Snow Patrol play tiny acoustic gig in their local pub

Snow Patrol played an intimate gig in the basement of their local pub last night (November 4).

Gary Lightbody and guitarist Nathan Connolly played as an acoustic duo in the Kings Head in north London's Crouch End to mark the release of the band's career-spanning collection 'Up To Now', which is released on Monday (November 9).

"Our record company wanted to call it 'Greatest Hits' [but one of our songs] went in at Number 89," Lightbody joked with the crowd of the compilation. "We suggested 'Best Of', which is pushing it. We're going to play our three best songs and then we're going to scrape the barrel!"

Kicking off with 'Crack The Shutters', the frontman stumbled over the song's opening several times, declaring himself the "king of the false starts", before adding, "That was rubbish, forget everything, I hope everyone is drinking. It's better with a drink inside you!"

The band then played a series of their better-known songs, including 'Run', which Lightbody joked, "is a song made famous by Leona Lewis".

Later, the duo were joined by former guitarist turned solo artist Iain Archer on slide guitar and pianist/backing vocalist Miriam Kaufmann to perform the likes of 'Set The Fire To The Third Bar', 'You Are My Joy', from Snow Patrol spin-off group Reindeer Section, and new song 'Give Me Strength', which will feature on the new compilation.

"This song is about the guys in the band," explained Lightbody ahead of the new track. "Ten of our 15 years were shit. They were fun, but we didn't sell any records, so this is me saying thank you. Soppy, isn't it?"

Snow Patrol played:

'Crack The Shutters'
'Shut Your Eyes'
'Run'
'An Olive Grove Facing The Sea'
'Spitting Games'
'Chasing Cars'
'You Are My Joy'
'Set The Fire To The Third Bar'
'You're All I Have'
'Just Say Yes'
'Ricket'
'Give Me Strength'
'Take Back The City'
'Chocolate'

Snow Patrol tickets: