Snow Patrol is an alternative rock quartet from Northern Ireland on Polydor Records. It was formed in Scotland by vocalist/guitarist Gary Lightbody and bassist/keyboardist Mark McClelland, two students from Northern Ireland who were, at the time, pursuing an education in Dundee.

Originally known as "Polar Bear", they released a three-track EP, "Starfighter Pilot" on the Electric Honey label, under that name. Richard Colburn, from Glaswegian indie band Belle & Sebastian, played drums on this record. Due to legal threats from an American band with the same name (led by the former bassist of Jane's Addiction), they became "Snow Patrol".

After this point, Jonny Quinn, also from Northern Ireland, joined as permanent drummer. It wasn't until after being dropped by Jeepster that guitarist Nathan Connolly joined, and the band signed to the mainstream Polydor label. They gained mainstream success with the song "Run" debuting at #5 in the UK singles chart. It was from their 2003 album "Final Straw", which peaked at #3 in the UK albums chart. They followed this with 3 more singles from the album, "Chocolate", and a re-release of "Spitting Games", both reaching the top 30, and "How to be dead" reaching number 39.

Many of their songs, including most from "Songs For Polar Bears", are songs with titles that do not appear in the lyrics.

Gary Lightbody's side project is The Reindeer Section, a supergroup comprising members of famous Scottish bands including Belle & Sebastian, Idlewild, Teenage Fanclub and Mogwai. They have released two albums to date on the Belfast label Bright Star - Y'all Get Scared Now, Ya Hear! and Return of Evil Reindeer.

In the early days, the band used to pretend to be members of Belle & Sebastian in order to gain free entry to the Student Union club at the Glasgow School of Art.

On March 16, 2005, Mark McClelland left the band, with Gary Lightbody stating 'a whole new set of new and unexpected pressures... have unfortunately taken their toll on working relationships within the band, and it was felt the band could not move forward with Mark as a member.' Former Terra Diablo member Paul Wilson replaced him on bass.

In April 2005, Snow Patrol declared longtime touring keyboardist Tom Simpson an official member of the band.

In the midst of touring on U2's Vertigo Tour in Europe in the summer of 2005 as an opening act, the band played in London at Live 8. After finishing their opening act duties and extensive 2 year touring of Final Straw in late July, the band took a few weeks off and began writing and recording songs for a new album, due sometime in 2006.