Early years (1994–1997) , Michael Morrison, and
Mark McClelland. Snow Patrol were formed in early 1994 by
University of Dundee students
Gary Lightbody,
Mark McClelland, and Michael Morrison, under the name Shrug. The band started by performing gigs at the university and local pubs such as Lucifer's Mill. Their first
EP was entitled
The Yogurt vs. Yoghurt Debate. In 1996, they changed their name to Polarbear to avoid clashing with any American bands that were also named Shrug. Shortly afterwards, drummer Michael Morrison left the group after suffering a breakdown and returned to Northern Ireland. In mid-1997, Polarbear released a three-track EP,
Starfighter Pilot, on the
Electric Honey label. The band was renamed Snow Patrol in 1997,
Songs for Polarbears and ''When It's All Over We Still Have to Clear Up'' (1997–2001) Snow Patrol joined independent label
Jeepster in 1997. Jeepster had the same plan for Snow Patrol as the approach they had used with
Belle & Sebastian, who became popular by word of mouth without heavy promotion. The band were happy to be associated with an indie label, because they felt it gave them greater independence. They were quoted as saying that Jeepster would not expect them to have a strict work ethic or to focus too much on promotional efforts. Snow Patrol's debut album,
Songs for Polarbears, was released in 1998 after the band had moved to
Glasgow, where Lightbody was working at the Nice n Sleazy's Bar in
Sauchiehall Street. The album was a critical success but did not make a commercial impact. In 1999, Snow Patrol won the "Phil Lynott Award for Best New Band" given by Irish music magazine
Hot Press. In 2001, while still living in Glasgow, the trio released their next album, ''
When It's All Over We Still Have to Clear Up''. Like its predecessor, the album was praised by critics but did not sell. They owed rent to their landlords and received regular visits and letters from them while on tour. Lightbody has credited McIntosh with keeping the band together in those years. Jeepster dropped Snow Patrol in 2001, a decision that was criticised by
Hot Press magazine as brainless. By July 2001, major labels had started showing interest in the band, who were cash-strapped and had no record deal. Lightbody sold a major part of his record collection to raise money to keep the band going. The singer said this time was "miserable", but he was confident that they would get signed to another label. The music scene in the United Kingdom had turned its attention to American bands, however, and British bands were not being signed. The group spent this time writing songs. Lightbody assembled
The Reindeer Section, a Scottish
supergroup, and found a record label to release the project's recordings. Quinn said that although the time was hard for everyone involved except Nathan, the question of splitting never arose. It was during this time that the band wrote "
Run" (which had been around since 2000) The show took place in a shoddy VIP area, and the management had to unscrew poles used by pole dancers to make space for the band to play, something that Gary would later joke about whilst performing at a sold-out Wembley Arena. Quinn says the show was "horrendous". Desperate for attention, the band raised £200 to nominate themselves for a Mercury Prize but failed to get shortlisted. Guitarist
Nathan Connolly, previously a member of the band
File Under Easy Listening, and the band were introduced to him by a mutual friend. Connolly moved to Glasgow to join Snow Patrol in the spring of 2002. During Lightbody and McClelland's years at the University of Dundee, they had been noticed by Richard Smernicki, a senior student, and his brother
Paul. Richard Smernicki graduated in 1996, two years before Lightbody and McClelland, and become
Polydor's Scottish
A&R representative. Paul Smernicki became Polydor's Press and Artist Development Manager and
Fiction's label manager. Jim Chancellor, an A&R executive for Fiction, and fellow talent scout Alex Close, approached Snow Patrol in Glasgow, listened to their demos, and judged them on "the quality of the songs", according to Lightbody. Chancellor introduced them to producer
Jacknife Lee, who despite having been a guitarist in 1990s punk rock band
Compulsion, had no rock production experience at that point, being known instead for his work with
Basement Jaxx and
Eminem.
Final Straw was released on 4 August 2003 under Black Lion, a subsidiary of Polydor Records. In 2005, on a tour to support the album, the band were an opening act for
U2 on the
Vertigo Tour in Europe. Snow Patrol played a short set in London that summer at the worldwide benefit concert
Live 8. After a two-year tour of
Final Straw, the band took time off and began writing and recording songs for a new album. Snow Patrol's version of
John Lennon's "
Isolation" was released on 10 December 2005 as part of the Amnesty International campaign
Make Some Noise. The song was issued on the 2007 John Lennon tribute album,
Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur. Eyes Open and worldwide success (2005–2007) (pictured) replaced bassist Mark McClelland in March 2005. Bassist Mark McClelland left the band in March 2005. Lightbody said that "new and unexpected pressures" had "taken their toll on working relationships within the band", and it was felt that "the band could not move forward with Mark as a member". At the end of March 2005, former
Terra Diablo member
Paul Wilson was announced as replacement for McClelland. Snow Patrol also declared longtime touring keyboardist
Tom Simpson an official member of the band. Snow Patrol completed the recording of
Eyes Open in December 2005, with Jacknife Lee returning as producer. The album was released on 28 April 2006 in Ireland and 1 May 2006 in the UK, with the first UK single, "
You're All I Have", issued on 24 April 2006. The record was released in North America on 9 May. "Hands Open" was the first American single, but "
Chasing Cars" reached the download and pop charts after it was heard during an emotional scene in the
second-season finale of the American medical drama ''
Grey's Anatomy'' on 15 May 2006. On 23 July 2006, "Chasing Cars" was the last song performed live on the
BBC's
Top of the Pops. The song peaked at number 6 on the
UK Singles Chart and number 5 on the US
Billboard Hot 100. in 2006 On 26 November 2006,
Eyes Open became the
best-selling album of 2006 in the UK after selling 1.5 million copies. It was also the
15th best-selling album of the 2000s and one of the
best-selling albums in UK chart history. At the
2007 Grammy Awards, "Chasing Cars" was nominated for
Best Rock Song. At the
2007 Brit Awards, it was nominated for
Best British Single. On 1 September 2007, Snow Patrol headlined a "homecoming" mini-festival in Lightbody and Jonny Quinn's home town of
Bangor, County Down. Around 30,000 people came to see the band.
