The luck of the Irish

Last album Final Straw may have sold around two million copies, but it was not a bolt from the blue. It was the third release from a decade-old band who would still give off underachieving indie vibes if they were knighted.

Hence their choice of Belgian art rockers dEUS as their support act, whose terrifying noisemaking did much to scare the casual Snow Patrol fans back to their people carriers. Then there were the weighty riffs of new song Hands Open, which namechecked obscure, eccentric singersongwriter Sufjan Stevens.

Frontman Gary Lightbody seemed to be trying to keep the hard times in mind. He dedicated An Olive Grove Facing the Sea "to everyone who bought our second album" - about four people cheered. But he was thrilled by the current adulation, too.

Fourth album Eyes Open landed at number one yesterday. Other new tracks such as the buoyant single You're All I Have and the exhilarating It's Beginning to Get to Me had the confidence of a chart-topping band.

Thankfully his change in fortunes has not prompted Lightbody to write tiresome songs about the perils of fame. He has stuck to the universal subject matter of being rubbish with girls. In Chasing Cars, too, the band have another soaring, tearful anthem to rival greatest moment Run. That lucky streak is far from over.

Snow Patrol, Everything Everything
The O2 Arena
Peninsula Square, Greenwich, SE10 0DX