Snow Patrol announce Dublin and Belfast dates

Snow Patrol are set to release new music for the first time in six years and have announced an arena tour across Ireland and the UK early next year.

The Northern Irish band, now comprising the trio of Gary Lightbody, Nathan Connolly and Johnny McDaid after bassist Paul Wilson and drummer Jonny Quinn left the band last year, will release their brand new album, The Forest Is The Path, on 13 September.

They have also announced a Ireland and UK tour for February next year, with dates at Dublin’s 3Arena on 25 February and Belfast’s SSE Arena on 27 February. Tickets go on pre-sale on Wednesday 5 June at 10am and general sale on Friday 7 June at 10am.

Show Patrol have been busy with solo and side projects over the last few years. McDaid, who is engaged to former Friends star Courteney Cox, has been collaborating with Ed Sheeran, Harry Styles, Kodaline, and Liam Gallagher.

Lightbody appeared on the track The Last Time on Taylor Swift’s 2012 album Red and he also had a small part in Game of Thrones in 2013.

According to Lightbody, The Forest is the Path is rooted in “reflection, introspection and interrogation”.

“I haven’t been in a relationship for a very long time, 10 years or more, so love from a distance to me meant the way a relationship sits in your memory from a distance of, say, 10 years. That’s not something I’d previously thought about as away to write about love.

“So it’s like, when you’re in love, you’re standing in the lobby of the Empire State Building. When you’ve broken up with that person, you’re out in the street. You can still see the building, but you’re not in there anymore. And when it’s 10 years later, now you’re standing in Brooklyn looking at the Manhattan skyline.”