Beautiful Day

Snow Patrol singer forced to rest voice

Snow Patrol have been forced to postpone two dates on their current US tour because singer Gary Lightbody is struggling with his voice and has been advised to rest.

According to a posting on the band's official website, Snow Patrol will have to reschedule two of their concerts, due to take place this week.

Lightbody said in the message: "The reason for this is my voice is in pieces. You may have seen us on 'Good Morning America' this morning and if you did you'll be aware I barely scraped through it and that was only one song."

"Unfortunately now I can barely hit any notes. My entire upper range has disappeared into a whisper," the singer said.

Lightbody said that he was due to see a specialist in New York tomorrow and may also seek help from a vocal coach in order to get his voice back to full strength.

"I am so sorry for this to all of you who have bought tickets especially those of you who have travelled long distances to these shows," he said.

From RTE

Snow Patrol cover Lennon for charity

Snow Patrol have covered a John Lennon song as part of a new campaign for Amnesty International. The band, who recently topped the album chart with 'Eyes Open', have covered the former Beatle's hit 'Isolation' as part of an online campaign calling for justice in Sudan. The cover is the soundtrack for a new video, which is calling for war criminals to be punished for the mass rape of thousands of women in the Darfur region. Frontman Gary Lightbody, who was reportedly introduced to the project by U2 singer Bono, said: "I support Amnesty because we have lived our whole lives in freedom - music is a good way of bringing awareness to people without ramming it down their throats because it is something everyone can relate to. "Amnesty is not regarded as political or religious or anything like that. It's basically helping people whose basic human rights are being denied. It's like helping people who can't help themselves." The video can be viewed at noise.amnesty.org and the song can also be downloaded from the Amnesty site.

From Virgin.net

Snow Patrol top album charts with "Eyes Open

LONDON (Reuters) - Northern Ireland's Snow Patrol have topped the album charts with their new CD "Eyes Open", the Official UK Charts Company said on Sunday.

The album is the fourth from the indie band and is their first number one since they formed more than a decade ago.

Snow Patrol also climbed three places to number seven in the singles chart with a track taken from the album, "You're All I Have."

From Reuters

Napster give Snow Patrol fans album one week early

Napster has teamed up with British band Snow Patrol to offer fans the chance to preview the album one week before the release exclusively in the online download store.

Released on 1 May, the fourth studio album "Eyes Open" is available today in its entirety on Napster as part of the latest Napster Listening Party.

Napster has already offered previews for Embrace, The Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs earlier this year.

Napster members can listen to "Eyes Open" in full length, CD quality sound for free, while users of Napster To Go can transfer all audio tracks to their compatible media player as a tethered download for no extra charge.

Also going live today, Napster users will be able to see an exclusive video interview with The Charlatans in which they highlight both their musical influences and their current favourites.

In addition, an exclusive Charlatans Napster Radio station also celebrates the group with hits that span the best part of two decades.

From Pocket lint

Snow Patrol Announce Secret Daytime Gig

Snow Patrol have revealed they are to play a secret gig later this month.

The gig will take place in a secret location in London at 2.30pm on April 26th.

The tickets aren't up for sale though. The only way to get hold of tickets is to drop by at the bands official website
http://www.snowpatrol.com and registering yourself on the site.

The band will head out on a UK Tour on the day they release their new album, they will then be heading out to the States for a series of dates.

New album 'Eyes Open' will be released on May 1st and the tracklisting is as follows:

You’re All I Have
Hands Open
Chasing Cars
Shut Your Eyes
Beginning To Get To Me
You Could Be Happy
Make This Go On Forever
Set The Fire To The Third Bar (Feat. Martha Wainwright)
Headlights On Dark Roads
Open Your Eyes
The Finish Line

Snow Patrol - You're All I Have

Catch Snow Patrol on their current mid-sized venue tour while you can, because with You're All I Have (the first single from Eyes Open, the follow-up to their successful breakthrough album Final Straw), it's pretty clear they've set their sights on a future filled with transatlantic stadiums. In come US-friendly rawk guitars, out goes the more tender (and interesting) lighters-aloft-in-training balladry they peddled on Chocolate and Run.

It's not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with this - after all, they've always skirted a very thin line between acceptable AOR and  Keane/Embrace tedium, but they could do much better. Gary Lightbody has previously managed to convey enough emotion to float above average guitar band mediocrity, and now that he and his friends are clearly on track to achieve their dreams of never playing to a crowd of less that 50,000 again, it's a shame that he doesn't give the impression that he's celebrating particularly hard.

You're All I Have isn't an entirely disappointing single, but at the same time there's nothing particularly that makes you want to sing its praises or, perhaps more unfortunately, to make you want to sing along. It'll no doubt do perfectly well with the endless hoards of 50-quid man who's already bought this year's ration of  Coldplay though, and right now this probably suits them just fine.

