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"Snow Patrol are a rock band from Northern Ireland, (although currently based in Glasgow, Scotland) signed to Polydor Records. Originally formed as an indie rock band, Snow Patrol has sought a more alternative rock sound in recent years on the heels of mainstream success with the songs 'Run' and 'Chasing Cars'. Originally formed in late 1994 as 'Shrug' by students Gary Lightbody and Mark McClelland at Dundee University in Dundee, Scotland, the band started by performing gigs at the school and surrounding pubs before changing their name to 'Polar Bear' (or 'Polarbear') in late 1995. In mid 1997, they released a three-track EP, Starfighter Pilot, on the Electric Honey label. Richard Colburn, from Glaswegian indie band Belle & Sebastian, played drums on this record, and Stuart Murdoch, from the same band, sang on one of the B-sides. Due to legal threats from an American band with the same name (led by Eric Avery, the former bassist of Jane's Addiction), they became 'Snow Patrol'. There is a 'thank you' to Gary's English tutor Peter Easingwood in the sleeve notes of the original 'Starfighter Pilot'.
At this point, Jonny Quinn, from Northern Ireland, joined as permanent drummer. With him rounding out the lineup, the band released their next EP Little Hide on Jeepster Records while still living in Dundee (its cover was a blurred photo of a football crowd watching Dundee United F.C. at Tannadice Park). A follow-up single 'One Hundred Things You Should Have Done in Bed' was a minor independent chart hit. Both of these early singles were heavily promoted by Jeepster - with videos included as computer files on the CD singles, and Snow Patrol starting to appear on television. Their first MTV interview was in 1998, and they briefly appeared on a Channel Four documentary about Jeepster Records (which concentrated mostly on Belle & Sebastian) that same year. Two albums on Jeepster followed: Songs For Polarbears in 1998 (including a slightly remixed version of their debut single Starfighter Pilot) and When It's All Over We Still Have to Clear Up in 2001 (both recorded while the band lived in Glasgow). Also in 2001, Gary collected a group of Scottish independent musicians from such acts as Mogwai together to perform as a 'supergroup', 'The Reindeer Section', who have so far released two CD albums. Gary also performed vocals on a single by Cut La Roc.
It wasn't until after being dropped by Jeepster that guitarist Nathan Connolly joined, and the band signed to the mainstream Polydor label. They gained mainstream success with their song 'Run' (which debuted at #5 in the UK singles chart), as well as the album it was from, the 2003 release, Final Straw which was produced by Jacknife Lee. Iain Archer, a touring guitarist and songwriting collaborator from 2001-2003, won an Ivor Novello award for his contribution to the Final Straw album. The record peaked at #3 in the UK albums chart. Archer's final date with the band was September 27th, 2003 in the St Andrews Students' Association. They followed the success of 'Run' up with three more singles from the album, 'Chocolate', and a re-release of 'Spitting Games', both reaching the top 30, and 'How to Be Dead' reaching number 39."
[reproduced or excerpted from the Wikipedia article "Snow Patrol" and its use is thus licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License]
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