Content Starts Here
Snow Patrol Biography
SNOW PATROL BIOGRAPHY
Snow Patrol
From their modest beginnings on the Scottish indie-band circuit, Snow Patrol have gone on to conquer the charts, both in the UK and the US. Originally formed in Dundee in 1994 as 'Shrug', and spending a brief time known as 'Polar Bear', the group, led by Northern Ireland-born Gary Lightbody, have recently gone from strength to strength, with 2006 proving to be their annus mirabilis - as well as scoring stateside and UK hits galore, Snow Patrol managed the seemingly unthinkable by outselling the Arctic Monkeys debut long-player, and the Take That comeback album, with their fourth studio LP, 'Eyes Open' - making it that year's top selling album. Their powerful songs, featuring heart-rending lyrics and eminently memorable choruses, have won them legions of fans, and from appearances at Live 8 in 2005 to christening the new 02 Arena in 2007, their brand of melodic rock is the perfect example of stadium-filling music.
Lightbody and fellow student at Dundee University, Mark McClelland, had met on campus in 1994, and formed the band 'Shrug', performing in local pubs and on campus itself. However, after a legal dispute they eventually had to change their name to Snow Patrol, reportedly due to a brush with some police in a ski resort in Colorado. After an EP release on the Electric Honey label ('Starfighter Pilot', 1997), they moved to Jeepster Records, but were to spend a significant amount of time in the shadow of label-mates Belle and Sebastian. They released two albums on Jeepster: 1998's 'Songs for Polarbears', and 2001's 'When It's All Over We Still Have to Clear Up' - both of which were laid down in their then home-town of Glasgow.
However, disappointing sales led to the group being dropped by the label, and Lightbody began to question whether their chance at the big time had passed them by. He descended into depression and alcohol abuse, thirty-pint Guinness benders nearly proving to be his undoing after a nasty fall down some stairs. Having also suffered the ignominy of playing to a crowd of just 18 people in a Buckinghamshire lap-dancing club, the group knew that the only way was up. Lightbody said in a later interview with the Sun newspaper: 'People think we just arrived and there was no struggle - but the first eight years were dark and peppered with horrible incidents'.
A change of label, and an addition to their personnel in the form of guitarist Nathan Connolly, was to provide the shot in the arm that the band needed. Signed to Polydor/Fiction, they set to work with the producer Garret 'Jacknife' Lee on their next compositions, to result in their breakthrough album, 2003's 'Final Straw'. Lee's contribution and man-management were key to the whole operation, says Lightbody: 'Once we'd found him we really couldn't consider anyone else. He's like a band member. He knows what we can do and he won't let us go to bed or crack open a beer until we've done it.'
The hard work ethic paid off, and the hits flowed: the standout success form the album was 'Run', and anthemic rock number that set out the stall for what was to come from the group. It entered the UK charts at number five, and helped to propel 'Final Straw' up the album charts too. In addition, three further singles were to come from the album, 'Chocolate', 'Spitting Games' and 'How to be Dead'. Embracing influences such as Radiohead, Coldplay and the Floyd, it is hardly surprising that the band also enjoyed huge successes in the US, with the album charting strongly, and singles receiving extensive airplay on US radio. Admittedly, whether the term 'radio-friendly' in America could really be considered a compliment is a moot point, but the band's own take on angst-rock, with Lightbody's mournful lyrics and delivery, certainly helped them to slot perfectly into the American on-air schedules.
McClelland left the band in 2005, the strains of touring apparently having taken their toll, and according to the press release at the time, '...it was felt the band could not move forward with Mark as a member.' His replacement on bass guitar duties, Paul Wilson, brought with him his own song-writing and arranging skills, and according to Lightbody his presence now is like having a 'spare brain' in the band. They further bolstered their line-up in 2005 with the addition of keyboardist and sample-wrangler Tom Simpson, who had been playing in the live line up, and whose graduation to permanent member seemed a logical step.
The Snow Patrol brand was now nearing its peak -“ as well as opening for U2 on their Vertigo tour, the group were picked to be one of the 'Live 8' line-up in July - not bad when you think about it: from lap-dance club to the Live 8 stage in a matter of months? From a crowd of 18 to a global audience in the millions? That's pretty good going, by anyone's reckoning. After having toured 'Final Straw' for two years, they took several weeks off in the autumn of 2005 to work on a follow-up. With Jacknife Lee returning to twiddle the knobs and give out the orders, the creative juices flowed and 'Eyes Open' came out in spring 2006.
Those hoping for more of the same from Lightbody and the boys were not disappointed. The anthemic rock continued, from the foot-stomping opening track 'You're All I Have' to 'Chasing Cars', which was featured on the US medical drama 'Grey's Anatomy', boosting massively the band's download and hard-copy sales. In fact, they really weren't daft, these American TV execs, in sensing the obvious attraction of the band to their broad viewer demographic - continuing the medical drama association, 'ER' saw fit to use 'Open Your Eyes' for their season finale, and 'You Could be Happy' popped up in the early-years-of-Superman drama 'Smallville'. Furthermore, the huge, gorgeously-harmonied song 'Signal Fire' featured over the closing credits of 'Spiderman III'. If anyone had been in any doubt, surely this was confirmation that they had definitely broken America.
A live outing at the Brit awards in February 2007 likewise confirmed that their status in the UK is pretty lofty, even if one reviewer described their performance thus: 'As ever, Snow Patrol approximate the experience of being belaboured by a relentless robotic assailant armed with a sockful of saccharine and gravel.' Oh well -€one doubts that the readership of the Mail on Sunday were really the group's target audience in any case. And after the summer 2007 festival gigs, taking in spots at the newly reopened Dome (a.k.a. 02 Arena) in London's docklands, as well as the recently reopened Wembley stadium for July 2007's Live Earth gig, Lightbody has said that the group are going to take eighteen months out to catch their breath and to '...put some space between this year and the next album.' Their fans, and countless American TV execs and radio schedulers, are waiting with baited breath...
Related Links
