Snow Patrol frontman concern at few NI bands breaking international market

The lead singer of Snow Patrol has expressed his concern that no band from Northern Ireland has broken the international market this century.

Gary Lightbody was speaking after attending a meeting with arts leaders and Stormont Communities Minister Gordon Lyons over funding for the arts in the region.

He referred to his own group as having taken ten years to find success, recalling nights sleeping on friends’ sofas and relying on “the kindness of strangers”.

Snow Patrol was formed in 1994 in Dundee, when Lightbody was at university in the Scottish city.

Their third album, Final Straw, with hits Chocolate and Run, released in 2003, was their first to bring them mainstream success.

During the 1990s a number of other bands emerged internationally from Northern Ireland, including Ash, Foy Vance and Two Door Cinema Club.

Lightbody told the PA news agency in Belfast:…

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