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 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,