Snow On The Pitch

The way local rock lore tells it, Snow Patrol are one hell of a hedonistic force to be reckoned with while on the road. Indeed, legend has it that, when an (unnamed) journalist went on tour with the band some years ago, he (or she) had such a ‘good time’, that he (or she) was spotted urinating on a white line in the middle of a Glaswegian road outside the band’s lodgings at rush hour, so as ‘not to be seen’.

Needless to say, it is with a certain amount of trepidation that I meet Nathan Connolly (guitar, vocals) and Gary Lightbody (vocals, guitar) from the band one sunny morning in Dublin’s Morrison Hotel. Their reputation seems to have preceded them – while most people in the immediate area are delicately sipping their first soya lattes of the day, the lads are heartily sinking pints of the black stuff. This, as I am to find out, is the way of the world while on tour with Snow Patrol.
So the question is begging to be asked: have there been many ‘on the road’ horror stories in the camp?
“Well, we tend to get into a bit of trouble when we’re out with Alfie or Mogwai,” admits Lightbody. “One time, we were going to V2001, and we hired a superbus to get there, I realised that the roof opened right up, so you could get out. I get out one side of the roof and Johnny is out the other, up the front. We’re going up the motorway about 70mph, and I’m shimmying along the bus from one window to the other.
Anyway, because Johnny is up the front, I don’t see anything, specifically my imminent death from the bridge that’s coming towards us – anyway, Johnny is waving madly at me and I’m like ‘yeah it’s great!’. So next, the bridge literally clips the top of my head, and I’m just frozen…until the next bridge, and then after that I get down…”
Decamping to Scotland from Northern Ireland in 1993, over the past ten years Snow Patrol have come to be as powerfully identified with their adopted city as they are with their native land.
“We’re one of the luckiest bands alive because we’ve got four hometown gigs to do,” notes Lightbody. “Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh and Glasgow all feel like homecoming gigs. I think we’re looking forward to Dublin the most really…we’ve so many friends here and happy memories.”
“I love it when people ask me where I’m from and I can say, I’m from Belfast, or from Ireland,” says Connolly. “It’s an international passport to the world really…”
“We consider ourselves part of the Scottish scene, but we’ve very, very proud to come from Ireland. At the moment I’d love to be connected with the music that’s coming out of Ireland - David Kitt, Mundy, The Frames, Turn, it’s all good. We’re friendly with some of them, and I’m sure we’ll be friendly with everyone else, once we get around to meeting them. I think we’re kind of forgotten about in terms of being Irish, and the British music press don’t make it any easier by constantly referring to us as a Scottish or a British band,” continues Lightbody. “In saying that, I don’t know what I would do if I wasn’t accepted at home…it’s the most important thing”.
“In fact, we were just talking earlier about when we supported Travis in the Ulster Hall, it was like a real dream come true after going there for years. I saw my first gig there, Therapy?, Ash and Joyrider – what ever happened to them?” muses Connolly.
“I’d love to eventually move back to Ireland, but right now I can’t move away from Glasgow. I love it,” concludes Lightbody. “It’s very similar to Belfast… both cities are ship building towns, have turbulent histories, and that makes something about the character of each city very strong and endearing.”
Speaking of endearing, Snow Patrol have also decided to wrap their forthcoming Irish tour in a rather unorthodox way – by playing a hearty game of football against the Thomastown Under 15’s the morning after their final Irish date.
“We’ll let them run rings around us, do maybe 20 minutes in a half”, says Lightbody.
‘They’ll either run rings around us, or maybe they’ll be hungover as well,” laughs Connolly. As it goes, Snow Patrol have rather kindly sponsored the team, and will provide a strip (jerseys, that is, as opposed to a tease, though you never know) to the team before their ‘friendly’ match.
“(Our drummer) Johnny’s girlfriend is from there, so we have a big connection with T-Town, or the ‘happy valley’”, explains Lightbody. “It’s an amazing, magical, mythical town, and we love it to bits. We want to do the match for charity, and Ted Murphy (of T-Town’s Murphy’s Bar) told us that the team needed a new kit, so we’re going to use the money from the gig the night before to pay for a new strip. They’ll have ‘Snow Patrol’ written on them, which is a dream come true for us. Actually, we’re getting some done up for our merchandise stall too.”
Before such footie antics take place, there is the small matter of the group’s Irish tour. Next time I catch up with the band is at their truly incendiary headline gig at the Temple Bar Music Centre. Obviously the band are fans of the short-sharp approach; they storm the stage and play a sonic blinder, leaving the crowd dazed and delighted 45 uproarious minutes later. It’s easy to conclude that a strong constitution would be needed to withstand the pace of life on the road with Snow Patrol – and that’s even before the aftershow party gets underway.
A couple of turbulent gigs later, Snow Patrol are, as promised, in Thomastown for the aforementioned momentous football match, having concluded the tour with a show in Thomastown’s Murphy’s Bar the night before. Needless to say, alcohol-fuelled antics were at the forefront of the post-gig agenda, and as a result, the afternoon slides into comical farce.
Firstly, the band arrive 20 minutes late – their tour van chugs into the Under 15’s football ground sounding for all the world like a near-dead workhorse. Under the curious eyes of the assembled locals, a motley crew of band members and entourage (among them are singer Iain Archer, Owen from the band Starsi, tour manager Robin, and sound engineer Tom) spring from the van with as much gusto as the night before (and the tour activity of the last few weeks) will allow.
Any signs of hangover are deftly hidden among the sense of male camaraderie. Truth be told, it’s a wonder that the band, intoxicated as they may be, didn’t singe the eyebrows off anyone they came into contact with. It transpires that the crew got to bed at 9am that morning before hauling themselves out of bed a half hour before the match. Curiously, there is no sign whatsoever of Nathan, and rumours subsequently abound that he has had a particularly colourful night and is ‘the worse for wear’.
The assembled team make an arresting sight, in stark contrast to the lithe and youthful Under 15s. At one point, while Team Snow Patrol are assembled for the hotpress photoshoot, the opposition, bedecked in their impressive new strip, are busy warming up, practising, discussing tactics and the like. As for the game itself – the Premiership it ain’t.
A mere ten minutes in, and various team members start to wilt in the white heat of battle. Fifteen minutes into the game, Lightbody is pleading for a substitute from the sidelines (“Help, I’m nearly down, lads…”).
In light of the band’s benevolence, the U15’s seem a little hesitant to totally humiliate the opposition, and, perhaps owing in part to his fragile condition, Lightbody is especially reluctant to tackle anyone with any real gusto. It also comes to my attention that he is wearing one black and one white sock. You also cannot help but wish that someone had brought a book or some other such suitable means of entertainment for the Thomastown goalie, as the ball scarcely leaves the Snow Patrol half for the duration of the first 45 minutes.
As they say, however, football is a game of two halves, and in this case, the second half seems even more farcical than the first. Someone in the entourage decided, in a moment of inspiration, to bring Sambuca and Bulmers supplies as refreshments. In the 56th minute, Tom the sound engineer is given a red card for having a fag break. On the pitch. Miraculously, the band make it to 90 minutes without expiring, though after the match there are highly exaggerated displays of fatigue (lots of chest clutching, collapsing etc.).
It was, inevitably, the shared sense of suffering that bound Team Snow Patrol together – and it must be said, it was a hell of a lot of fun to watch. But then again, they seem to be the type of lads that can always be depended on for a fine spectacle, not to mention a good tale to return home with.
The final score? 4-2.
What do you mean, ‘To who?’

Snow Patrol’s latest album Final Straw is out now on Black Lion