Snow Patrol is a Northern Ireland based alternative rock band. Formed in Scotland by vocalist/guitarist Gary Lightbody and former bassist/keyboardist Mark McClelland, they achieved sudden success with the Run single after years of obscurity in much the same way as Pulp. Originally highly lo-fi and guitar-driven, the band generally combine alternative rock with Coldplay style indie to create tasteful tales of relationships good and bad.

Originally formed in late 1994 as "Shrug", the band started by performing gigs at Dundee University and the surrounding pubs before changing their name to "Polar Bear" (or "Polarbear") in late 1995.

In mid 1997, they released a three-track EP, Starfighter Pilot, on the Electric Honey label. Richard Colburn, from Glaswegian indie band Belle and Sebastian, played drums on this record, and Stuart Murdoch, from the same band, sang on one of the b-sides. Due to legal threats from an American band with the same name (led by Eric Avery, the former bassist of Jane's Addiction), they became "Snow Patrol". There is a "thank you" to Gary's English tutor Peter Easingwood in the sleeve notes of the original 'Starfighter Pilot'.

At this point, Jonny Quinn, from Northern Ireland, joined as permanent drummer. With him rounding out the lineup, the band released their next EP Little Hide on Jeepster Records while still living in Dundee (its cover was a blurred photo of a football (soccer) crowd watching Dundee United at Tannadice Park). A follow-up single "One Hundred Things You Should Have Done in Bed" was a minor independent chart hit. Both of these early singles were heavily promoted by Jeepster - with videos included as computer files on the CD singles, and Snow Patrol starting to appear on television. Their first MTV interview was in 1998, and they briefly appeared on a Channel Four documentary about Jeepster Records (which concentrated mostly on Belle and Sebastian) that same year.

Two albums on Jeepster followed: Songs for Polarbears in 1998 (including a slightly remixed version of their debut single Starfighter Pilot) and When It's All Over We Still Have to Clear Up in 2001 (both recorded while the band lived in Glasgow). Also in 2001, Gary collected a group of Scottish independent musicians from such acts as Mogwai together to perform as a "supergroup", "The Reindeer Section", who have so far released two CD albums. The band also provided guitars and vocals on a single by Cut La Roc, and the track Post Punk Progession became a regular feature of Snow Patrol sets of this era.

Despite warm critical approval, "Songs For Polarbears" sold very little, as did its followup, "When It's All Over We Still Have To Clear Up", which softened those grunge tendencies with forays into post-rock and commercial indie music. Despite radio-friendly singles like "One Night Is Not Enough" and "Ask Me How I Am", the significant lack of acclaim following this album spurred Jeepster to drop Snow Patrol.

It wasn't until after being dropped by Jeepster that guitarist Nathan Connolly joined, and the band signed to the mainstream Polydor label.

Initially, their third album "Final Straw", produced by Jacknife Lee and possibly their most radio-friendly release to date, looked like being a similar flop, originally charting outside the top 150 in the album chart in August 2003. Iain Archer, a touring guitarist and songwriting collaborator from 2001-2003, won an Ivor Novello award for his contribution to the Final Straw album.

However, in November, mainstream radio started to play the single "Run", and it was released in January 2004, reaching number 5 in the chart, and the re-release of the album reached number 3 at first, before eventually peaking at number 1 in the charts. Further singles, "Chocolate","Spitting Games" and "How To Be Dead", all charted inside the top 40.

The release of Final Straw in the United States in 2004 saw the album notching up well in excess of a quarter of a million sales and becoming the 26th most popular British album of that year. Their single "Run" was the 22nd most played British song on American airwaves, having been played just under 28,000 times on US radio stations in that same year.

The band completed recording Eyes Open in December 2005, with Jacknife Lee returning for production, and this album was released in the UK on May 1, 2006, with the first UK single "You're All I Have" having been released on April 24, 2006. The album was released in North America on May 9. While "Hands Open" was the first American single, "Chasing Cars" pushed its way onto the download and pop charts after it was heard in the second season finale of the television show Grey's Anatomy on May 15, 2006. Another of their songs, "Open Your Eyes", was heard on the season finale of another medical program, ER, on May 18, 2006, The 4400, and the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy on September 28, 2006.
"Set fire to the third bar" reached the number 1 spot in All 37 Raar in 2007.

As of 26 November 2006, Eyes Open was the UK's best-selling album of the year, selling 1.2 million copies. On the contrary, as of 27 December 2006, the album, or any released singles, have yet to be designated with either a platinum or gold certification in the U.S. This comes as quite a surprise, considering the consistantly strong sales of the album (maintaining a spot in the upper quarter of the Billboard 200 list for over 15 weeks), the popularity of the single "Chasing Cars", and the standing as one of iTunes' top downloaded albums and songs of the year.

In 2007, Snow Patrol released the single, 'Signal Fire' as a part of the Spider-Man 3 soundtrack. The song can be heard in the trailer and rolling over the credits. The band played a number of festivals over the summer including a home-coming at Ward Park in Bangor. They then announced a year out to rest and recuperate and have just recently (June 2008) announced they are back in Ireland recording the follow up to Eyes Open.

The follow up to Eyes Open is known as 'A Hundred Million Suns' due to a leak by a reporter from the Belfast Telegraph despite the band wishing to keep it a secret. It is due for release on 27th October 2008. Gary Lightbody has described it as their best record yet and will be looking into playing a few small gigs before touring properly in the new year.

'Take Back The City' entered the number 1 spot in "All 37 Raar".