Gary Lightbody at the Tay Hotel. Along with Lightbody, friends Roy Kerr, Tom Simpson, and Anu Pillai also used to DJ there. They mixed up various styles of music as house, rock, and hip hop. They gained a loyal following and socialised together for about two years. Lightbody later co-wrote "What Are You Waiting For" on the album "Strangest Things", with Anu Pillai for Freeform Five. "What Are You Waiting For" was written before Snow Patrol released "Final Straw", during a time when Lightbody was staying over at the band's place for a few days. Pillai had to literally drag a hungover
Taking Back the Cities Tour and sang lead female vocals on "Set the Fire to the Third Bar", which originally featured Martha Wainwright. On 9 March, Gary Lightbody & Nathan Connolly appeared as guests in Iain Archer's set at the Ulster Hall, Belfast, which was hosting "Do You Remember the First Time?" a one-off event by BBC Across The Line. Lightbody wrote a blog about the other artists that appeared at the event later. The last show of the tour had the band's friends & family and the Northern Irish Football squad in the 9,000 strong audience. The band played to an estimated 200,000 fans