Snow Patrol announce Irish tour
Snow Patrol have announced details of Irish tour dates including a show at The Olympia Theatre on 15th May. Over a two-decade career, Snow Patrol has carved out a unique place for themselves. Since their 1998 debut, Songs for Polarbears, which Pitchfork hailed as “an impressive piece of work,” their melancholy anthems of heartbreak and separation have mended hearts, and the band has racked up an impressive number of critical and commercial accolades, including 15 million global album sales, 1+ billion global track streams, 5 UK Platinum Albums, and are Grammy, BRIT Award and Mercury Music Prize nominated.
They emerged as heartsore musical prophets in the shadow of grunge and shallow pop, striking a chord in the minds, memories and hearts of listeners over six groundbreaking, confessional albums.
Eyes Open, released in 2006, was the biggest-selling album in the UK that year; they went on to headline such festivals as the prestigious T in the Park. But after their Fallen Empires tour ended in 2012, band members — guitarist, vocalist Gary Lightbody, guitarists Johnny McDaid and Nathan Connolly, bassist Paul Wilson, and drummer Jonny Quinn — decided to stop for a while.
“I do think the rest of the band would have been ready to record at any point over the last five years. But they never showed frustration or anger. Never did they say, ‘Hurry up and write the songs, mate.’”
In the interim, Quinn started a family and dove into his Polar Patrol Publishing, signing Belle and Sebastian in 2014.Connolly formed and fronted Little Matador, the band he started with a number of other prominent Irish and American musicians, including Dave Magee from Lafaro and Gavin Fox from Idlewild. Wilson signed on as the touring guitarist in Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel’s band Lieutenant, and produced a number of bands, including L.A. newcomers Broken Arrow. McDaid wrote songs and produced such diverse artists as Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Robbie Williams, Ed Sheeran and Pink, and executive-produced Kodaline’s third album, due out this year.
Lightbody put the finishing touches on The Ghost of the Mountain, the second album by his Tired Pony side project with members of Belle and Sebastian, R.E.M, Reindeer Section and Fresh Young Fellows. He then moved to Los Angeles and began writing songs for movies (including “This Is How You Walk On” for 2017’s Gifted), and doing a number of high-profile co-writes with Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift and One Direction. Songs that weren’t pulled from his own psyche were less painful to craft, and went a long way into healing what he considered to be writer’s block.
Which is what he did for Snow Patrol’s seventh album. Titled Wildness, it taps into something raw and primitive.
Tour Dates
Derry - Millennium Forum 11th May
Cork – Opera House 12th May
Killarney – INEC 14th May
Dublin – Olympia 15th May
Wexford – Opera House 16th May
Galway – Leisureland 18th May
Belfast – Ulster Hall 20th May
Tickets on sale Friday 30th March at 10am
Wildness – May 25th - Polydor Records
Pre order Wildness before Wednesday 28th March to gain access to an exclusive pre-sale from 10am on Thursday 29th March. Direct link: http://bit.ly/2G8VUTr
Tickets for all tour dates go on sale at 10am on Friday 30th March via Ticketmaster outlets and www.ticketmaster.ie