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

Re: News, articles, interviews, etc...

bangorrosie wrote:
Thanks for posting that link/interview etc Sprint, I'd completely forgotten about that series coming up. Had a quick look on the Sky Arts website and couldn't see a date for the full show being aired. The series starts on 12 November on Sky Arts 1 so Gary's episode shouldn't be too long after that.

Snow Patrol amazed

Snow Patrol are amazed they write successful songs. The 'Chasing Cars' hitmakers admit their approach to songwriting can sometimes be viewed as less-than-conventional, with frontman Gary Lightbody unable to even write music.

Asked how they suddenly found success almost 10 years after they formed, Gary said: "I learnt how to write a chorus. The first two albums don't have any. "But it's not as clear-cut a formula - I will just guess my way through the chords. I don't know how to read music - we write very slapdash - if anybody ever saw the writing process they'd say, 'How did you ever write anything?"

Meanwhile, the singer says the key to the band's longevity is a firm friendship. He added: "Never start a band from an advert in a magazine. If it comes together naturally than you've got a bigger chance of lasting. We love each other and we hang out together when we're not on tour."

http://www.planetradiocity.com/musicreporter/gossip.php?gossipid=1463

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^^ Thanks for that Sprint! I found that page earlier just didn't see the times bit - doh!! I frighten myself sometimes. Well, most of the time!! x

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I must be lossing it totally I could have sworn when I went to post that article it was already there....thank god Sprint you are more awake than I am.

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sprint wrote:

Gary's on 19th Nov at 8pm.
http://www.skyarts.co.uk/music/article/songbook-series-3

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^ good for you. I don't even know what's on my tv. lol. I might even have this channel. Got to check. Does this channel put their episodes online? Don't want to miss fifteen minutes old.

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^ I Don't have this channel, going to go have a tantrum now!

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I checked, it will be put up online on their website. Will post the link when it's available. :)

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This came out in the Herald On Sunday... Haven't been able to find a link so in the interests of procrastinating I'm going to write it out :P
History In The Making
Alt rock band Snow Patrol have a new album due out soon - or do they? asks Paula Yeoman.
No one likes a whingeing rock star who is fed up with free drinks and staying in ludicrously expensive hotels - not even Gary Lightbody. After fifteen years in Snow Patrol, the singer is still living the dream. "This is the best life in the world anyone who tells you any different isn't doing it right. Those are the people who will never be happy about anything in life. I don't know how you'd placate them because this is insanely good fun," he says.
It's odd then that a band having so much fun would seemingly want to hammer the nail into its own coffin with a "best of" album, due out November 9. Who stops the party with a greatest hits record at the peak of their success? "Okay, first of all we're not calling it a 'best of'," says Lightbody, clearly rattled by the question. "We're calling it a 'history' because we've been together for 15 years and a lot of people don't know our early stuff."
Glad to have got that off his chest, the one time English literature student settles in for a chat about the greatest job in the world and the journey that's taken Snow Patrol from being obscure indie Irish/Scottish rockers, dropped by their label, to alternative rock legends.
Despite the fact that Lightbody is the only remaining member of the first line-up, he insists little has changed for the band since it changed its name from Polar Bear to Snow Patrol in 1997.
Sure, sales for their five albums to date, including the hugely successful Final Straw and Eyes Open, have clocked more than 7 million world wide but to Lightbody they are mere numbers. "The statistics mean nothing. It's nice to sell records but it's not the be-all and end-all. It's the gigs, the days and things that have happened, which we have memories of, that matter." And there have been many - far too many to recall, he says. However, one is still firmly lodged in his memory. "The V festival this year when Oasis cancelled and we took over as the headlining band and f***ing blew 80,000 people away. It was absolutely stunning. I've never seen anything like it in my life. I've never seen a crowd react like that to any band. I've never been to a gig like that. I'm still flabbergasted by it to be honest."
Lightbody should have seen the Oasis takeover and ensuing crowd domination coming though. After all, not just any band gets to be the last ever to perform live on the legendary BBC show Top Of The Pops, which went off the air last July. "Yeah, we killed Top Of The Pops. The whole family used to watch the show when I was growing up - it was an institution. Shame it's not with us any more but being the last band on it was pretty cool," says Lightbody who grew up in Northern Ireland before moving to Scotland to study at the University Of Dundee. But success and adulation aren't things Lightbody likes to think too much about. He can't ever remember a time when he has sat down and taken stock of it all - not even when Snow Patrol's biggest hit to date, Chasing Cars from the album Eyes Open, spent 130 weeks in the UK singles chart and sold 500,000 copies. "We followed that song around the world but we were having so much fun we weren't thinking about what it meant for us," he says. He admits he gave it lots of thought - and even suffered writers block - making sure he didn't just pull out the template and aim for another crowd pleasing anthem on the band's next album, last year's A Hundred Million Suns. "You don't try to replicate a song like Chasing Cars. As far as we're concerned, if we'd just written a bunch of the same songs, we might as well have jumped off a bridge. If you're not trying to do anything different you may as well quit."
It brings the conversation back to the subject of greatest hits records and the upcoming "history" album, titled Up To Now. It's hard to know if Lightbody is just incredibly eager to explain that the album is not the band's death knell, or if it's code for he's had enough of the Snow Patrol of old and is in drastic need of change. "For us it's about trying to give the best overview of our five albums and what would bring people to this album who haven't heard us before."
But then comes the crunch. "I guess it's just more about putting the past to bed. The future of Snow Patrol will be vastly different - we can do anything we want, really. We've got ourselves into the position where it's the most exciting point in our career. An album like this helps to draw a line under it."
Such a comment reeks of a band which, contrary to what Lightbody insists, is no longer having fun. But he comes across as very honest. He certainly doesn't beat around the bush, and when he says the members of Snow Patrol are having more fun now than ever, you have to believe him.
"It's not a traditional rock and roll existence of TVs out the window and getting off your head on skag - that's not really the way we do things. From the minute you join a band, you're in a state of arrested development and we're still 18 years old running around with the keys to the booze locker," says the singer who turned 33 in June. "People in bands are generally slightly [more] immature than the rest of the world. You only have to be a tour manager to work that one out. God help anyone who wants to be a tour manager because musicians are a bunch of 5-year-olds."
Lightbody - named in a poll this year as one of "The Sexiest Men In Ireland" has written and sung over the years, but he's not planning on swapping the road for marriage and kids any time soon. "I don't see me tiring. I'll be here until my knees give out. I guess there's always the possibility you meet someone and it feels right. But, I'm not ready to settle down yet. That biological clock thing that clicks in hasn't clicked in for me."
So it seems Lightbody is content for music and his beloved band to be the loves of his life. He's looking forward to giving fans a taste of the Snow Patrol to come, with a few new tracks mixed among the old on the upcoming album. "There's one on there that's my favourite called Give Me Strength. It's very different."
But mostly, you get the sense he is just thrilled to be moving on....

