tagged w/ IRA Bombing Terror
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GARY Lightbody has spoken for the first time about a bomb attack his family narrowly escaped in Northern Ireland when he was a child.
The Snow Patrol frontman said his parents only recently told him how close they were to the explosion in his home town of Bangor when he was four.
The 32-year-old has never really written about the Troubles since his teens, but new single Take Back The City is a message to Belfast.
Gary said: "My family were quite close to the bomb, but I was only four, so I was too young to remember."
He revealed his most vivid memory of growing up as a child of the Troubles is of going to school and seeing members of the British Army with rifles.
He said: "When you went to school, you were stuck behind the guys with the armoured vans and the guns.
"It reminded you every morning there's something going on and the news is a constant reminder. But, you do get on with it.
"I grew up mistrusting politicians and completely at odds with religion of any sort.
"I was always confused as to what was really going on and why it was going on. Take Back The City is saying to people in Belfast 'Take back the city for yourself and I'll take it back for me.'
"It's a European city these days with an incredible music scene that I adore."
Gary formed Snow Patrol while at Dundee University and then lived in Glasgow.
Recently he has bought a home back in Bangor to be near his family.
The band celebrate the release of their fifth album A Hundred Million Suns with a whistle-stop tour of four capital cities - Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh and London.
The tour kicked-off at lunchtime yesterday at The Gate Theatre in Dublin before a gig in Belfast last night. This afternoon they will be at Edinburgh's Assembly Rooms for a midday performance before heading to London for the final show.
The new album features song Disaster Button, which is about the singer's own tendency during his 20s to all too regularly "self-destruct".
Gary said: "The Disaster Button is a switch in me that used to happen to me in my mid-20s.
"My parents and the band have all been there for me at some point in my errant times to reign me back in again.
"Now, having been in so many nourishing friendships and relationships, I have finally broken the spell of affliction.
"The Disaster Button is a reminder of how far I've come.
"I'm concerned with my memory. On many occasions I forget my own lyrics, I forget large portions of my life.
"I sometimes used to make the lyrics up onstage. These days it's kind of flattering that people sometimes carry the song for me.
"There was one time the crowd took over and I was almost in tears, it was just so moving.
"There was a feeling, people were more going 'We're all in this together.'"
Snow Patrol's A Hundred Million Suns is out today.
GARY Lightbody has spoken for the first time about a bomb attack his family narrowly... more
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