News, articles, interviews, etc...

With the number of Snow Patrol related articles, news, interviews, etc. popping up so often, seems logical to have a thread dedicated to it.

I'll start off...

Snow Patrol’s Fall Blizzard Of Shows - http://www.pollstar.com/blogs/news/archive/2009/06/23/674690.aspx

Snow Patrol plan 'Hundred Million Suns' tour - http://www.livedaily.com/news/19484.html

Snow Patrol looks to build on hard-fought success - http://www.livedaily.com/news/15093.html

Tired Pony are making their studio debut in January.

Iain Archer confirms Belfast gig + Gary Lightbody collaboration plans

Iain Archer brings it all back home on December 10 when he plays the Black Box, Belfast.

He’s also been talking about how he plans to kick off the New Year.

“I’m heading to Portland, Oregon in January to make a record,” he reveals. “Tired Pony is a new band pulled together by Gary Lightbody and includes (Archer’s wife) Miriam, Jacknife Lee, Richard Coburn of Belle and Sebastian, myself... and another couple of people you may have heard of! It’s set to be a country-tinged piece of work.”

Talking to Hot Press about his yee-haw! plans in September, Lightbody said that the rest of Snow Patrol are “delighted that I’m getting to exorcise all my crazy ideas!”

http://www.hotpress.com/Iain%20Archer/news/Iain%20Archer%20confirms%20Belfast%20gig%20%2B%20Gary%20Lightbody%20collaboration%20plans/5933723.html

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I am intrigued by this other couple of people we may have heard of.

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Yeah they keep alluding to these two ''other'' people.

Maybe we should open a virtual book about who the two are.

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These two may be a good additon to the others ;) Or they may be not. That's why they are the ones who must not be named. :P

SNOW PATROL LIVE ON RADIO 1 TOMORROW

The Patrol will be performing live from Maida Vale for the Fearne Cotton show on Radio 1 this Friday between 10am -12.45pm.

While there, they will also record three other tracks which will be broadcast during Greg James’s Radio 1 show also on Friday between 1-4pm. If you can’t tune in live, you can hear and see the performances again on the Radio 1 website from Friday afternoon.

For more details check bbc.co.uk/radio1/.

Link - http://www.snowpatrol.com/news/default.aspx?nid=23453

Snow Patrol: ‘We’re not ready for greatest hits’

Though their music may be ubiquitious, Snow Patrol are relatively anonymous pop stars — much to the modest band’s relief

Gary Lightbody, the lead singer of Snow Patrol, is edging his chair farther round the table towards mine. “I’m not coming on to you,” he says, slightly embarrassed, “I’m just trying to get out of the sun. I’m Irish and, well, my arm’s on fire.” The Los Angeles sun may be making a beeline for Belfast’s most pallid pop stars, but nobody at this swanky hotel rooftop pool bats an eyelid at them, even when the photographer steps into the water fully clothed to get a better shot of the band.

This is how Snow Patrol prefer it. “Even our own fans would have trouble picking us out of a line-up,” says Lightbody, who is 33, dressed in jeans and T-shirt, with messy hair, a few days’ stubble and incredibly piercing blue eyes. It’s the last day of their American tour. “We’re very lucky in that the songs are the famous things, so we can walk around anywhere unrecognised. We will be in a clothes shop with our songs playing on the thing and nobody even raises an eyebrow, even in the UK.”

And does Lightbody ever walk into a clothes shop and think, like so many people do: “Oh, for the love of God, not Chasing Cars again”? “Ahahaha,” he says, “It’s normally Shut Your Eyes in a clothes shop. But no, I have never thought anything bad about Chasing Cars. Ever. Yes, it’s the most ubiquitous thing we’ve done, and people have had their own backlash to it, so it’s probably due for our own personal backlash now. But it’s our favourite son, daughter, whatever its sex is — why would we be angry? That song went around the world — we just followed it.”

