 | | 01-02-2011, 12:36 PM |
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#1
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Fan Forum Hero
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 64,193
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Gary Lightbody Appreciation Thread #3: B/C "My songwriting is very simplistic, what we do is melody and honesty."
 Welcome to the 3rd Gary Lightbody Appreciation Thread!
Information about him
History
After attending Campbell College, he moved to Dundee, Scotland in 1994 to attend Dundee University. It is here that he formed Polar Bear with fellow student Mark McClelland, also from Belfast. Initially Richard Colburn of Belle & Sebastian featured on drums. Lightbody then asked Jonny Quinn to move over from Belfast to take over on drums. Facing legal action from an American band of the same name, the boys changed their name to Snow Patrol, the affectionate nickname a friend had dubbed them.
Snow Patrol
Lightbody formed the band with classmate Mark McClelland in 1994. In the band's first seven years of existence, they added drummer Jonny Quinn, released two albums (Songs for Polarbears, and When It's All Over We Still Have to Clear Up), and toured with bands such as The Levellers, Ash and Travis, before signing to Polydor offshoot Fiction. Their first album on Fiction, Final Straw, saw Lightbody working with producer Garret "Jacknife" Lee, who went on to produce U2. After the success of Final Straw, the band headed back into the studio to record the next album for Fiction, Eyes Open which was again produced by Lee. Their first single for A Hundred Million Suns is "Take Back The City". "A Hundred Million Suns" was released on October 28, 2008.
Side Projects and Collaborations
Lightbody formed the Scottish supergroup The Reindeer Section, made up of 47 musicians from 20 different bands, in 2000. They released two albums: Y'All Get Scared Now, Ya Hear! in 2001 and Son of Evil Reindeer in 2002.
In 2005 he was included in another musical collective, The Cake Sale, formed by Brian Crosby to raise funds and awareness for Ireland's Make Trade Fair campaign. He partnered with Lisa Hannigan to perform "Some Surprise", a song written by Bell X1's Paul Noonan. The song reached #5 on Irish charts as a radio–single release.
His most recent side project is Listen... Tanks!, a Napoleonic rock-band collaboration with Garret "Jacknife" Lee. One-time bandmate Iain Archer has been approached to contribute.
In addition to work on Snow Patrol and side-project material, Lightbody has also lent his voice to the band Mogwai (one track on Rock Action).
Gary Lightbody has also contributed vocals to The Freelance Hellraisers Waiting for Clearance debut album 2006 as well as UK producer Kidda's debut album Going Up, scheduled for release Spring 2008. He has also produced a song "Just Say Yes" for Nicole Scherzinger's debut solo album Her Name Is Nicole set for a release on February 26, 2008.
Gary Lightbody is currently on the board of directors of the Oh Yeah Belfast Music Centre (Oh Yeah Music Centre) in Northern Ireland, a project set up to give young artists a place where they can share ideas and kick-start their music careers, as often is the trend of talent leaving the country from lack of appraisal.
Wikipedia
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