The Story Runrig

• 1 The Story 05:25
• 2 Onar 05:37
• 3 Rise and Fall 06:07
• 4 Elegy 01:26
• 5 Every Beating Heart 03:51
• 6 The Years We Shared 03:43
• 7 When the Beauty 03:25
• 8 18th July 05:26
• 9 An-Diugh Ghabh Mi Cuairt 03:55
• 10 The Place Where the Rivers Run 04:10
• 11 Somewhere 05:18
• Total Runtime 48:23

Info zu The Story

Runrig kehren acht Jahre nach ihrem letzten Studioalbum mit neuer Energie und künstlerischem Elan für ein letztes gemeinsames Album zurück. 'The Story', so der schlichte Titel des am 29. Januar 2016 erscheinenden 14. Studioalbums, an dem die Band fast das ganze Jahr über gearbeitet hat, wird also das finale Kapitel in der schillernden Geschichte von Runrig sein.

Die Songs stammen wie eh und je von den beiden Brüdern Rory und Calum Macdonald, die die Band 1973 gegründet hatten. In den zehn brandneuen Songs reflektieren sie noch einmal über all das, was ihnen am Herzen liegt und was Runrig ziemlich einzigartig gemacht hat die Liebe zu den Highlands mit all ihren Mythen und Naturschönheiten, die Liebe zum Gälischen, aber auch menschliche Schicksale zwischen Leidenschaft und Krieg. Bei aller inhaltlichen Nostalgie ist das Album gleichwohl enorm modern und zeitgemäß produziert. Die Entscheidung, Keyboarder Brian Hurren, dem jüngsten Bandmitglied, die Produktion anzuvertrauen, hat sich als Meisterstreich (Calum Macdonald) erwiesen. Bereits der nun als Single vorab ins Rennen geschickte Titelsong The Story zeigt Runrig mit ihrer typisch euphorisierenden Melodik in bestechender Form. Der gälisch-englisch gesungene Song, bei dem Rory Macdonald (für Leadsänger Bruce Guthro) den Gesang übernommen hat, ist eine Hymne an die Heimat, die mit ihrem stürmischen Gitarrenfuror die Herzen der Fans bluten lassen wird.

„Die Story, die Geschichte der Band Runrig, scheint nach über 40 Jahren allmählich auserzählt – jedenfalls haben die Schotten-Rocker das aktuelle Werk als ihr letztes Studio-Album deklariert (live wollen sie auf jeden Fall noch weitermachen). Klar, dass da die Erwartungen – auch angesichts der fast zehnjährigen Studio-Abstinenz – hoch sind. Werden sie erfüllt?“

„Das musikalische Standbein der Band war immer die keltische Folklore, das Spielbein tastete sich dagegen in verschiedene Spielarten des Pop vor – von raubauzigem Rock bis zu dezenter Elektronik. „The Story“ bietet nun gediegenen, nicht sonderlich aufregenden Pop-Rock (Akzent auf Pop), mal mehr, mal weniger mit Celtic Folk versetzt plus gelegentlicher Country-Würze. Runrig-Fans werden sich in den hymnisch-eingängigen Melodien zuhause fühlen, aber auch wer kein erklärter Folk-Rock-Freak ist, dürfte sich mit dieser gepflegten Produktion anfreunden können.“ (SWR1)

Rory Macdonald, Gitarre, Bass, Gesang
Calum Macdonald, Perkussion, Gesang
Malcolm Jones, Gitarre, Dudelsack, Akkordeon
Iain Bayne, Schlagzeug
Bruce Guthro, Gitarre, Gesang
Brian Hurren, Keyboards, Gesang

Runrig
The phenomenon of Runrig should have been no surprise, really. In hindsight, their statement of intent, to take Gaelic music out to the masses, was there right from the very beginning when they played their very first gig - in the capacious Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, no less, home to indoor athletics, major exhibitions and a legendary Kinks album.

Back then, in 1973, Runrig was a trio comprising brothers Rory and Calum MacDonald, on guitar and drums respectively, and accordionist Blair Douglas. