QR Music Review: Snow Patrol - Live in HMV Belfast
Snow Patrol returned last month with their new album “Wildness” after a seven year hiatus. The album has been met with Rave reviews and could reach the top of the album charts this weekend. In promotion of this new album and the supporting world tour front man Gary Lightbody & guitarist Nathan Connolly presented a brief acoustic set in HMV in Belfast on Thursday 31st May.
As part of a special promotion with HMV fans who bought the new album on May 30th would receive a wristband providing access to the intimate gig. Phenomenal demand lead to stock being exhausted quickly and more wristbands being released the morning of the gig. Fans queued for hours before the band arrived to secure the best spot in the packed HMV store on Queen Street amongst racks of records and DVDs with legendary artists on the walls watching on. It was evident despite the group’s seven year absence their fan base remained just as excited to see the local band.
Despite a scheduled start time of 5:30 due to being grounded in Manchester Airport, where they had played a similar gig earlier that day the band did not arrive in the store until nearly 7:00 although the packed out HMV crowd was no less excited to see the band arrive. After making some brief apologies for the delay the band began their five song set with the lead single of their new album, “Don’t Give In”. A song which is rooted in Gary Lightbody’s own struggles with his mental health in recent years and which was met with a crowd singing along every word. Between songs the intimate venue allowed the band to banter with the crowd about their songs and travel woes earlier in the day. They then moved into their mega-hits “Run” & “Chasing Cars” with the opening notes of the latter exciting the crowd before Lightbody joked “I’m just tuning my guitar, that’s it”. The band finished their set with new single “Empress” and their 2009 hit “Just Say Yes”.
The acoustic set and smaller venue added a unique dynamic to these well-known and newer songs, with “Empress” especially taking on a different identity when heard live. The band wrapped up their set and then remained in store for over two hours signing albums and taking pictures with all their homegrown fans in attendance. The gig was a unique show providing a different way to see this band which has concluded a recent sold out UK tour and kicks off a worldwide arena tour later this year. Promoting a new album or tour never ends though and as soon as Lightbody left HMV at nearly 10PM he was on Facebook Live playing requests and taking questions from fans. “Wildness” is the natural evolution of where Snow Patrol have taken their sound with recent albums and as the Belfast band once again take the spotlight on the world stage it was refreshing to see them back home.
Snow Patrol’s new album Wildness is available now and tickets for their tour go on sale on June 8th at 9:00AM with a show in the SSE Arena in Belfast on Friday December 7th 2018
By Sean Hughes & Jack Donnelly