Snow Patrol are an indie rock band from Northern Ireland, currently signed to Polydor Records. They were 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.

History

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. Originally, their music was heavily influenced by Pearl Jam (lead vocalist Gary Lightbody was obsessed with Eddie Vedder as a young student) before they experimented with other groups, such as Sebadoh (in a 1997 Dundee Student Times interview, Gary claimed their 1997 album "Bakesale" was his favourite ever).

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". Eagle-eyed listeners may notice 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 while still living Dundee (its cover was a blurred photo of a football crowd watching Dundee United at Tannadice Stadium). 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 performed 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.

However, 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 the song "Run" (which debuted at #5 in the UK singles chart), as well as the album it was from, the 2003 release, Final Straw. Iain Archer won an Ivor Novello award for his contribution to the Final Straw album. Iain was a member of the band between 2001 and 2003 serving as a touring guitarist and songwriting collaborator. The record peaked at #3 in the UK albums chart. They followed the success of "Run" up with 3 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 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, beating releases such as Muse's Absolution, David Bowie's Best of Bowie, Coldplay's Parachutes and The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Their single "Run" was the 22nd most played British song on American airwaves, having been played just under twenty-eight thousand 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 touring 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 band completed recording Eyes Open in December 2005, 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. Another of their songs, "Open Your Eyes", was heard on the season finale of another medical programme, ER, on May 18, 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 inital postponement of 3 dates on the tour. Dates were rescheduled for September.

Band members

• 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 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 that trend.
• Their song "Spitting Games" was featured on the video game MVP Baseball 2004.
• 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.
• On the song "Hands Open", Lightbody makes a reference to American singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens with the lyrics "Put Sufjan Stevens on and we'll play your favorite song/"Chicago" bursts to life and your sweet smile remembers you."
• An edited version of "Chocolate" is featured on the trailer for The Last Kiss, starring Zach Braff.

Discography

Albums