i can hover

so i’ve been away too long. sleeping around with that slut twitter. i just like her cause she’s new. i’ll always come back to you my comely tumblr. 

in Phoenix today for a day off. went for a walk earlier and i swear i thought i was gonna combust. it was just over 100 degrees and i don’t function too well in that type of solar misery. how do you do it phoenixers (phoenixians? phoenitians?)? you live three doors down from the sun it seems. it’s punishing. a mile round trip today felt like training for some epic task i have to complete before i get let into heaven. or at least am allowed to go back to Earth. had some great gigs here don’t get me wrong and the people are real nice but i can’t get over how overwhelming it is to actually achieve anything. you must have developed an indoor life similar to ireland and the UK but for the opposite reason (i.e. there we hide from the rain, here you hide from the other guy). it’s a bore i guess to go on about it but i dare anybody from our green isle to come here and not be consumed by it for some time. i guess if i stayed for a week or too i’d find something else to fixate on but tour life being what it is we are transient. 

and another thing about the crazy sunshine… ha.

the tour is creaking towards the end and it has been a mighty thing. lots of great shows, amazing fans, perfect moments and funny little happenings. touring life is fun and all, but 9 weeks straight cracks the battle hardened shell of the best of them. so we’re weary yes but buoyed and joyed by the love we’ve been shown everywhere and so happy to still be packing em in after all these years (17, yes, 17 years old we are this year if you take from when we were formed, which i do and 14 years old if you only count from the first single, starfighter pilot in 1997 if you want to get technical. which i don’t). and there is talk now of another us tour in oct. shorter perhaps, so less cities. places, for the most part, we didn’t cover this time i think. it’s very exciting as it will be a tour with one of my rock and roll heroes so we’ll get it finalised soon, as i’m itching to tell you all who, what, where, when.

after Phoenix we bid Ed Sheeran a fond but sad farewell. he has had to head home and he and his two Marks will be deeply missed. he has lit up the tour and our lives and is a brother of ours forever. he already rules the uk charts. he will rule the world by the end of the year. i guarantee it. a phenom he may be but not without good reason. he gets pop star level adulation and hero worship but what stands him apart from other ‘pop stars’  is that there is no one pulling his strings in the shadows. no svengali writing his songs and telling him what to wear. everything he has done he has done on his own terms and all his songs are his own. he’s the complete pop star. he will make smart, touching, soulful, powerful music for years to come and grow with every step and his fans will grow with him. it’s a beautiful thing to behold. and to Ed’s fans that have come to the shows and watched us too, many i’m guessing for the first time, bless your hearts. it has been a joy to play to you guys and i hope you’ll come back and see us next time too. we’ll have a great show tomorrow and send Ed off in fitting fashion.

and not forgetting our fans. we love you loads too. always will.

special guest for the Texas shows and Biloxi will be Gary Go. an incredible song writer and performer who will be an extraordinary addition to the tour. we welcome him in Dallas.

this is reading like a dear john i guess, it’s not. am just reflective today. a Vegas hangover’ll do that to you. 

peace, love and understanding to all. and penguins. have some penguins too. on me.

gL.xx

chicago! what a town! that’s what you might expect someone to say in a broadway musical just before they burst into a song and dance routine. it is though. we shot the video for Lifening here tonight during the gig. i.e. we just filmed it during the set. not 100% it’ll be a full release to radio and all those bells and whistles but it has become a real live moment over the course of this year and we wanted to capture it. 5000 people sung it with gusto tonight and they will all feature in the video when it arrives. whether or not it’ll be the next single or whether something else might come first and then, as i say, lifening will get a ‘soft’ release, who knows. we don’t want loads of singles off this album as that gets messy. would prefer just four but it may have to be 5 (plus the soft lifening). not sure what the next one would be. maybe a shorter edit of The Symphony. although that would mean having to learn to play that beast live and jesus it’s a beast. Chris Martin texted me to say Garden Rules was his favourite track on the record and he knows a thing or two so maybe that’s an option too. name-dropping aside i love that song and would love more people to hear it. it may suffer though because it is too gentle…. radio support for New York hasn’t been as good as the first 3 singles (there has been some and bless all those that are playing it - Absolute Radio you’re certainly on our xmas card list!). most radio programmers are blaming its slow pace and balladic nature for their reticence to play it. i kind of understand their point in that it doesn’t naturally fit on the radio beside Calvin Harris and Rhianna (my favourite song this year by the way) but also i think, pah, it’s a monster song full of heart, honesty, tenderness and longing, so it should work anywhere next to anything. 

we’ve had it our way for such a long time now though: getting played loads on the radio with every song since Run, maybe this is just the universe’s way of saying we need a challenge and we need to think more laterally of how to release a song’s full potential. that coupled with meeting ed sheeran and touring with him has opened my eyes to a world within music i barely new existed. the inner space of twitter for one yes but beyond that the essence of what it really is about: interacting more readily and freely with fans. to be honest i still feel a bit lost/exposed on there but gradually (and it may take a while yet) i am starting to feel it for what it is: a conveyer belt of ideas, jokes, insecurities, hopes, fears, opinions and short prayers that maybe in past times would have been spoken into the void but now are whispered into a vast network of people from everywhere, always. and they may even, unlike the void, whisper back. and (hope of all hopes) may be going through the exact same thing and you and your burden may feel lighter. me i mainly just try and get a laugh but then that has always been both my default setting and my problem.