He has a point. In 2007 that song clogged up the Top Ten and was nominated for a Grammy award, a Brit award and used as a season finale for Grey’s Anatomy and Gavin & Stacey— though its zenith was surely being on the episode of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps in which Janet’s husband is eaten by a shark. Tonight the band will play it to a few thousand delighted fans in LA. “It’s American fans who come nowadays — it used to just be expats,” explains Nathan Connolly, the guitarist.

But they have other songs — in fact they are about to release a compilation album of 30 of them. “Calling it a greatest hits album would be a bit grandiose,” Lightbody says. “We’ve had eight or nine hits in the UK, so we’re calling it a history. A look back at the past 15 years — and it’s not the end. We’d like 15 years more. But we’re all riding on luck. Every band is.”

Lightbody was recently delighted when a public figure “who shall remain nameless said a lovely thing to me. He said: ‘You’ve written standards, like Frank Sinatra, the Beatles, that become part of the public consciousness.’ And even being as modest as we are,” he grins, “we kind of realised that we have. People are singing them on TV reality shows — probably vexing people as much as it enthrals them.” But the fact that many detest Snow Patrol for their unchallenging melodiousness is “part and parcel, isn’t it? Every action has its opposite. A million people love you, a million people hate you. And ultimately, we are at the beck and call of people buying our records. This is an easily sinkable ship.”

Those 15 years may come as a surprise to many, since Snow Patrol really broke through to the mainstream only in 2003. Three of the five members are from Northern Ireland but they met at Dundee University, relocated to Glasgow and struggled for many years: sleeping on fans’ floors after gigs, pretending to be Belle and Sebastian to get into a nightclub, shedding a member, losing their record deal. “We were as surprised as the industry was when we got signed to Polydor. Nobody who’s been dropped by an indie [the independent label Jeepster] gets picked up by a major. It’s very odd.”

Yet suddenly they were commercially viable popstars and household names, when they had been part of a very alternative Glasgow music scene. What actually changed? “I learnt how to write a chorus,” Lightbody says. “The first two albums didn’t have any! But it’s not as clear-cut or Machiavellian as a formula — I will just guess my way through chords. I don’t know how to read music. We write very slapdash — if anybody ever saw the writing process they’d say: ‘How the f*** did you ever write anything?’ ”

Snow Patrol are a good laugh to hang out with, which may not be apparent from their plaintive songs about love lost and, well, some more love lost. Whole albums about it. Lightbody’s voice often sounds pained. He’s single, the rest of the band have girlfriends or wives. He says he’s rubbish with women. “So hopeless,” he says. “I’d like to attribute it, at least partly, to me never being in the same place for very long. But the rest of the guys in the band make that work, so I know I’m doing something wrong.

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“I’ve been in relationships with people I’ve been hopelessly in love with — with the emphasis on hopelessly — and I’ve still not been able to make it work. It’s never their fault. It’s always mine, and I’ve been a bit obsessed with that in my lyrics.” He sighs. “I hope it will change, but ... I don't know if it will ... I’d like to get to the bottom of that.” Well, why don’t you try therapy, I ask. There is a pause. “I’m Irish,” he says. “We don’t do therapy. We just drink more.”

Drinking more also helps the band get on famously (current fave tipple: Jägermeister). By the time that most British bands are regular visitors to five-star Hollywood hotels, the lead singer and the guitarist will have been a full year without eye contact while the drummer is spending his days alone sculpting a tribute to Henry Moore out of the ring-pulls from cans of Stella. Not so Snow Patrol, apparently. “Never start a band with an advert in the back of a magazine. That’s the secret. If it comes together naturally then you’ve got a bigger chance of lasting,” Lightbody says. “We love each other. We hang out when we are not on tour — in fact we phone each other about an hour after we get home from the tour.”

Connolly agrees: “From when you’re a kid, you want to be in a rock band because it’s a band of brothers. And we are, we’re brothers. I mean, what would the f***ing point be otherwise?”

As a teenager, Lightbody wanted to be “the biggest rock star on the planet”, even though he has never been cool, “not ever”. He wanted to be Bono, and years later Snow Patrol would tour with U2, who like Snow Patrol’s music so much that they borrowed their producer. “And we came off stage the first night, in Brussels, and thought: ‘Ah, we’re doing all right’ — even though nobody was really clapping. And then U2 came on, and I saw how Bono — who is such a nice guy — performed. I shattered like glass.”

