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X-clusive: Snow Patrol Talk Celebrity And Cliff
Snow Patrol take a break from the promotional treadmill to speak exclusively to Xfm Online about their rapid ascent to stardom, breaking America, their new single and plastering the face of Sir Cliff Richard on their big red festival tour bus.
Fresh from a day's charity work at the Music Industry Soccer Sixes, outside a kick-about to raise some cash, Snow Patrol expressed a thoughtful concern as they come to terms with their new-found stardom. Page 3 girls or Eastenders stars they ain't.
"Celebrity's an interesting word," Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody mused. "We definitely would never have been asked to [take part in the Soccer Sixes] last year We don't want to be celebrities. If it means playing charity football matches, then fair enough. But anything else, then no. We never wanted to be the biggest band in the world."
This summer Snow Patrol are set to have exactly five minutes off to rest in-between playing nearly every festival across the whole of Europe.
"We're not doing Reading and Leeds or Homelands," Lightbody explained. "Yeah, we're getting our dance set ready for Homelands" added keyboard player and new addition Tom Simpson with a wry grin.
"We'll be about 25 festivals all around Europe," Lightbody continued, "Its gonna be great, like our gap year. It'll be our 'Summer Holiday' like with Cliff Richard. We're actually gonna have a bus with Cliff's face on the side of it."
"And in July we'll be releasing 'Spitting Games'. After that there'll be one more single off the album before the end of the year, but we haven't decided what that'll be yet. We're still arguing over it and everyone's got their own favourites."
With the release of 'Run' its not just the UK that have embraced Snow Patrol. While the band are ready to get back in the studio, there's a small matter of trying to break the US.
"America's just starting to take off for us, but it's doing really well," drummer Jonny Quinn explains "I think we've got a sound that the US will go for. Oasis obviously never cracked it, we're willing to put in the time and effort."
"We sold out every gig on the last tour," Lightbody beams. "The size of the country is terrifying if you think about it, but you just have to take it day by day."
For all the latest festival news, rumours, site information and ticket details check out the Xfm Online Festival Guide by clicking here.
Virtual Festivals Is Xfm's Official Festival PartnerTagged as Snow Patrol, archive
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