singing New York with Ed every night recently is a joy. we intend to continue this duet beyond this US tour (no indications of where and when so it’s a surprise when it happens but trust me when it does it’s gonna bring the house down) and i intend on covering at least one of his. am thinking The A Team or Lego House at present but i have a great love of the whole record so it could be any of them. although it’s unlikely to be one with a lot of rapping in as even a Vanilla Ice rap would tie my tongue never mind one of Ed’s epic word-safaris. 

your heart is your only weapon against the darkness…. that and candles.

gL

so the lads are all out djing at The Wrong Bar in toronto. we have another show here tomorrow (i don’t do drinking night before shows anymore) or i’d be out there with them. two more djs in the band now with the two jo(h)nnys starting a wee while ago. they have both thrown themselves into it with aplomb and the dressing room and tour bus is alight these days with high quality ass shaking music of all genres, shapes and sounds. so tom, rico, jonny and JMD are out rocking the dance floor right now and i’m in my hotel room twittering (yes i’m already hooked and not sure whether it’ll be the end of me) and looking up bill maher and rachel maddow clips about romney (that is one dull man!) and the religious right and whatnot. come november there will be only one winner of course but i’d say this race is gonna get even uglier as mitt will have to stoop to nuclear attacks to even dent the obama machine. i thought mccain/obama 08 was bad enough but, shit, this one might come down to a street fight. fuck the debates let’s wrestle!

god forbid if romney pulled off a miracle and won. the US (and by proxy the rest of the world as that’s the way the cookie crumbles) steered by the new regime would undo any and all of the incremental work the obama administration has done to illicit the slight but holding recovery from the final bush years and the banking crisis he inherited and health care. surely though it’s too much to ask of romney who can’t even count on support from his own party. 

anyway…

toronto tonight. good gig. same place tomorrow night. looking forward to it. we have an afternoon radio acoustic session too. i believe the lovely joan ghomeshi, who has interviewed us a few times and always been an engaged and engaging interviewer, is speaking to us once more. anyone that’s on twitter i’ll twit tomorrow the time we’ll be at the station and if anyone wants things signed or whatnot that missed us last night or can’t stay after tomorrow night’s show then feel free to meet us outside the station tomorrow. 

i also realise that this (tumblr) is really just for pictures so am thinking of setting up an actual blog site so i can run rampant (like tonight) with my wordstuffs when i feel like it. although given my new twitterishness i just might not have time to set that up and run it too. so i may just flaunt the laws on here a while longer.

peace, love and understanding. sad tonight. don’t know why. gL

so i’m on there. it’s fun but it sure as hell eats away at your day. jesus is it twenty to eight already. am gonna have to ration it better. and i haven’t even been looking at people’s responses. to be honest i think it won’t be possible and if i only answer a few then folk’ll wonder why i didn’t get to theirs. so in the spirit of fair play i’ll just not answer any unless i happen to be following them and they tickle me. sorry if this is irksome but i have to think about my own free time and head space. i’ll tweet (still not comfortable using that word) when i can and inform of things going on in snow patrol land and sometimes when i have a tidbit or a pic. 

in new york still. it opened a huge can of whupass on me last night and i feel like i’ve been hit by bear/lion thing wearing armour and carrying a fridge full of gold bricks. not a happy camper today. watching 30 rock and arrested development (both for the millionth time, so good) to help me recover and moaning pathetically to myself a la billy crystal in when harry met sally. NOT, i hasten to add, like meg ryan in when harry met sally.

canada tomorrow. it’ll be a brand new day and looking forward to giving montreal our love.

if i was a horse they’d of shot me by now…gL.x

ok i’ve finally joined the modern world and am on twitter. i’m only gonna use it to post about things happening in the band’s life as will probably not be able to be responsive. it will be much like this tumblr i.e. i’ll post and then like dick turpin ride off into the sunset. i will give details of impromptu acoustic gigs we’ll do in some towns and cities along the tour and put up pictures and vids of us doing covers, acoustic SP songs and larking about.

i’m on @garysnowpatrol (it seems there is already a @garylightbody)

i do not want to get lost in there so forgive me if i don’t respond to questions. this is all new to me so baby steps and no doubt i’ll take a while to get the hang of it.

we’re gonna be running around the city today playing the song new york all over new york and it would have been an ideal day to be up and running on twitter but i’ve only just got the iPhone and signed up so i may not be able to get my shizzle together in time. it’s a test of my electro mettle so we’ll see if we can meet up at some point. i will tell you that we will be setting off around 530/6 this evening and starting at washington square playing on the street pianos (it’s an art installation) and then moving to time square to play it there. it’ll be too loud there no doubt but visually it couldn’t be any more new york so we figured we’d give it a go.

we may stop randomly along the way to play it places that look fun. maybe see some of you guys out in new york. see you at the show tonight if not.

to brave new worlds.gL.x

what a great crowd tonight. thanks everyone who came and sang so loud my ears are sore now. good to have sore ears. feels like you earned something. and to those that worried about my eating habits i do generally eat like a horse (apples, ha). seriously though i have a big appetite so worry not. a salted apple is a rare affair before a show. 

a horse eating an apple is one of the funniest things on earth by the way. if you need a laugh am sure there’s footage on the net. am sure there’s a way to make that dirty but it wasn’t meant that way. just to be clear.

anyway, to boston, thank you. P,L&U.

gL.x