Snow Patrol Gary Lightbody and Nathan Connolly donated plectrums and certificates to the Music Beats Mines project that aims to clear unexploded mines/landmines from conflict zones. The items were auctioned on eBay. Gary Lightbody is featured on a track entitled "The Last Time" from Taylor Swift's 2012 album "Red". Snow Patrol released the 22nd album in the "Late Night Tales" series of mix albums by artists, which has been curated by Lightbody and Simpson. The band covered the INXS song "New Sensation" for the occasion. Lightbody has also spoken of plans to release songs from the Listen... Tanks! project (with Snow Patrol
Gary Lightbody previously wrote for "The Irish Times" music section as guest-editor. As an impassioned music fan and DJ, he recommends in his blogs or essays albums and artists of different and wide-ranging genres of music. In May 2009, Lightbody commenced writing his music column, "Gary Lightbody's Band of the Week", in the magazine "Q The Music.com". In 2011, he wrote as an essayist for "The Huffington Post". As a songwriter/bandleader, he has written songs and lyrics for a wide variety of artists and genres. In 2000, he formed the Scottish supergroup The Reindeer Section, comprising 47 musicians from 20 different bands,