Runrig

It’s impossible to overestimate Runrig’s role in taking Gaelic and Scottish culture to an international audience and impossible to imagine the Gaelic music scene today without the existence of a band that has acquired legendary status. The same band that has rocked concert halls across Europe and North America has been an inspiration to a generation of singers and musicians growing up in the Gaidhealtachd and has achieved the ultimate tribute of having its songs pass into the tradition.

Formed in 1973 by brothers Calum and Rory MacDonald and accordionist and keyboards player Blair Douglas, Runrig began life with the sole and very pragmatic intention of getting people on Skye to dance. This was the only way to get work then and before the band developed their own sound, Chuck Berry, Fleetwood Mac and Steely Dan numbers shared their set-list with more traditional ceilidh fare.

It was with the release in 1978 of their first album, Play Gaelic, by which time Douglas had left and rejoined, Donnie Munro had become established as singer and frontman and Malcolm Jones had added his distinctive guitar style, that Runrig really began to make an impression. Calum and Rory were writing songs that young Gaels could relate to and the band’s ability to make an audience bounce around with giddy abandon was growing.

Forming their own label, Ridge Records, and releasing the Highland Connection and Recovery albums, the band began to gain momentum, building their audience far beyond the Highlands, showing the political awareness that would see two members move into political careers, and honing Loch Lomond into a rocking anthem that would be taken up by 45,000 voices in a concert by the loch itself in 1991.

By now Runrig were internationally recognised. They had signed to a major record label, Chrysalis, and supported U2 at their massive Murrayfield gig in 1987. They’d enjoyed chart successes, including a number four placing with The Big Wheel album, and as well as playing major venues in Germany and Canada, they were capable of selling out no fewer than five nights at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

Even the loss, in 1997, of talismanic singer Donnie Munro hasn’t dimmed Runrig’s flame. With Cape Breton-born Bruce Guthro replacing Munro, the band has gone on to conquer new territories and achieve spectacular record sales. They played their first American gig, a benefit concert for Glasgow the Caring City in New York, in 2006; reached number one in Denmark with their 2007 album, Everything You See; and returned to the UK top ten with Loch Lomond (The Hampden Remix), which they recorded with Rod Stewart and the Tartan Army for the BBC’s Children in Need appeal 2007.

Possibly the greatest recognition of Runrig’s contribution, however, came in May 2005, when Glasgow’s Gaelic arts association, An Lochran, staged the Flower of the West concert, named after Rory and Calum MacDonald’s songbook. There, a host of Gaelic singers, including Karen Matheson, Kenna Campbell, Cathy-Ann MacPhee, Arthur Cormack and Julie Fowlis and massed Gaelic choirs celebrated a body of work that truly is a flower of the west.

For more inforation visit Runrig's website.