How Ed Sheeran helped Snow Patrol get back on top
Snow Patrol front man Gary Lightbody was terrified the band would be forgotten while he took time out to battle booze and depression. But they have come back strong with a little help from their friend Ed Sheeran.
Music
Don't miss out on the headlines from Music. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Tens of millions of people around the world tuned in for the final episode of Game Of Thrones — but Gary Lightbody wasn’t one of them.
The Snow Patrol front man has had a long association with the award-winning pop-culture phenomenon thanks to his friendship with show-runners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and was one of the first celebrities to cameo in the show, playing a Bolton soldier way back in season three.
Lightbody, who hails from Northern Ireland, where much of GoT was made, has been an avid watcher of previous seasons, often emailing his thoughts and reactions to the Benioff and Weiss after episodes aired.
But for the final season, he’s opted to tap out so he can binge the lot.
“This time I said, ‘lads, I am going to not watch, try to avoid spoilers and watch all six at once’,” Lightbody says.
“And I remember David sent an email back which said, like Liam Neeson in Taken, ‘good luck’. They are lovely men and very self-deprecating but even with their sweet, self-deprecating natures they realise how big the show is and how difficult it is to avoid. It’s been very hard. I have caught glimpses of spoilers but I am in denial about them and blustering on regardless.”
For the record, Lightbody wants to see Jon Snow on the Iron Throne when the credits roll for the final time.
“I love his heart and his dignity and grace,” he says. “But who knows? I don’t even know if he is still alive. They can’t kill him again surely.”
Lightbody can also take some of the credit — or the blame, depending on your perspective — for what was arguably the most divisive of the many musician GoT cameos, when avid fan Ed Sheeran sang a song as a Lannister soldier and broke the internet last season.
“I introduced him to Dan and David and they became friends,” says Lightbody.
“I mean he’s Ed Sheeran, it’s not as if he needed me to introduce them. It’s just the way it happened, but I’m sure he would have met them along the way.”
Lightbody and Sheeran’s friendship long predates their Westeros connection, when they bonded as mutual fans.
After sharing a bill in Switzerland and during a drunken night out in Zurich, they got to talking about tattoos and Lightbody said if he was ever to get one, it would be of a line from a Bon Iver song.
Sheeran knew instinctively the song he had in mind and Lightbody knew he’d met a kindred spirit.
“He guessed the line that I wanted for my tattoo from the song Re: Stacks and that was the moment I was like ‘I am going to know this guy for the rest of my life’. It was a beautiful thing.
“And weeks later he ran into Justin Vernon and got him to write the line down so he could get it tattooed and he sent me the picture and said ‘I’m going to get this tattooed — you go and get it tattooed wherever you are and we will get it done together’. And he went and got his done and I chickened out of mine.”
Lightbody asked Sheeran to support Snow Patrol on the 2012 of the US, which turned out to be the band’s last major tour for six years (“we were headlining but there were loads of people there to see him”).
The Grammy-nominated band, best known for hits including Run and Chasing Cars, went on hiatus in 2013 while Lightbody dealt with depression, alcohol abuse and a serious case of writers’ block.
After finally getting help and getting healthy, Lightbody and Snow Patrol returned last year with their seventh album, Wildness, which reached No. 2 on the UK charts and No. 12 in Australia.
While the album just cracked the US top 50, Sheeran helped reintroduce the band to that massive market by taking them out on the road with him.
“He didn’t need to return the favour but because he is an absolute gentleman and a sweetheart, he offered us his stadium tour of the states and we absolutely had a ball with him,” says Lightbody.
Lightbody admits he was terrified the band might have been forgotten after so long away, and was delighted to find they were filling many of the same arenas in the UK and Europe as they had on their previous tour.
He’s also revelling in the fact that he can remember every detail of every gig since Snow Patrol hit the road again last year, having kicked the booze and confronted his mental health issues.
“Playing with a hangover is in some ways a distant but also a very clear memory,” he says. “It feels like I am so aware of it and I am grateful because I don’t want to become unaware of it and I might slip back. I am very present on stage these days and I think that is very helpful.”
And where on previous tours he admits he would often find himself crying in the foetal position on his hotel room floor just hours after playing to thousands of adoring fans, nowadays his post-show routine is more likely to be binge-watching on Netflix.
“The foetal position hasn’t been used,” he confirms.
“Well, sometimes in bed, that’s cosy, but not weeping on the floor any more. The only problem I have after shows is that I find it hard to sleep — the adrenaline is flowing and I have nowhere to put it these days.
“I am trying to figure out where because it used to go into booze. I wouldn’t be far away from a drink; I knew there would be one around the corner somewhere. But these days I just have to wait until it all dies down — normally it’s about 4am before I get to bed. It’s very quiet that’s for sure, I will be watching a show on Netflix or something for hours after the show until I feel sleepy.”
After a lightening tour of Australia last year, Snow Patrol is celebrating its 25th year with a special acoustic tour of Australia as a trio, with Lightbody accompanied by lead guitarist Nathan Connolly and multi-instrumentalist Johnny McDaid (who co-wrote much of Sheeran’s most recent album).
“It’s not a plinky-plinky show,” Lightbody stresses.
“It’s a pretty rocking acoustic show with beats and big sounds. It’s not something anyone is going to have to sit there scratching their chin.
READ MORE:
“With the acoustic show we can do whatever the hell we want. The set list changes quite a lot and we are and sometimes we are changing things in the middle of playing them, which is a lot of fun. I’m looking at Nathan and Johnny going ‘OK, let’s shift into this’ but doing it all with our eyes. You have to have that telepathy that people who have been playing together for so long have.”
Snow Patrol Live and Acoustic:
August 4, Concert Hall, Perth;
August 6, QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane
August 10, Palais Theatre, Melbourne
August 11, Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.
LISTEN NOW: Which MP loves Wicked hit Defying Gravity?
We have asked Australia’s MPs what their top five songs are on the election trail and one has revealed they love the hit song from the Wicked musical. Listen now.
ZZ Top reveal the beard question they can never answer
They sport the most famous beards in the history of rock music and ZZ Top frontman Billy Gibbon reveals the one thing fans are desperate to know about their facial furniture.