With it looking pretty certain that their album will be number one this week, Snow Patrol have announced a sizeable UK and Ireland arena tour which kicks off next February.

Tickets go on presale tomorrow (Friday 31st October) at 9am from here, and then on general sale.

Sunday 22nd February 2009 - Bournemouth BIC
Tuesday 24th February 2009 - Glasgow SECC
Thursday 26th February 2009 - Aberdeen AECC
Saturday 28th February 2009 - Dublin Point Depot
Wednesday 4th March 2009 - Sheffield Hallam Arena
Friday 6th March 2009 - Liverpool Arena
Saturday 7th March 2009 - Manchester MEN
Sunday 8th March 2009 - Cardiff Arena
Tuesday 10th March 2009 - Newcastle Arena
Wednesday 11th March 2009 - Birmingham NEC
Thursday 12th March 2009 - Nottingham Arena
Saturday 14th March 2009 - London O2
Thursday 19th March 2009 - Belfast Odyssey

The only band to have a frontman who can give Johnny Borrell a run for his money in the irritating self-important front man league, Snow Patrol, have announced a unique 48 hour tour around the UK and Ireland around release day of their new album, A Hundred Million Suns which is out on Monday 27th October.

The ‘Take Back The Cities Tour’ will see the band play four capital cities across the UK and Ireland in a 48 hour period stopping off in Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh and London.

Tickets for these shows are priced £22.50, and due to the intimate nature of the events are available exclusively to members of their fan club via a lottery draw. Each lucky ticket holder will also get an exclusive free Live CD of the show they attend, picking up an artworked CD on the night, which will contain details of how to download highlights of the show the next day.

Sunday 26th October - Dublin Gate Theatre (Lunchtime show)
Sunday 26th October - Belfast Empire (Evening show)
Monday 27th October - Edinburgh Assembly Rooms (Midday show)
Monday 27th October - London Bloomsbury Theatre (Evening show)

Two final announcements for this weeks on sales at Friday, 9am.

Enter Shikari have announced that they’ll play Brixton Academy, which they’ll surely sell out and have to add more dates for. They were only the second unsigned band to sell out the Astoria, so surely they’ll sell out Brixton now that they’ll have an album out too?

Secondly, those Irish bedwetters Snow Patrol have announced their own, one off festival in Ward Park Playing Fields, Bangor, County Down in Northern Ireland, which was where Gary Lightbody and Jonny Quinn grew up. They’ll be supported by Ash, The Dead 60’s, Simply Kid, Kowalski and finally We Are Scientists. Sounds like a fab festival. Oh, except Snow Patrol are headlining. Oh well, can’t have it all.

Photo taken from Vern’s flickr stream.