Last day of term
The last couple of years have seen Snow Patrol tour 'Final Straw' and 'Eyes Open' into the ground, and this V Festival set in Staffordshire was their final gig in England for a year so the band were fired up and determined to go out on a high.
As has become standard with Snow Patrol's major shows, they opened with a quartet of heavier tracks, 'Hands Open', 'Chocolate', 'It's Beginning To Get To Me' and 'Spitting Games' meant the lingering rain was quickly forgotten about.
Front man Gary Lightbody told the crowd the crap weather was his band's fault since every festival they've played this summer has seen it piss down. Not actually true as there was no rain for the Isle of Wight headlining performance but it wouldn't have had quite the same effect had he pointed this out.
The middle section of the set saw a number of slower, softer tracks played, 'How To Be Dead' was followed by their Spiderman theme song 'Signal Fire'. Then came the moment many had been waiting for.
At the risk of sounding way too pretentious, songs like 'Chasing Cars' become more of an event when played at huge festival shows. Naturally every word was belted out across Weston Park by the massive crowd, but this time was given an extra edge by Lightbody dedicating it to Dave Grohl, only for the Foo Fighters man to invade the stage at it's climax.
Grohl was something of an unplanned addition, but there was a scheduled special event later in the set. After 'Shut Your Eyes' and 'Make This Go On Forever' came 'Set The Fire To The Third Bar' and a rare on stage version of the album track. With Martha Wainwright having played the JJB Tent earlier that day she was on hand to perform her original vocals.
Snow Patrol's seventy-minute set was rounded off by the much loved trio of 'Run', 'Open Your Eyes' and 'You're All I Have'. Although this gig didn't have quite the same edge that headlining the Isle of Wight brought the last time we reviewed Snow Patrol, this was still a mighty impressive set from a band who are right on top of their game.
There were a number of bands that hit the big time at a similar moment to Snow Patrol, Franz Ferdinand, Razorlight and the Killers spring to mind. Non of those have the quantity of singles as Snow Patrol, plus Lightbody between songs comes across as a laid back, relatable bloke, creating a slight intimacy between fans and band, no matter the size of the field. With Reading and Leeds due this weekend, are you watching Razorlight?