But he’s glad that they spent so long slogging their way up, “because you need to be kicked around a bit before anything good happens. You need to know what you’re fighting for.” He buys 20 albums a week on iTunes or record shops and loves Elbow more than life. “I’d marry that band. Go to Utah and marry every single one of them.” He thinks that Guy Garvey, Elbow’s singer and guitarist, should be given “some kind of official status as a national treasure, for being the best lyricist we have”.

As for his own lyrics, he keeps notebooks full of them. “Bad, bad words. The day I die I hope those notebooks are incinerated. Some of them are just awful. Even some of the ones that ended up on the albums are awful.”

He fully supports Lily Allen in her mission against illegal downloading because of how it harms younger bands just starting out. “It’s not about us or her, we’re OK — we got through just in time.” He adores their producer Jacknife Lee, who makes them play KerPlunk and do origami between takes. “You’re sitting there thinking: ‘Why I am doing this? It’s nonsense.’ And then you go back in and record the take of your life.”

He thinks Ivor Cutler was right when he said: “Women of the world, take over, because if you don’t, the world will come to an end.” He writes a blog for Q magazine’s website about all the new young bands he’s into. But, come on, didn’t he take on the column solely to ensure that Q can never give them a one-star review?

“Ahahaha, that’s it, you’ve seen my nefarious plan there. Ha ha. No, Q have always been pretty fair with us — even the bad ones. When in other places it felt like personal attacks rather than music reviews. We only read them when we pick magazines up anyway and then turn the page and see that it’s us, and say: ‘Shall we? Oh, go on then . . .’ By accident. But I won’t look it up. I won’t google our name or anything — that way madness lies. If you want all of your fears confirmed, go online, type in your own name!” He can’t even bear it when other bands get one-star reviews, even if he doesn’t like them, “because I know that your life and soul goes into making an album. I’d make a terrible journalist, I want to praise everything.”

Of course, there’s more to a band than their records. There’s the private language they all tend to develop on the road. And that of Snow Patrol is “gibberish. We can speak in a series of noises and make each other laugh without saying any words.” What sort of noises? “We will look like the most mental ... it can’t be explained,” Connolly says. Lightbody adds: “Imagine a chimps’ tea party — but drunk.” There is a pause. Then Lightbody says: “Well, we can just go ... eeee eeee!” Instantly he and Connolly are falling about laughing.

He continues: “And what was that thing you said yesterday? Or maybe I said it! I know! It was: ‘I would have enjoyed that’.” Connolly beams with glee, repeats the phrase: “I would have enjoyed that!” The pair of them are now howling helplessly. But what is that? Nobody outside this band will ever know. All we need understand is that Snow Patrol have most definitely been enjoying it.

Up to Now is released on Nov 9 on Fiction

Link - http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article6895899.ece

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Somebody else who uses the word 'slapdash'! I thought I was the only one. :o)

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That's a great interview, and the pic by the pool is pretty special too!

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lovely lovely,thanks again Sprint!

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Thanks Sprint!

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that was a great read, thanks for sharing!

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not sure if this has been posted before. if so, my apologies!

***

from popwatch, ew:

on the road with snow patrol, part 1.

Edinburgh, Monday morning

Brit rockers Snow Patrol are a big deal in the US thanks to their single, “Chasing Cars”. But they are genuine megastars in the UK where their last album, Eyes Open, was the bestselling CD of 2006. Despite being able to sell out stadia, the quintet have chosen to launch their latest collection of hook-heavy laments, A Hundred Million Suns, with a private jet-powered whistlestop tour of four small venues in a quartet of cities (Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh, and London) in just two days. Along for the ride? Yours truly: a nervous plane passenger who doesn’t really appreciate being asked if I’m “ready to rock” by the aforementioned plane’s pilot, but otherwise has few complaints at the tour’s halfway point.

