Snow Patrol
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Snow Patrol is an indie rock quartet from Northern Ireland. It 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.
Originally known as "Polar Bear", they released a three-track EP, "Starfighter Pilot" on the Electric Honey label, under that name. Richard Colburn, from Glaswegian indie band Belle & Sebastian, played drums on this record. Due to legal threats from an American band with the same name (led by the former bassist of Jane's Addiction), they became "Snow Patrol".
After this point, Jonny Quinn, also from Northern Ireland, joined as permanent drummer. 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" debuting at #5 in the UK singles chart. It was from their 2003 album "Final Straw", which peaked at #3 in the UK albums chart. They followed this 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.
Many of their songs, including most from "Songs For Polar Bears", are songs with titles that do not appear in the lyrics.
Gary Lightbody's side project is The Reindeer Section, a supergroup comprising members of famous Scottish bands including Belle & Sebastian, Idlewild, Teenage Fanclub and Mogwai. They have released two albums to date on the Belfast label Bright Star - Y'all Get Scared Now, Ya Hear! and Return of Evil Reindeer.
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.
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.'
Discography
- Songs for Polar Bears (1998)
- When It's All Over We Still Have to Clear Up (2001)
- Final Straw (2003)
External links
- Snow Patrol Official website (http://www.snowpatrol.net)
- Snow Patrol @ SoundClick (http://www.soundclick.com/bands/0/snowpatrol.htm)
- Original Snow Patrol fanzine 1999-2001 (http://www.minicat.force9.co.uk/holycow)de:Snow Patrol