Posted February 18, 200718 yr This is an article from a website taken last year on the reason why ex Snow Patrol co founder left the band Mark McClelland who recorded on the album Final Straw. I knew Gary wanted him to leave but wasn't exactly sure why. Snow Patrol were a slow-burn success. After eight years of toil, their third album, 2004's Final Straw, sold more than 2 million copies. Despite their success, the band remain surprisingly anonymous. "We dodged the bullet: we sold all those records and nobody knows what we look like," Lightbody says. Well, not all dodged the bullet. Lightbody sacked bassist Mark McClelland from the band they formed together in 1995 while studying in Scotland, then called Polar Bear. "Gary wanted more control and less interference," McClelland said when sacked in March last year. "It's a solo effort now because he'll be the only one really contributing to the band." Lightbody says the decision was the most difficult of his life: "It's a divorce; he was my brother for 10 years. It didn't work any more and I've been sorry every day since for the hurt I caused him. He's all right now, though. He has a right to be pissed off with us, especially me." As McClelland predicted, Eyes Open does sound like a Gary Lightbody solo record. The lyrics are almost uncomfortably personal and his vocals are turned up significantly. "It's the most personal I've ever been," Lightbody says. "I really went inside myself and found out what was wrong with me. I wish I'd done it sooner but didn't have the confidence to be myself until now. I guess I was afraid of being called a weirdo." The album was recorded last year after a tour with U2. "Normally our records are very fractious, tense,'' Lightbody says. "But the recording was actually really happy. Final Straw was particularly tense.'' Lightbody also has an indie-supergroup side-project, Reindeer Section, formed in 2001 with members of Scottish bands including Belle & Sebastian, Teenage Fanclub and Arab Strap. "It's funny being on a major label because I've been an indie kid all my life. Ninety per cent of the music I buy is odd stuff." Why, then, does he create glossy, commercial pop-rock in Snow Patrol? "That's just what comes out of us, I guess," he says. "Music reflects your soul and identity, so I guess our characters are larger than life." Suddenly, the self-effacing attitude disappears. "For the first time, Snow Patrol is ready to be a big band.We've always downplayed ourselves and said we're $h!t before anybody else could." That was before. "We're not arrogant now but confident in our own abilities. We've worked really hard and have never been more ready for whatever happens."
February 20, 200718 yr Author I am one.....a control freak :blink: :unsure: You taken over this board :P
February 20, 200718 yr Author I'm not going to tell you off! I want to encourage you to post more more and MORE! Edited February 20, 200718 yr by La La Land
