Final Straw 2001

Jeepster dropped Snow Patrol in 2001, a decision that was criticized by Hot Press magazine as brainless. Then Snow Patrol manager Danny McIntosh compared the band’s relation with the label to a marriage gone sour: “[they] gave us our big break, so we fell madly in love with them. Then the fighting and the arguing started and, well, let’s just say that both sides filed for divorce”. By July 2001, many major labels had started showing interest in Snow Patrol, but the band were cash-strapped and had no record deal. Lightbody sold a major part of his record collection to raise money to keep the band going. Lightbody calls the time “miserable”, but was confident of getting signed to another label quickly. However, the music scene in the United Kingdom had turned its attention to American bands and British bands were not getting signed. The band spent this time constantly writing songs. Lightbody, bored at this point, assembled The Reindeer Section, a Scottish supergroup, and found a record label to release the group’s recordings. Quinn said that though the time was hard for everyone involved, the question of splitting up never arose. It was during this time the band wrote “Run” (which had been around since 2000) in a room on an acoustic guitar, which later became the band’s breakthrough single. The band’s “low point” came when they played a concert to 18 people at a strip club in High Wycombe. The show took place in a shoddy VIP area, and the management had to unscrew poles used by pole dancers in order to make space for the band to play. Quinn calls the show “horrendous”. Desperate for attention, the band raised £200 to nominate themselves for a Mercury Prize, but failed to get shortlisted. Get your tickets of all your favorite events at Ticket Market like Snow Patrol Concert Tickets. Buy and sell Snow Patrol Tickets through YourTicketMarket.com