From Music OMH.com

Ulster bands are getting ready to take US by storm

Snow Patrol are one of seven Northern Irish acts set to take a major music festival in the US by storm this week.

SXSW (South by South West), held in Austin, Texas, is an annual prestigious event in the music calendar which gives bands and artists the chance to showcase their abilities.

Indie band Snow Patrol will be performing a headlining gig at the festival, as part of their seven-date tour of the US.

Also jetting out for SXSW are the hotly-tipped Oppenheimer, Downpatrick rockers The Answer, who recently picked up Best New Band title in the Classic Rock magazine awards, and Coleraine's Amazing Pilots, who will be making their third appearance at the event.

Ivor Novello award-winning singer/songwriter Iain Archer, who used to play with Snow Patrol, will be taking part as well as singer Duke Special and Bangor-born artist Foy Vance, who is managed by the same team that launched Joss Stone.

Rocky O'Reilly of pop-synth duo Oppenheimer is looking forward to performing at the festival and meeting other bands.

He said: "Myself and Shaun are both very excited about SXSW. The first copies of our finished album will be there, so that's another reason to be excited."

Flying out today to give his support to the Northern Irish artists will be Ross Graham, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Music Commission.

The organisation is being supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland in this venture and will travel to the US as part of their overseas marketing initiative.

SXSW runs from tomorrow until March 19, with Snow Patrol's headlining concert taking place on St Patrick's Day.

From The Belfast Telegraph

Snow Patrol set date for new album

Snow Patrol have announced that they will release their eagerly-awaited fourth album, 'Eyes Open', on 1 May.

Billboard reports that the album will be preceded by the single 'You're All I Have' on 24 April.

Among the songs on the 11-track album is 'Set the Fire to the Third Bar', a duet between Snow Patrol singer Gary Lightbody and Martha Wainwright.

Among the other guests who appear on the album are Ken Stringfellow of The Posies and Big Star, Iain Archer and The Vaselines' Eugene Kelly.

The full tracklisting for the album is:
'You're All I Have'
'Hands Open'
'Chasing Cars'
'Shut Your Eyes'
'Beginning to Get to Me'
'You Could Be Happy'
'Make This Go on Forever'
'Set the Fire to the Third Bar'
'Headlights'
'Open Your Eyes'
'Finish Line'

From RTE

Snow Patrol - Heineken Green Energy Festival 2006

Snow Patrol, Northern Ireland indie rockers, play Dublin Castle on Saturday, the 29th of April.

Snow Patrol come to the Heineken Green Energy Festival showcasing songs from their new album, Eyes Open alongside festival favourites from their hugely successful third album, Final Straw.

In 1994, Gary Lightbody met the guitarist, Mark McClelland while studying at Dundee University. They discovered that they liked the same bands and decided to form their own group, Polar Bear.

Jane Addiction's bassist, Eric Avery was using the same title and was threatening a lawsuit, so Lightbody and McClelland changed their name to the equally wintry, Snow Patrol. Snow Patrol signed to the hip Scottish label, Jeepster Records in 1998 and added drummer, John Quinn to the band's line-up.

Snow Patrol released their debut album, Songs for Polar Bears in 1998. The album had a raucous pop punk sound full of references to Snow Patrol's favourite bands, The Pixies, Dinosaur Jr, Soundgarden, My Bloody Valentine and Super Furry Animals.

Snow Patrol moved from Dundee to Glasgow and the band's second album, When It's All Over We Still Have To Clear Up was released in 2001. Snow Patrol were becoming a favourite of music critics and building up a cult audience around Britain. But the band's relationship with Jeepster started to fray and Jeepster and Snow Patrol soon parted company.

After recording with his side project, The Reindeer Section, Lightbody returned to Snow Patrol and began to demo songs for their next album, The Final Straw. Polydor signed the band to their label, Fiction and the band started to record their new album with producer, Garrett Lee and new guitarist, Nathan Connolly.

When The Final Straw was released, it received a wide range of critical acclaim for its swooping pop anthems and bittersweet indie ballads.

A night of indie rock anthems, Snow Patrol play the Heineken Green Energy Festival on the 29th of April.

From Dublinks

Snow Patrol use bush Inspiration

Northern Irish band SNOW PATROL rented an empty house on a desolate Irish cliffside to record their second album, after hearing KATE BUSH had composed in the same building.

The RUN stars are currently adding the finishing touches to EYES OPEN, the follow-up to their successful third disc FINAL STRAW.

The rockers has hailed the Irish fishing village of Dingle as the perfect location to inspire their musical creativity.

Frontman GARY LIGHTBODY says, "We rented an isolated house on the top of a cliff.

"Kate Bush wrote there and it's not a wild stretch of the imagination to see why. It's a very dramatic place."

From contactmusic.com