Snow Patrol's Nathan Connolly releases solo album and announces Belfast gig

Nathan Connolly's debut solo album, The Strange Order Of Things, is out today (April 21) and features his new single ‘Ghost’ featuring Ailbhe Reddy.

The Snow Patrol lead guitarist’s debut single 'Fires' featuring Biffy Clyro's Simon Neil was released last month.

On the new single Nathan, 42, said: “I always had the idea that ‘Ghost’ could possibly be a duet but I was struggling to emotionally connect with it until Ailbhe did her thing on it.

"I was listening to Ailbhe’s record at the time, Between Your Teeth in particular and loved her voice.

"So I thought I would reach out to her and invite her to be part of it and wonderfully she said yes.

"She completed the track for me.”

Nathan has been the guitarist with acclaimed Northern Irish rock band Snow Patrol since 2002.

Since then, they have gone on to sell 17 million albums, headline festivals, achieve five UK platinum albums, an Ivor Novello award and Grammy and Mercury Music Prize nominations.

In 2013, Connolly founded Little Matador with drummer Paul 'Binzer' Brennan, bassist Gavin Fox and guitarists Troy Stewart and Dave Magee.

They released their self-titled album the following year.

Connolly describes his solo album as "trying to understand, make sense and work through events that have led to who I am now: heartache, regret, emotional cost and fatherhood".

Connolly has announced news of a UK and Ireland tour.

The five dates in mid-June include London, Glasgow and a hometown show in Belfast's Limelight 2 on June 18, 2023 with tickets now on sale from ticketmaster.ie.

Nathan, who was born in Belfast, sang for a gospel church choir at Glenmachan, Church of God, when he was 16, and the experience, he says, is what inspired him to be a musician.

The artist recalled: “I suppose I was always around music, and like any other kid, teenage kid, 12 or 13, I either wanted to be a pub quiz addict or a rock star and play guitar.

"After a particularly brutal thrashing at Scrabble, when my opponent played the word 'SCOPIE' on a triple word score, I kind of played around with it for a few years and didn’t really learn much and wasn’t very good for the first two years, but then I started a band with my cousin and two mates from school and it kind of just went on from there.”

Prior to joining Snow Patrol, Connolly was a member of a band called File Under Easy Listening (or F.U.E.L), who were managed by BBC Radio 1 DJ Colin Murray.

The band consisted of Connolly, vocalist Aaron Ditty, Dave Magee and Peter Comfort.

Unfortunately, it did not last long; the single "Closure/Dryform" was F.U.E.L.'s first and only release.

While working at the record store HMV in Belfast, Connolly was introduced to the band Snow Patrol.

He reluctantly agreed to join, despite the fact that the band had no record deal at the time.

Nathan jokingly recalls his mother thinking he "was being kidnapped by rock stars."

Connolly became a permanent member of the band near the end of 2002.

Snow Patrol released Final Straw in 2003 and it was the band’s breakthrough album.