The whole high-speed shebang kicked off yesterday morning in Dublinwhere lead singer Gary Lightbody (pictured performing in Belfast) ledthe band through a lunchtime set at the Gate Theatre that mixed uphighlights from the new album with more familiar offerings. Althoughthe performances were fine, the show was a somewhat subdued affair as if both band and crowd, who stayed in their seats for nearly the wholeshow, had agreed to have the kind of fun that doesn’t involve breakingsweat. Maybe the problem was the earliness of the hour. Or maybe it wasthe fact that they were playing in front of the set for the Gate’sproduction of 19th century Norwegian playwrite Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler (it’s the female Hamlet! Well, it is according to Wikipedia. Truth be told, 19th century Norwegian playwrites are not my strongest suit).

Regardless, the second show of the day, at Belfast’s Empire Club,was a decidedly more rocking affair with the Northern Irish Lightbodyclearly enjoying what was, in effect, a hometown gig and the crowdclearly enjoying both the band and being, well, drunk. Highlightsincluded Lightbody dedicating one song to his 15-month-old niece,Honey, who was at the show, and dedicating another, Belfast love letter“Take Back The City,” to “the many f—ing amazing bands coming out ofNorthern Ireland.”

Ear muffs, Honey! Ear muffs!

Next up: Edinburgh and London.

link: http://popwatch.ew.com/2008/10/27/on-the-road-wit/

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on the road with snow patrol, part 2.

London, England, Tuesday morning

So, what was it like to see British rockers Snow Patrol promote the release of their new album, A Hundred Million Suns, by playing four intimate shows in four cities in two days?

Well, that’s a good, if surprisingly detailed, question. The answer? It was a lot of fun. True, singer Gary Lightbody and crew didn’t feel obliged to change their sets too much as they traversed the British Isles, from Dublin to Belfast and, yesterday, from Edinburgh to London. But then, the only people to see the “Chasing Cars” quintet on each occasion were a few competition-winning fans and a clutch of journalists. And the venues themselves were decidedly diverse. As previously reported Snow Patrol kicked off the whole shebang with a Sunday lunchtime show in a Dublin theater — where they played in front of the set for the play Hedda Gabler –- before moving on to the more rambunctious environs of Belfast’s Empire Hall. On Monday lunchtime, the band played at Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms, an austere wood-paneled venue whose history dates back to 1783. Lightbody’s response to his surroundings? “I’m going to say ‘s—’” he informed the audience, before performing new song “Please Just Take These Photos From My Hands.” “It probably hasn’t been said in this room before.”

Following the show we embarked on a seemingly endless journey toLondon: a real Planes, Trains And Automobiles-type jaunt that mightactually have been improved by waking up to discover you’ve beenspooning with John Candy. But last night’s show at the BloomsburyTheatre — which usually hosts comedians and student plays -– made itworthwhile with the always up-for-it Lightbody on notably puckish form.“We’re going to play some new stuff, we’re going to play some oldstuff,” he declared at the start. “We’re going to have some guests. AndI’m going to give a talk about something. Steam engines!”

Though thepromised engineering lecture never materialized no one seemed to mindas the band did indeed mix up older tracks, notably “Chasing Cars,”with fresher material from dainty opening lament “Set Down Your Glass”to the final, thunderous, “Take Back The City.” Meanwhile, the promisedguests included Ian Archer, Lightbody’s musical colleague in indiesupergroup Reindeer Section, who joined a live line-up already expandedfor this tour to include percussionist Richard Colburn from Belle AndSebastian. The set could only have been better had Lightbodyhimself stripped naked, which in previous, boozier, days he was knownto do (the singer’s self-destructive side is referenced in the aptlynamed A Hundred Million Suns track “Disaster Button”). Instead, thesinger contented himself with mock-threatening audience members in theupper circle for not singing along to his tunes with sufficient gusto:“I can see you! I KNOW some of you! If you don’t sing, there will bewords!”

Yes, folks, I’ve had some fun. But, hypothetically, would I want tosee ANOTHER two Snow Patrol shows today? Well, let’s just say that it’sdefinitely possible to have too much of a good thing. Or, as onecompetition winner, and jet-lagged Los Angeleno, announced at the endof last night’s show, “They’re an amazing band. I’ve had an awesometime. But I am DONE.”

link: http://popwatch.ew.com/2008/10/28/on-the-road-w-1/

does anybody know what song they're talking about?

