Declan O'Rourke Festival performance in Ireland in July 2007. Snow Patrol's lead singer, Gary Lightbody, gave a very positive review of O'Rourke's second album, a preview copy of which, he revealed, the band had been listening to backstage. O'Rourke attracted praise from Paul Weller for his song "Galileo (Someone Like You)" (co-written by Seamus Cotter) which he cited in an interview with Q Magazine as the song he most wished he'd written from the past twenty years; he later included O'Rourke's recording of the song on an album of his favourite songs included with a special edition of the magazine dedicated to
Gary Lightbody phase ran for two years. He later gave up drinking and now does it "for fun" and credits his bandmates for the turnaround. The song "Disaster Button" ("A Hundred Million Suns") deals with this topic. Though a musician, he cannot read music and has said that he "guesses" his way through chords. He has a baritone vocal range. When at the University of Dundee, Lightbody met Nick DeCosemo, a fellow student, and the two became friends. DeCosemo also moved in Lightbody's Springfield apartment when he moved out of his parents' house. Nick had formed a club night called The Spaceship