Recent Events

An interesting week in Wolsey's has just passed. Last Thursday or Friday a representative from Snow Patrol's record company rang the bar, asking if they could play a gig on the next Thursday (12th). While the guy who originally took the call thought they were taking the piss, he did pass on the request to Simon, the bar manager, who phoned back and said yes, they'd be happy for them to play. Apparently it was to be an acoustic performance to be recorded and included on a future DVD. Needless to say since Wolsey's holds about 150-200 for a band night, and Snow Patrol have sold out 2 nights at the Ulster Hall in less than 2 hours (capacity approx. 1500), keeping all this a secret was a priority, because it was thought they would cancel if it all got too hectic.

Therefore it was somewhat of a surprise to know that practically everyone in Bangor seemed to know about it by the Wednesday afternoon. Rumours of it were mentioned on the forums of the band's website, and apparently some eejit sent an e-mail around MM Group, Bangor's largest employers telling everyone all about it. It was even apparently mentioned by Colin Murray on his (national) Radio 1 show, although by this stage the record company had already phoned to cancel. No reason was given, but I read today on the website that they have cancelled several gigs this weekend due to their lead singer Gary Lightbody being unwell. Although the bar did get some some cancelled posters made up, it was decided that since it was never officially to take place, officially canceling it would be slightly odd!

So, approx two hours after the phone call from the record company, people started arriving in Wolsey's. I was off on the Friday and was planning to head down to the bar about 7.30 to see what was happening, but first made up a CD for the bar featuring Snow Patrol as the first and last track, just to wind people up a bit more! By the time I arrived, the place was almost full, with rumours going round the place like wildfire. Anyone who asked the bar had been told it was cancelled, yet most didn't believe it. I think they thought it was all a huge ruse to get them to give up their seats! One of the best rumours was the band were actually hiding upstairs but were waiting for the crowd to thin out before coming down to play! As if!

All in all a top night, just a shame that they didn't actually play. Although if they had I think there would have been about 1000 people outside the bar. I felt a bit sorry for the Flange having to come on and try and entertain that crowd, but once it was made clear that Snow Patrol weren't playing they accepted it readily enough. Although I don't think the band helped themselves with some of their comments slagging them off for not turning up, especially if the guy was genuinely ill, but there's no telling some people.