BRIT-award-winning band Snow Patrol reportedly hit rock bottom during a gig in High Wycombe in the early 2000s – then released one of their most popular songs to date.

In a recent interview with The Times, band member Gary Lightbody reflected on his over-20-year journey from home in Northern Ireland to the UK’s top 10 – pointing to a memorable stop-off at notorious former strip club-pub hybrid The White Horse in Wycombe as a catalyst for change at the start of his career. 

The 48-year-old, who is on the press circuit ahead of new album The Forest Is The Path, released on Friday, recounted the struggles Snow Patrol faced to stand out in the UK's indie music scene before rising up the charts with first hit record Run in August 2003.

It wasn’t until the song was played on Radio 1 that the band’s success truly took to the rafters – with guitarist Nathan Connolly recounting the jarring shift from playing at The White Horse at the end of 2003, then the Shepherds Bush Empire just months later in an interview with The Guardian back in 2019.

However, speaking to The Times, the bandmates admitted they “were on the verge of packing it in” after their Wycombe gig – which drew just 18 people to West Wycombe Road in the same year the pub hosted Kings of Leon on their first UK tour.

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The White Horse closed its doors for the last time in December 2023 after long-term landlord Alastair Watts, 78, announced his retirement, citing age and “endless maintenance problems” in the building. 

Ahead of the closure – which prompted Kings of Leon to pay tribute to a venue that “will always have a special place in our hearts” – former landlord Paul Bennett reflected on the host of famous names he had ushered in and out of the unorthodox and unassuming building in the late 90s and early noughties. 

Keane was “a bit upset” after he spelt their name wrong on an outdoor sign – “sorted out with a bit of water” – The Darkness came close to playing a gig but Paul ended up refusing their £200 performance fee and young Kings of Leon members were awed by the dancers in the pub’s strip club quarters.

“They were just like kids in a toy shop – they wouldn’t do a soundcheck downstairs until the girls had finished their dance!”

These days, such lofty stories are firmly in the past, with planning permission granted to turn the former pub into a block of flats back in March.

At least punters got the chance to say their goodbyes in a blow-out party at the end of December – with those raising a glass to more than 30 years of memories describing The White Horse as a “friendly place” with an “unfair image”.