Snow Patrol Lose Two Members Amid Apparent Drama
There’s never been a whole lot of rancor in the public image of Snow Patrol, the Scottish band who got very popular by making comfortingly sad rock songs. But Snow Patrol are now a band without a rhythm section, and cryptic social-media comments hint at a schism within the band.
In an Instagram post last week, Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody shared the “sad news” that drummer Jonny Quinn and bassist Paul “Pablo” Wilson had “decided to leave Snow Patrol.” Lightbody went on to say that the three remaining Snow Patrol members would continue and that “there will be a new album next year but more news of that will come at an appropriate time.” (Snow Patrol’s most recent album is 2018’s Wildness.) Lightbody also wrote long, heartfelt Instagram posts that serve as farewells to both Quinn and Wilson, while Wilson wrote his own post on Snow Patrol’s Instagram, thanking fans and saying goodbye.
Thus far, this all seems like a fairly standard announcement. It’s a little striking when two band members leave at the same time. Jonny Quinn went to school with Gary Lightbody, and he’s been a Snow Patrol member since 1997. Paul Wilson officially joined Snow Patrol as their bassist in 2005 after playing with them for years as a touring guitarist. Still, everyone seems to be on good terms. But People reports that Quinn’s wife Mariane responded to one of the comments in one of the farewell posts, writing, “It’s been a fucker. Fucked by you know who.”
The Belfast Telegraph reports that Mariane Quinn wrote her own social-media post on a locked account about her husband’s departure, claiming that the reasons for the split were “not the best.” She thanked Gary Lightbody and Nathan Connolly. She did not thank Johnny McDaid, the guitarist who joined Snow Patrol in 2011 and who’s also been engaged to Courteney Cox for about a decade. So I guess McDaid is the “you know who” of “fucked by you know who.”