As music fans around the UK begin to gear up for this weekend’s upcoming Isle of Wight Festival Absolute Radio caught up with lead singer Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol, who are headlining the Saturday night.
Speaking with Absolute Radio’s Jay Lawrence, Gary relived some of his best festival moments as well as admitting he is ‘the least cool person in the world’ when he meets one of his heroes, often losing the ability to speak very quickly.
“Isle of Wight has a lot of good memories in our lives.” said Gary “We played one year when REM were headlining, and we played just before them. We were playing ‘Run’ and I looked to my left and Peter Buck was standing on the side, one of my all-time guitar heroes. Then I looked to my right and Michael Stipe was standing on the right-hand side, beaming at me from across the stage, I couldn’t have been happier at that moment. The Isle of Wight gave me that moment.”
Alongside catching up about Snow Patrol’s upcoming festival performance this weekend the Irish musician also revealed his favourite cover version of the band’s huge hit ‘Chasing Cars’, discussed that Game of Thrones moment, and revealed what everyone already knew, that Dave Grohl really is the nicest man in rock.
Gary’s Through the Decades interview with Jay Lawrence can be heard this Saturday at 11pm on Absolute Radio.
Talking about Dave Grohl: “He is a lovely, lovely man. We were playing just before Foo Fighters at V Festival and just before we played Chasing Cars, I dedicated the song to Nirvana and Dave Grohl …. the crowd cheered but it was a bigger cheer than I was expecting. Something made me look to my left and walking towards me, I was center stage with the microphone, is Dave Grohl with a massive smile on his face. He was standing side of the stage watching us and I didn’t know. He walks right out and hugged me, said thanks man, waved to the crowd, and walked back off again. I was left standing like what just happened to me. It was the most surreal experience of my life.”
Discussing his Game of Thrones appearance: “There was some people that worked on the show, and I said can I just sort of stand in the background, just be a member of the Night’s Watch or something like that. They were like we might be able to come up with something better than that. I didn’t really think much more about it. Weeks and months went by and then I got a phone call to say will you come and sing a song on the show. I was like sure, what song? They said it is in the book, but obviously we have added some music, and you will just have to learn it and sing it and we also want you on horseback. Aside from like pony rides when I was a kid, I have never been on a horse, so I had to go and learn to ride a horse as well.”
On the many covers of ‘Chasing Cars’: “There is a pipe band in Scotland called the Red Hot Chilli Pipers and they did a cover of Chasing Cars I really like. There have been so many I love. I got to sing it with Ed (Sheeran) a few times but his version of it was really lovely when he does it on his own. I went through the list on Spotify one time, and it just kept scrolling for ages. There are so many covers of it. It is a beautiful thing so many people covering a song you wrote.”
On new Snow Patrol music: “There will be an official Snow Patrol album coming, you know next year probably. I have been writing a lot, we have all been writing a lot. The songs are there, we just need to get in and record them. So however long that takes.”
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