2019 marks the 25th anniversary since SNOW PATROL formed, 25 years is a long time and I’m sure the band look back over the past quarter century at what they have achieved thus far.

Think back at their past hits, what do you FEEL when you hear their songs? Whatever it is, you can wipe the slate clean and start all over again as they had a surprise up their sleeves.

Tonight, the band were at Plymouth Pavilions for the second date of their November/December ‘Reworked’ tour, performing hits from their back catalogue but with a little bit of a twist. They decided to make this an ‘all seated’ tour, allowing people to take in the sheer breadth of the music and the spectacle of seeing additional musicians on the stage, providing strings and brass to the songs.

The venue was buzzing when we arrived, the bar was rammed with all walks of life, couples, groups of ladies, lads on a ‘pre-Christmas’ night out but not that many youngsters, I wasn’t surprised at this as Snow Patrol have always, in my opinion, appealed more to a mature audience, people who appreciate music rather than the youth of today who may look for a more immediate buzz from manufactured acts pouring out of record labels and talent contest styled prime time TV shows, designed to appeal to a much younger demographic.

Gary Lightbody took to the stage and introduced the evening, he explained that it would be split into two segments, the first covering more ‘downbeat’ songs whilst the second segment would be a chance to get up and have a dance (if you fancied it).

He apologised up front as he said he’d be taking more time between songs to explain what they meant to him and to give the audience some context around them, this raised a smile on everyone in the room. He also said that he is the worst person in the world to introduce songs but would do his best to make them sound as exciting as possible, more laughter rang around the arena!

Coupled with the fact that Snow Patrol have a knack of naming songs but not actually using the name of the song in the choruses and owing to the nature of the ‘reworked’ versions of the songs, it sometimes took a few moments to realise which song it was that was being played. I’ll openly admit that on more than one occasion, I found myself ‘Googling’ lyrics in an attempt to identify the song being performed. I think I was 90% correct when one of my photographers sent me a snap of the setlist, if he’d mentioned that he had a photo of this at the start of the show, I could have relaxed a little more but as it was, I hadn’t done too badly!

When I read the words ‘reworked’ or ‘re-imagined’, I think about the band simply replacing electric guitars and drums with acoustic guitars, mandolins and cajons but with Snow Patrol this was NOT the case. Instead, they chose to break the songs down, alter the tempo, incorporate vocal harmonies and bring in brass and strings to add a totally new dimension to their unique sound.

For me, highlights of the set included ‘Warmer Climate’ which came third in a poll hosted on their website for fans to select tracks that  they wanted the band to play on the tour. Gary said that this took them very much by surprise as it was an unreleased track (he said that it might have been a B-Side) and they didn’t expect it to feature so high up the ranks, despite this, it went down a storm. The song that came in at #1 on the poll was ‘A Dark Switch’, this was more of an upbeat number which Gary described as “awesome and very short”.

Gary took time to explain the meaning of a song called ‘I Think of Home’, each verse covered a different stage in his life, touring around Ireland in a caravan, travelling to Belfast as an older teenager and trips to Derry to see his Grandmother and reflecting on how he misses her so much. Gary explained that at the time, he thought it was hell as all of his mates were travelling to France and Italy whilst he and his sister were being dragged around the country and sitting in the caravan listening to the rain pouring down around them whilst playing cards and drinking tea. This really made me think about the memories that my children are forming right now and the desire to make sure that we continue to do ‘fun’ things in order to keep them flowing as they continue to grow.

‘Run’ opened with Gary on a vocoder, singing over a gentle synth bed before the string section came into play. Gary invited the audience to sing the chorus with him and let them take over as they were in such fine voice. ‘Spitting Games’ saw people up on their feet as the song progressed, with the Brian Eno styled haunting guitars and brass sections involved, it sounded exquisite. ‘Chasing Cars’ kicked off with a simple drum pattern before Gary came in with the vocals, this threw me for a moment and despite ‘knowing’ the song, you still found yourself second guessing the name of it!

‘Open Your Eyes’ drew the show to a close, its euphoric choruses saw Gary with his arms aloft, embracing the entire room in a massive hug. The band left the stage for a couple of minutes to freshen up and it wasn;t long until Gary was back, joined by the pianist to perform an awesome rendition of ‘What if this is all the Love’, strings accompanied them for the latter half of the song which created a completely different listening experience.

For the last song of the evening, the whole band formed on stage to play an incredible version of ‘Just Say Yes’, Gary started off with an acoustic guitar before everybody else joined in and brought the song to an epic crescendo, a fitting end to an epic night of live music from one of the UK’s finest acts.

To summarise, I had doubts ahead of the show, I’d not heard much of the new ‘Reworked’ album (available now from all good record shops) and I assumed that it would be a case of the band playing watered down versions of their classics to give them a reason to tour the country and raise a bit of money to get them through the Christmas period but how wrong I was! If you’ve NOT heard the new album, please add it to your Christmas list, there are LOADS of bundles available on the Snow Patrol official website and I’m sure Santa won’t object to adding it to his sack for you!

Setlist

Dark Roman Wine

You’re All I Have

New York

Olive Grove

Warmer Climate

I Think of Home

Don’t Give In

Lifening

Take Back to the City

Intermission

Time Won’t Go Slowly

Spitting Games

Chocolate

A Dark Switch

Run

Crack The Shutters

Heal Me

Set the Fire

Empress

Called Out in the Dark

Shut Your Eyes

Chasing Cars

Open Your Eyes

Encore 

What if this is all the Love

Just Say Yes

Words – Steve Muscutt

Pictures – Julian Baird and Mark Tipping