SNOW PATROL - SNOW PATROL PRAISE NORTHERN IRISH FANS

Northern Irish rockers SNOW PATROL have lavished praised on their homeland fans - insisting they "would be in pieces" if they became unpopular among their fellow countrymen. The band have plans to tour the US early next year (07) after tracks CHASING CARS and OPEN YOUR EYES appeared in popular American TV shows GREY'S ANATOMY and ER - but promise they won't lose touch with their loyal Irish fanbase. Frontman GARY LIGHTBODY says, "There's nothing as elating or satisfying as playing in front of 20,000 of your fellow country men and women. "It means so much to us to be appreciated at home more than anywhere else in the world. "That goes for everything, the gigs, selling records. If we were selling records everywhere else in the world, but at home everyone hated us, we would be in pieces."