Snow Patrol mark 25th anniversary with Brighton gig

To mark their quarter century, they have been “reworking” their classics ahead of their Reworked album.

In the meantime, their Reworked EP1 is available now via Polydor Records, including “reworked” versions of Crack The Shutters, Chocolate and Open Your Eyes plus the previously released new song Time Won’t Go Slowly.

Bassist Paul Wilson is enjoying the anniversary: “It feels great, which is one of the reasons we wanted to do something to signify the landmark, and it is almost like signifying a new start as well. I really think the next album after the Reworked album will be a new start for us, that it will be really exciting.”

Snow Patrol’s album Wildness, their first studio album in seven years, was released last year reaching number two in the UK album charts and going gold in the process.

Looking back, Paul reckons that enduring friendship has been behind the band’s longevity: “We are all still really good friends, and I think that helps. We know how to give each other space. We spend a lot of time together touring, and we just know how to get along.

“Also I think that people who have overnight success tend to burn out overfast. They get too carried away. We had a very gradual time of it. The first seven or eight years we were just getting on with it gradually, and then when Run came out, it was like a second chance. It was a very long apprenticeship!”

There were definitely doubts: “Nobody wanted to sign us. Nobody would give us a chance. So I think Run was the first big turning point. I remember before that playing a bar in front of five people and there was a dog on stage drinking my pint and I couldn’t stop him because I was playing the guitar!”

After that, the only way was up: “And then we were touring America, and by the time we came back Run was number two in the charts. It was a song we had been playing for three years by then.”

Success was relatively straightforward to cope with: “We never really stopped touring and playing. We were always in like our own little bubble. It was just such hard work. The moment you finished, you were straight into a studio… but we have taken quite a long time off just recently. Four years, actually. We were all doing different things. We had different projects. And we were doing a lot of stuff together. But it was just great to have a different perspective and also to be home. I had never really been at home. So really it was a good chance to take stock of what has happened and to appreciate the success.”

Success such as Chasing Cars being announced by the PPL as the most played song on UK radio of the 21st century – a fact which in a way taps into the band’s current Reworked project.

“That song is a really good example of why we have done this reworking. When you have got a good song, you know a good song, but a lot of them we didn’t really know what direction to take them in, which way they were going to go. Chasing Cars is the perfect example. We recorded about five or six different versions, electronic, all sorts of stuff. We were trying maybe not to make it into the ballad that it was supposed to be. And then we did realise that that was what it was meant to be.

“But it has been interesting to do the reworking. We have done a number of stripped-down versions which are great if you are not in the mood to have the full version.”

Since their 1998 debut, Songs for Polarbears, the band have racked up an impressive number of critical and commercial accolades, including over 17 million global album sales, 1+ billion global track streams, and 5 UK platinum albums.

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