "Signal Fire" to the Spider-Man 3 soundtrack as well as the film. The song was the lead single from the soundtrack and was featured in the credits to the film.

The band also contributed to a 2011 compilation entitled Johnny Boy Would Love This... A Tribute to John Martyn, for which they covered his song from the 1973 album Solid Air "May You Never".

The song "The Lightning Strike (What If This Storm Ends?)" was used in the trailer for the 2013 movie Epic.

In 2014, the band contributed a new song "I Won't Let You Go" to the soundtrack for the film Divergent.

Awards
"Chasing Cars" was voted the song of the decade on Channel 4's programme 'The Song of the Decade' which was broadcast on 28 December 2009. On 30 December 2009, the PPL announced "Chasing Cars" was the most widely played song of the decade in the UK.

In June 2010, the band were commemorated with a Heritage Award by PRS for Music. A plaque was erected on the Duke of York pub in Belfast where the band performed their first gig. The band were the sixth to receive the award, with all the members turning out. They later performed a live set to a small crowd of around 30 people.

Appearances
On 30 July 2006, Snow Patrol appeared on the finale of the long-running BBC music show Top of the Pops, performing "Chasing Cars". The band were the last act to appear on the show.

On 7 July 2007, the band performed at the UK leg of Live Earth at Wembley Stadium, London. Shortly after the band's performance, Simpson was arrested at RAF Northolt for missing a court date in Glasgow, having been charged with possession for cocaine.