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Snow Patrol reeled off a series of covers for an acoustic performance at the Union Chapel in London tonight (November 25).

The five-piece pulled in a huge brass and string section for the special Mencap Little Noise Sessions show which saw the band perform Low's cover of 'Just Like Christmas', Ricky Wilde's 'I Am An Astronaut' and Sugababes' recent Number One hit 'About You Now'.

Introducing the second cover, singer Gary Lightbody joked: "We always used to play this near Christmas. It would always remind me of when you see Christmas adverts and you think Christ its only November. Sorry I just realised I'm in church. I can feel my skin burning now for saying that."

The band also played a series of tracks from their recent album 'Eyes Open', 2004's 'Final Straw' as well as a few rarities from their first two albums.

As he launched into 'On/Off', Lightbody found himself having to restart the song because his guitar was out of tune.

Apologising to the crowd he said: "I fucked up there - I'm sorry, my guitar's way out of tune. I think its God's way of telling me off for swearing."

The singer was on jovial form throughout the 70-minute performance, constantly bantering with the audience in between songs.

Commenting on the chapel he told the crowd: "This is an amazing venue. We set up at 8 o'clock this morning, sorry I meant our road crew set up this morning, I wasn't anywhere near this place at 8 o'clock. Then the chapel had their usual church service up here with all our equipment on stage. Somebody in the audience must have been thinking, 'What is going on after the service? I'm going to stick around'. I hope some of them are still here now."

As the band drew the show to a close, curator Jo Whiley, who recently brought Leona Lewis into the Radio 1 Live Lounge to perform a cover of 'Chasing Cars', threatened to bring the X-Factor winner on for a duet before she added: "Only joking."

Snow Patrol went on to perform an orchestral version of the hit single, which Lightbody dedicated to Whiley for "being the first person to play this song in its entirety in September 2003".

They played:

'You're All I Have'
'How To Be Dead'
'Grazed Knees'
'Set The Fire To The Third Bar'
'Fifteen Minutes Old'
'You Could Be Happy'
'On/Off'
'Just Like Christmas'
'I Am An Astronaut'
'About You Now'
'Chocolate'
'Chasing Cars'
'Run'

Earlier Cajun Dance Party also roped in a string section and performed a cover of The Velvet Underground's 'Candy Says' before playing a series of new tracks including 'Snow Song', 'The Hill, The View And The Light', which singer Daniel Blumberg dedicated to his grandfather who died last week, and single 'Amylase'.

Former Moloko singer Roisin Murphy later jetted in from Hamburg for a surprise performance which saw her play two songs from her recent solo album 'Overpowered' including the title track and 'Primitive'.

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Date/Time	Venue	Town/City	Seetickets	Viagogo
Jul 14, 2012 12:00	Bilbao	Spain	Buy Snow Patrol Tickets from £50	Buy Snow Patrol Tickets
Jul 15, 2012 12:00	Passeio Maritimo De Alges	Lisbon	Buy Snow Patrol Tickets	Buy Snow Patrol Tickets