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Snow Patrol Play Exclusive Xfm Session

added 06 June 2007 at 12.37

King Tuts witnessed an invasion of fans not seen for months as 350 lucky Xfm listeners descended to catch Snow Patrol play the latest Xfm Live Session. The queue to get in to the venue began forming at about 7.00pm despite doors not actually opening till well after 8.00pm, such was the enthusiasm of those in attendance for T In The Park headliners Snow Patrol.

Ian Archer - a former member of Snow Patrol - provided an acoustic warm up set to an already packed venue, although the anticipation for Lightbody and co was already at fever pitch.

Introducing the band on stage was Xfm Scotland presenter Julyan Sinclar, who warned fans after looking at the setlist on stage that they would have no opportunity for cigarette breaks.

Storming on to stage Gary had clearly been enjoying the hospitality that the band's old haunt had provided, clambering on to the monitor speakers at stage front and holding his considerably large hands up to the crowd during a rather fine version of 'Hands Open'.

The band followed up quickly with 'Chocolate', before Gary greeted the crowd, joking "We've played here more than any other band, I think its been like 400 times. This is our 401st time in fact!" Gary also thanked former band member Archer, and said he would join the band later for a few songs and some "Nude streaking".

The band then worked their way through a whole heap of their tunes, including 'Its Beginning To Get Me', 'Spitting Games' and 'Headlights On Dark Roads'.

A live debut of 'Signal Fire' followed, much to the crowd's adoration, as well incendiary versions of 'How To Be Dead', 'Grazed Knees', 'Make This Go On Forever', 'Chasing Cars' and 'Shut Your Eyes'.

Gary was ably supported on guitar and vocals by Nathan Connolly with bass duties provided by Paul Wilson. On drums was Jonny Quin, while recent addition Tom Simpson played keyboard for the band.

Ahead of a rousing version of 'Set The Fire To The Third Bar' (featuring Ian Archer on acoustic guitar), Gary addressed the crowd once more recalling a moment at their recent New York gig where a fan called Emma Curran held up a sign asking if she could sing with the band, and by remarkable coincidence, and she was in the crowd.

Emma was beckoned up on to stage, clearly shocked at the opportunity, provided with a mic and duly broke into a surprisingly touching version of 'Set The Fire...'. In fact, the harmonies between her and Lightbody worked so well it was almost reminiscent of Martha Wainwright - although any suspicion of a fix was overcome when Emma could clearly be seen exiting the stage afterwards mouthing, "Oh my f*cking God, oh my f*cking God"

The band worked through the last section of their pre-encore set in style, belting out 'Ways And Means', 'Run' and 'You're All I Have' in style, with the crowd singing along at any and every opportunity. After thanking the small crowd the band left for the obligatory intermission, before returning to stage once again with Archer to play 'Finish Line' and 'Open Your Eyes'.

The final track from the band was an all-hands-on-decks storming version of the rariety 'Post Punk Progression' - originally released as a remix by Cut La Roc in 1997 on Skint, then released by the band as a b-side to 'Run' in 2004.

You were left with a real sense of the band being comfortable playing small venues such as Tuts in style while clearly not faltering at the prospect of playing stadiums and festivals across the world. And you could almost feel the warm glow resonating from the crowd as they exited knowing they had witnessed a rare and exclusive performance which money literally could not buy.

The full set list was

1. 'Hands Open'
2. 'Chocolate'
3. 'It's Beginning to Get to Me'
4. 'Spitting Games'
5. 'Headlights on Dark Roads'
6. 'Signal Fire - (First Live Play Anywhere)'
7. 'How to be Dead'
8. 'Grazed Knees'
9. 'Make This Go on Forever'
10. 'Chasing Cars'
11. 'Shut Your Eyes'
12. 'Set the Fire to the Third Bar'
13. 'Ways and Means'
14. 'Run'
15. 'You're All I Have'
16. 'Finish Line'
17. 'Open Your Eyes'
18. 'Post Punk Progression'

Sean Botha

 

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Tagged as Snow Patrol, archive

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