IT’S no slight to Bruce Guthro, Runrig’s Canadian frontman for two decades, to note the roar that met the appearance of Donnie Munro at their farewell concerts in Stirling last August.
A key member since brothers Calum and Rory Macdonald formed Runrig in the early 1970s, Munro’s resonant pipes remain synonymous with this most Scottish of bands.
Having quit the band in 1997 – originally to pursue a career in politics – Munro was performing a solo show in Denmark when he first heard the news.
“Calum called and told me the band had decided to finish,” says Munro. “I wasn’t shocked - there’s an inevitability of something like that – but it made me stop and think.”
Munro continues: “In the late 1990s when I was departing he band and the band was continuing, I still carried Runrig in my head and heart all these years in between.”
“The difference between my last concerts when I had finished with the band and the shows just last summer was that there was a finality there that wasn’t before,” he says. “It was reflecting on the journey of people of people there, from those who had never been to a Runrig show before to people who had followed us from the early days touring out in the Outer Hebrides, playing village halls. In some cases, there were three generations of a family at those Stirling concerts. That’s a very powerful thing to share, this human journey.”
Munro’s live shows often feature themes of travel and movement, echoing An Taras, an album recorded live at 2008’s Celtic Connections with a 40-piece live band.
“The primary context with An Taras was what happened in Scotland at various points in our history, but since then I’ve enjoyed placing the songs in a wider context and looking at it much more universally as the story of what people are confronted with when they travel, something that hasn’t really stopped being relevant,” Munro says.
Speaking from Skye, where he works at Sabhal Mor Ostaig as “development director” (“It basically means getting money to do things,” he explains), Munro says his music set-up alternates between a seven-piece band and a smaller acoustic ensemble.
For this headline appearance at Gig In The Goil, he’ll be backed by Ian Smith, a mandolin-player from Lewis, guitarist Eric Coughley – also Munro’s producer and engineer – and Maggie Adamson, a young fiddle-player from Shetland.
“I really enjoy the acoustic line-up,” Munro says. “It’s given me the opportunity to revisit older material that people haven’t heard for a long time and even older material from before Runrig. When you strip things back down to voice and acoustic instruments, it is a different way of being on stage. I’ve certainly enjoyed the opportunity to have more communication about songs than you might have with a bigger production.”
He adds: “That said, we still cover a lot of the big songs. Although it’s acoustic there’s a lot of power in the delivery.”
Though Munro says the Gaelic music scene is “a million light years away from where we were 20, 25 years ago”, he suggests there’s a lack of original, contemporary songwriting the likes of which the Macdonald brothers were pioneers of in the 1970s and 1980s.
Runrig’s key position at the forefront of the Gaelic renaissance was only something he has appreciated in retrospect, Munro explains.
“I’ve sat in rooms amazed at people discussing Runrig in terms of Gaelic language and culture,” he says. “But the band didn’t set out to be the flagship band of the Gaelic revival.
“We just set out to play contemporary music in our first language. It all seemed perfectly natural to us.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel