Snow Patrol

Snow Patrol are a Northern Irish rock band formed in 1994 in Dundee, Scotland, consisting of Gary Lightbody (vocals, guitar), Nathan Connolly (guitar, backing vocals), and Johnny McDaid (piano, guitar, keyboards, backing vocals); Lightbody is the band's sole remaining original member. The group was formed in early 1994 as Shrug by University of Dundee students Lightbody, Michael Morrison, and Mark McClelland. After briefly using the name Polarbear, releasing the EP Starfighter Pilot (1997) and losing Morrison as a member, the band became Snow Patrol in 1997 and added Jonny Quinn to the lineup as drummer. Their first two studio albums, Songs for Polarbears (1998) and When It's All Over We Still Have to Clear Up (2001), released by independent record label Jeepster Records, were commercially unsuccessful. The band signed to Polydor Records, in 2002 and Connolly joined as lead guitarist. Their major-label debut album, Final Straw, was released the following year. "Run", the record's biggest hit, saw the band rise to national fame as part of the post-Britpop movement. The album was certified 5× platinum in the UK. In 2005, McClelland left the band and was replaced by Paul Wilson. Their next studio album, Eyes Open (2006), and its hit single "Chasing Cars"—reported in 2019 to be the most-played song of the 21st century on UK radio—propelled the band to greater international fame. The album topped the UK Albums Chart and was the best-selling British record of the year. Snow Patrol released their fifth studio album, A Hundred Million Suns, in 2008; their sixth, Fallen Empires, in 2011; their seventh, Wildness, in 2018; and their eighth, The Forest Is the Path, in 2024. Quinn and Wilson left the group in 2023. During the course of their career, Snow Patrol have won seven Meteor Ireland Music Awards and been nominated for six Brit Awards and one Grammy. Final Straw, Eyes Open, and A Hundred Million Suns have sold ten million copies worldwide, combined.