A Hundred Million Suns (2008–2009) Recording for the follow-up album to
Eyes Open began in late 2006, with Jacknife Lee returning a third time for production. in March 2009 The band launched their
Taking Back the Cities Tour on 26 October 2008. Singer Miriam Kaufmann toured with the band and sang backing vocals, most notably on "
Set the Fire to the Third Bar", which had originally featured
Martha Wainwright. The UK & Ireland Arena Tour ended on 23 March 2009, and the final show was played at the
Odyssey in Belfast to a 9,000-strong crowd that included family and friends and the Northern Irish football squad. It was reported that the band had played to an estimated 200,000 fans during the tour. Snow Patrol visited South Africa to play dates at the Coca-Cola Zero Festival, supporting
Oasis, before beginning a European leg of the tour. In June they supported
Coldplay for a month on the
Viva la Vida Tour. In November 2009, the band released a compilation album featuring tracks from their fifteen-year history, titled
Up to Now. The album contained thirty tracks on two CDs, three of which were new songs. "
Just Say Yes", a track written by Lightbody and earlier recorded by
Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger and
X Factor star
Diana Vickers, was released as the lead single Snow Patrol spoke of making a tour documentary in the future, along the lines of U2's
Rattle and Hum. In December 2009, the
PPL announced that "Chasing Cars" was the most-played song of the decade in the UK. In a UK poll conducted by
Channel 4, it was voted the nation's favourite "song of the noughties". In January 2010, the band were nominated in three categories in the annual
Meteor Awards. They played at the awards event on 19 February 2010, at
the RDS.
Fallen Empires (2010–2012) In 2009, Snow Patrol took a new musical direction and said they would enter their "next phase" with the release of their sixth album. Connolly advised fans to keep an open mind regarding the new material. On 12 January 2011, Lightbody launched a blog to give details about the progress of the band's next release. Snow Patrol released the single "
Called Out in the Dark" (remixed by
Fatboy Slim) for radio airplay on 21 July 2011 on
Zane Lowe's show on BBC Radio 1. Official sources said the single would be issued independently, and later as part of an EP. The UK release date was to be 4 September. More details on the EP were announced on 3 August, when the group's website revealed the artwork and track list contents. Along with the new single, the release contained three new tracks, titled "My Brothers", "I'm Ready", and "Fallen Empires". It was stated that the EP was intended to be a digital release limited to the UK and Ireland. joined the group in 2011 after serving as a guest musician and songwriter in the studio. After the premiere of the new lead single, the band's official website confirmed that the name of the new album would be
Fallen Empires.
Fallen Empires was released on 14 November 2011 in the UK and was launched at O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire. Singer-songwriter
Johnny McDaid, who had worked on the album as a guest musician and songwriter, joined the band on the subsequent tour and eventually become a full member of Snow Patrol. The second single from
Fallen Empires was "This Isn't Everything You Are", released on 13 November 2011.
Greatest Hits (2013–2018) The band released a compilation album entitled
Greatest Hits on 14 May 2013. In August 2013, Snow Patrol headlined the Tennent's Vital festival and performed a warm-up show in London before the festival. After the show, they announced that keyboard player Tom Simpson would be leaving the band.
Wildness and Quinn and Wilson's departure (2018–2023) The follow-up album to
Fallen Empires was due for release in 2016, but Lightbody told
NME that he had had to overcome
writer's block, and that the songs written for the new album had been scrapped and replaced by new "mind-boggling" material. The band's seventh studio album,
Wildness, was published on 25 May 2018. In November 2018, the EP
What If This Is All the Love You Ever Get? came out, featuring remixes of the track from
Wildness. The band released their third compilation album,
Reworked, on 8 November 2019, and followed it with a tour. On 1 September 2023, Lightbody stated on the band's Instagram account that Quinn and Wilson had decided to leave the band. He announced a new album for some time in 2024 and said that Snow Patrol would continue as a trio of himself, Connolly, and McDaid. Wilson's decision to depart from Snow Patrol was said to have been due to his diminishing creative role and the feeling that his heart was no longer in the project.
The Forest Is the Path (2024–present) . On 29 May 2024, Snow Patrol unveiled "The Beginning", the first single from their
Fraser T. Smith-produced album,
The Forest Is the Path, which was released on 13 September. ==Contributions==