Top ten cool tunes for kidsBy SAM CARLISLE

Published: 29 Oct 2009

JUST because you have kids it doesn't follow that your taste in music goes the way of peaceful nights and a waistline.
It sometimes feels like you're in muzak hell when you've sung The Wheels On The Bus for the 912 gazillionth time or heard the same version of Jack And Jill sung by a slightly hysterical matronly school teacher once too often.

Kids' music doesn't have to be brain-janglingly annoying. Given that you're going to have to play music your children love again and again and again you owe it to your sanity to play them decent tunes.

Here is Suns & Daughters' guide to the 10 best children's albums.

3. Colours Are Brighter - Various Artists

This 2006 CD was put together by Indie faves Belle And Sebastian. And boy did they pull a few favours.

Franz Ferdinand, Snow Patrol and Flaming Lips stick to their musical styles but add child-friendly lyrics. Hence Franz get to sing about cake and Snow Patrol about being an astronaut. There is a truly heartbreaking contribution from Jonathan Richman - Our Dog Is Getting Older Now.

Proceeds go to Save The Children.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/parenting/top10/2704990/Top-ten-cool-tunes-for-kidsmusic-for-childrencool-music-that-kids-will-love.html#ixzz0VO7BlWFL

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Thanks soopy and goma! How am I ever going to catch up on so many posts?! lol

BNN presents Snow Patrol, secret concert in sign of new album

Dutch to English - Translated by Google
----------------

Hilversum, October 29, 2009

BNN PRESENTS SNOW PATROL
SECRET SIGN IN CONCERT OF NEW ALBUM

Complete turf and football stadiums can enthuse them like no other, but also a cozy bar play the British rock band Snow Patrol easily completely flat. This proved recently when the band BNN to Desmet Studios in Amsterdam were eliminated. Between all the great concerts by Snow Patrol gave a secret concert for just a handful of die-hard fans. The gig is on Thursday, November 5 from 23.35 hours to see at 3 in the program on BNN BNN Presents Snow Patrol.

Snow Patrol has a great year behind us. The band was among other valves Pinkpop and support act for U2 in the Amsterdam Arena. Crazy performances, but for the real fans had a secret concert at an intimate stage much more special. During the secret gig at the invitation of BNN are old and new work past successes. All these numbers are on their latest album "Up to Now '. On thatslive.bnn.nl is broadcast on the day of the interview to see Snow Patrol gave the program BNN That's Live by Eric Corton.

Link (in Dutch) - http://www.nieuwsbank.nl/inp/2009/11/05/V017.htm

Re: does anybody know what song they're talking about?

gomagoti wrote:
Top ten cool tunes for kids...

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^ Ta!

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Has this been put on the forum before? hope not.

Published: 12:01AM GMT 30 Oct 2008
The band's songwriter Gary Lightbody tells Neil McCormick why their new, number-one album is tinged with romance.
In 2006, one group dominated British rock. It was the year of the Arctic Monkeys, when the Sheffield tyros came roaring out of MySpace with the fastest-selling debut album ever. They won four-star reviews, were plastered over magazine covers, inspired a chain of copycat bands, and were garlanded with end-of-year awards.
Yet, by the time the dust had settled, the biggest-selling band of the year turned out to be a little heralded, long-serving Scots/Irish outfit of geekish, unprepossessing scruffs turning 30, who had been knocking around since 1994, and had barely picked up a good review in the process.

Snow Patrol's fourth album, Eyes Open, shifted 1.6 million copies in the UK and more than four million worldwide. Their number one single, Chasing Cars, stayed in the UK charts for 85 weeks. "We were a 10-year overnight success," says frontman and principal songwriter, Gary Lightbody. "It was a shock to the system. But we're honest, and we're not shy about trying to connect with people. So I feel secure and justified in the world."

