V Festival 2007 and Snow Patrol surprise me with just how good they are. I leave vowing that I must see them again soon. For some reason it takes me five years to do this, and I spend most of my seven hour journey home, wondering why it took so long. The journey home took that long because, ironically it snowed like crazy!

Snow Patrol are halfway through a large arena tour of the UK, and tonight they bring their fantastic show to the LG Arena in Birmingham. Support act Everything Everything kick the night off. I can’t say that they impressed me very much, coming across to me simply as average. Luckily there isn’t too long to wait until indie heroes Snow Patrol stroll onto the stage. An impressive stage show welcoming them to the stage. Singer, Gary Lightbody walks onto stage tonight with a huge smile on his face, a smile that remains intact the whole evening.

It’s clear that the band are enjoying the opportunity to play in front of their fans on this tour and Lightbody takes every opportunity to interact with the crowd. Even highlighting to the crowd the presence of a Dave Grohl look-a-like in the front row, having his image put up on the huge video screen, accompanying the band tonight.

The setlist tonight is taken mainly from brand new album ‘Fallen Empires‘ and the 2006 multi-platinum selling ‘Eyes Open‘. Only two songs appear tonight from breakthrough album ‘Final Straw‘, these being the massive ‘Run‘ and ‘Chocolate‘. ‘Run‘ instigates one of a number of mass sing-a-longs that breakout tonight, with ‘Chasing Cars‘ another highlight.

Snow Patrol further their reputation as a top live act considerably tonight. They bring with them a stunning stage set, a setlist of hit singles and Gary Lightbodys abilty to make everyone feel a part of the show. My personal highlights tonight include ‘Set The Fire To The Third Bar‘ and the new singles ‘Called Out In The Dark‘ and ‘This Isn’t Everything You Are‘. If they can continue to produce singles and live shows of this quality then Snow Patrol will go down in history as one of the best.