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... (continued from above) "There is no point in having a master plan, life changes every day, situations change and you have to be able to adapt. Spontaneity is much more important than having a plan."
~ Paula Yeoman 1/11/09

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^nice article, Rachael! Thanks for taking the time to write it out! :D

They really are making a big deal of the whole 'moving in a new direction' thing, aren't they? Can't wait to hear the next phase of SP. :)

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Good article and ditto thanks Rachael.

Yeah if there was no suggetion of drama they couldn't sell their papers!

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Couldn't help rolling my eyes in points - she was quite obviously grasping at straws with the continuous comments about them not having any fun... Fair to say she doesn't indulge in SP interviews much :P then she would KNOW they have a lot of fun! :D

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lovely that you took the time to type that out,exams and all! :) Interviewer had a point stuck in her head & just didn't want to let it go did she.

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Thanks for typing out Rach, was a good read..it's good to see them getting press again down this side of the world!

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Thanks Rachel for typing it out for us! That article is quite lengthy.

Snow Patrol’s mix tape won’t last through the ‘Night’ (Late Night Tales review)

In the ’90s, girls and boys raced to boom boxes to listen to the latest mix tape made by their significant others.


But in a generation where iPods have replaced CDs and cassette tapes, the personalized compilations in which teenagers poured their souls have turned into mechanical playlists created by the genius button in iTunes.

Night patrol · Late Night Tales: Snow Patrol is the 22nd album in the series, which has featured Zero 7, The Flaming Lips and Air in the past. – Photo courtesy of The Muse Box

Bridging the gap between past and present, Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody and keyboardist Tom Simpson return to the studio to record a piece of their hearts without completely abandoning the advantages of modern technology.

Released Tuesday, the 22nd album in the Late Night Tales series mixes together some of the duo’s favorite music, which gives audiophiles a taste of Snow Patrol’s low-key sound without actually having to completely invest in the band.

As a collection of compilations, the series shines a light into the musical world of a myriad of DJs, recording artists and bands after dark.

Artists are invited to create their own tracklist, specially selected and mixed for the series, as well as record their own rendition of a favorite song.

Reflecting the experienced musical tastes of two former club DJs, Late Night Tales: Snow Patrol is a throwback to the band’s many inspirations. Lightbody and Simpson take you on a journey through their music — a land where trance-inducing voices replace soothing ocean waves and rainstorms are substituted by celestial beats.

Following the theme of after-hour madness, the 19-track album will tickle your ears with after-party mood music that is meant to calm the nerves yet retain an appropriate level of energy for that long car ride home.

Although the selection of songs might individually pique interest — many with vibrant beats fused with electronic sound upgrades — together, it only serves to confuse the listener.

The album begins strong with Captain Beefheart’s “Observatory Crest,” a narrative song about driving to a special place after a concert, but soon falters — drastically.

Beefheart’s avant-garde sound is followed by A Tribe Called Quest’s “Midnight,” a rap that breaks the flow of the entire album in merely the second track.