Snow Patrol's follow-up, A Hundred Million Suns, was released this week.
It is, in my view, an epic, widescreen, decidedly modern rock record (although that is not an opinion shared by many of my fellow critics). While most British rock seems in thrall to the past, Snow Patrol and longtime collaborator, maverick dance producer Jacknife Lee, create huge 21st-century sonic vistas, sparkling with ambient keyboards, glittering with digitally distorted guitar hooks.
"We make records with everything at our disposal, from things fresh out of the box to things that smell of mothballs," says Lightbody. Yet the songs themselves are almost unsophisticated in their basic form (which is perhaps what makes them so damn catchy), mainly constructed around repetitive chord patterns and two- or three-note riffs, with melodies that draw on keening Celtic blues modulations, lending a gentle intensity to Lightbody's poetic, introspective lyrics.
"My songwriting is very simplistic," says Lightbody. "What we do is melody and honesty, that is the core. I think the songs reach out as far as they do because people identify with it."
British critics have, for the most part, not been kind, branding them Coldplay-lite (which, given that Coldplay themselves are often portrayed as Radiohead-lite, is a particularly dismissive insult), purveyors of safe, soft, coffee-table rock. It has been hard on Lightbody, an obsessive music fan. As an impoverished, struggling musician, he was a central figure in Scotland's indie scene, with a side project as leader of the Reindeer Section, whose floating members included 47 musicians from 20 Scottish bands.
"I'm a crazy music consumer. I read the magazines, I like to know what's going on, but I just can't read anything about us any more. But what can you do? You make your peace with it and move on, or you just get so furious every time something happens you can't actually function as a human being."
The 32-year-old Northern Irishman (who formed Snow Patrol at university in Dundee) crackles with nervous energy, apparently finding it very hard to sit still. As obviously intelligent and eloquent as he is, he makes for a difficult interview subject, easy to like (he is modest, unassuming and friendly) but hard to pin down, with a tendency to try to joke his way out of deep or probing questions (something he sheepishly acknowledges). Yet, by his own accounts, he has become far more settled since his band's belated success.
"I was quite good at creating calamity. I don't know if it was success or just growing up. Maybe it was as simple as stopping drinking so much to look after my voice, but I have become more comfortable in my own skin. I have calmed down."
There may be another explanation. As even a cursory examination of the album would reveal, Lightbody is in love. This marks a huge departure, given that his entire recorded output to date has concerned his inability to sustain relationships.
"I've written six albums about break-ups, and I think that's enough for now. Maybe there was a faulty mechanism in me that drove relationships into the ground on purpose. It's much easier to write when you are feeling sad and self-pitying.
"But there's suffering for your art, and there's just plain stupidity. I had to know if I could write an album that had a happy ending. So it is a love record, celebrating a relationship rather than doing some kind of morbid autopsy. But I don't think it is saccharine at all. It's not doe-eyed or syrupy; it's a very real record about love in our time."
Lightbody's introspective oeuvre seems to have opened up with this album, infused with a new-found obsession with science (the album title alludes to our insignificance in the universe). "I have used writing mostly to try to figure out what went wrong with me. This time, because it was from a much more positive point of view, I was able to look outwardly. So the world became the context of this record, rather than my four walls."
The album's ambitious closer is a 16-minute, three-song segue, The Lightning Strike, which at times sounds like a gorgeous combination of Philip Glass sequencer patterns and primal drone rock. "I was caught in a really quite devastating storm in Glasgow one night, and I was pretty terrified - 150-mile-an-hour winds, trees falling down. But we went outside the house, and it was also just thrilling. There was this howling wind, but it felt like silence, as if our senses were being too bombarded to cope with what was going on. So the record was born out of that feeling, of two people having a protective shell around each other.
"I'm not saying there's not darkness in there still, but it's happening from outward factors more than inward. Maybe things are terrifying, but they're beautiful, too. The world is extremely surprising."
Snow Patrol's own journey has perhaps been the most surprising of all, from indie also rans to multi-million-selling potential world-beaters. "I'd like to think I'm learning from the mistakes I've made. At the very least, I've got better at judging when I'm about to make mistakes. That might come with maturity, but I thi