Snow Patrol – In session from Northern Ireland, 2001 – BBC Radio 1 –
Snow Patrol to kick the week off. One of the more successful of the Post-Britpop/Indie bands to grace the international charts, the Scottish/Northern Irish quintet have a hugely popular run so far; appealing across the board to Indie as well as mainstream pop audiences.
First forming in 1993 as Polarbear, the band officially changed their name to Snow Patrol in 1997. After an ep and two studio albums; all of which didn’t chart or sell well, the band ended their relationship with the initial two Indie labels and wound up signing with Polydor in 2002. With a personnel change and a major label behind them, their debut Polydor album, Final Straw became their breakout hit. Snow Patrol achieved international success by way of their 2003 single, Chasing Cars from their follow-up album, Eyes Open which also sold extremely well – Final Straw was certified 5x Platinum and Eyes Open became the biggest selling album of that year, with over 6 million in sales worldwide.
This session, recorded in Northern Ireland in 2001 for BBC Radio 1, catches them before their giant leap. They had just been dropped by their label Jeepster Records and were, at the time, unsigned – although they were getting considerable interest from several major labels, none had committed at this point and the band were going through a rough financial patch. So bad, that founding member – guitarist/singer Gary Lightbody had to sell his record collection in order to keep the band going. Later interviews with Lightbody refers to the time as miserable, but he was convinced the band would be signed. And Polydor stepped up.
Over the years, Snow Patrol have maintained an across-the-board popularity – winning 7 Meteor Ireland Music Awards as well as nominated for six Brit Awards.
At present, the band are set to release their first album since Fallen Empires was issued in 2011 – coming out any day now, if it hasn’t already.
In the meantime, here’s a sample of what they were up to relatively early on – well before their fortunes changed.
Crank it up and get ready for the week.
