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Gary Lightbody

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Gary Lightbody

Gary Lightbody (born 15 June 1976 in Bangor,[1] Northern Ireland) is an Irish musician and songwriter, best known as the frontman of the alternative rock band Snow Patrol.

Personal

Gary Lightbody studied English literature and English language at the University of Dundee. As a songwriter, he has written songs and lyrics for a wide variety of artists. In 2001, he formed the Scottish group The Reindeer Section, whilst continuing to work as a DJ, often together with his Snow Patrol-bandmate Tom Simpson. He is one of the supporting voices for the growing music-scene in his hometown Belfast in Northern Ireland, and stated once in an interview to have grown up as an "Indie rock-kid"-inspired to become a musician through influences of artists such as Kurt Cobain, Super Furry Animals and Ringo Starr (his favourite Beatle).

Generally Gary prefers to keep his private life, private.

In the magazine "The New Statesman", he referred to his journey to Uganda with the aid organisation Save The Children[2].

Musical career

After attending Rockport School and Campbell College, he moved to Dundee, Scotland in 1994 to attend the University of Dundee. It is here that he formed the band Polar Bear (after the original name 'Shrug') with fellow student Mark McClelland, also from Northern Ireland. Initially, Michael Morrison, then Richard Colburn of Belle & Sebastian featured on drums. Lightbody then asked Jonny Quinn to move 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.

Snow Patrol

Lightbody formed the band with classmate Mark McClelland and drummer Michael Morrison 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 28 October 2008.

Side projects and collaborations

Lightbody in 2005

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 in 2006 as well as UK producer Kidda's debut album Going Up.[3] He has also written & produced a song "Just Say Yes" for Nicole Scherzinger's debut solo album Her Name Is Nicole but due to the album being shelved the single was re-recorded by Pussycat Dolls and remains unreleased.

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.

Musical equipment

Guitars

Amplifiers

Effects

File:Garyspedalboard.jpg
Gary's Pedalboard
  • BOSS TU-2 Tuner
  • BOSS TR-2 Tremolo
  • BOSS CS-3 Compression Sustainer
  • Two BOSS SD-1 Super Overdrives
  • BOSS GE-7 Equalizer

Notes

  1. ^ Culture Northern Ireland website
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ Skint Records
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