Despite the attempt to keep energy high, the atypical lineup of songs consists of slow melodies that lull the listener to sleep. A string of songs with slow beats is often broken up by a song with somewhat faster slow beats. And when the compilation starts to pick up speed, the momentum is abruptly halted by random insertions.

Transitions throughout are well-mixed but lack a level of sophistication and consistency necessary for a rehash of old music.

The first 15 seconds and the last 30 seconds of most songs — at least for the earlier tracks — are dedicated to mixing in a smooth transition, where one song fades out, and the other fades in.

After the first few tracks, however, the monotony sets in and the supposed late-night illumination reveals only the techniques of undeveloped DJs still learning how to blend their own creative energy into songs that aren’t theirs.

Lightbody and Simpson take the tact of using the last line and beats of the previous song, repeating it and then matching it up with the next song. On the same transition, they repeat the same technique backwards, creating a cacophony that sounds more like an orgy of notes than a smooth segue.

By the end of the album, transitions are barely audible, making rough song selections even more noticeable.

The transition between “That’s Us/Wild Combination” and “Eanie Meany,” however, marries celestial voices with psychedelic beats into a perfect harmony, making it hard notice where one song ends and the other begins.

For true Snow Patrol fans, the band covers Inxs’ ’80s hit “New Sensation,” putting its own acoustic spin on the pop song. A slowdown of the beats and echo effects throughout the chorus infuses Snow Patrol’s distinctly alternative sound.

But overall, Late Night Tales: Snow Patrol fails to reach the band’s usually infectious energy, and instead leaves listeners underwhelmed by the musicians and sound they thought they knew.

Link - http://dailytrojan.com/2009/11/03/snow-patrol’s-mix-tape-won’t-last-through-the-night/

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=O Thank you SO much, Rachel!

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This is from a music blog that I read and quite an amusing story so enjoy:

http://thepopcop.blogspot.com/2009/11/snow-patrol-apology.html

For those that can't get onto the site at work or whatever, here's the article in full:

I owe SNOW PATROL an apology.

Nine years ago, a friend of mine was commissioned to review a Snow Patrol gig at King Tut's for a shortlived Glasgow-based arts magazine called Go. With the 2000 version of Snow Patrol being a bunch of obscure, scruffy, ramshackle noiseniks (ah, those were the days), my party-loving pal had better things to do on a Friday night.

I - being the no-gig-is-too-small live music whore (student) - was more than willing to go in his place and get £10 cash-in-hand for my journalistic efforts, even though my acquaintance would get the glory of seeing his name under my sensational wordsmithery.

So along I went and had a fairly pleasant evening watching these underachievers. They had one song with a semblance of melody called Starfighter Pilot, but apart from that the only thing that stood out was Gary Lightbody's ropey Irish craic. I eloquently put this into printed prose in the Go review by making mention of the Snow Patrol frontman's "ropey Irish craic".

And that was that.

A few weeks later, The List magazine asked me to do a live review during Freshers' Week. Which band? Snow Patrol. Great!

So along I went to the QMU and this time I was able to proudly utter my own name when I got to the front of the guestlist queue. Inside the venue I strode, ready to breathe in the dry ice and put these 45 minutes of art into the written word.

Between the third and fourth song in the set, Gary Lightbody approached the microphone as a hush descended over the audience. "Apparently someone from The List is here," he declared. "The last time he reviewed us, he said I had ropey Irish craic." The crowd responded with that boorish jeering noise a crowd makes when an actual articulated reply isn't really necessary.

My jaw dropped as every pair of eyes in the hall turned to look at me while the guy at the mixing desk beamed a single spotlight over my head and a Snow Patrol fan had one of those oversized Gladiator hands with a finger pointing directly at me. OK, not really, but it certainly felt like that.

"How could he know?" I asked myself. My review in Go had been published under a name that was not my own, and certainly not the one that was on the band's guestlist that night. Who did Lightbody have in the inside?

The next morning I happened to be speaking to the band's PR agent, who I was quite friendly with, and light-heartedly mentioned that Lightbody had 'wrongly' reprimanded me in public. We both laughed off the incident, me slightly more nervously.

Later that afternoon my phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Hi, this is Gary Lightbody from the band Snow Patrol."
"Oh..."
"Am I right in saying you were reviewing the gig for The List last night?"
"Er, yes."
"I'd like to apologise for what I said on stage. It was actually someone from Go magazine who slagged me off last time. My mistake, sorry!"

With not a trace of the remorse and guilt I was feeling, I accepted his grovelling apology and subsequently used the telephone conversation and the whole story of the on-stage outburst as the basis for my live review, which The List edited slightly to give their magazine rivals even more of a kicking.

Gary Lightbody, Snow Patrol, now-defunct Go magazine, The List... I'm sorry.

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^^

that's awesome, it made me laugh. thanks for posting! (and everyone else, for the wonderful articles.)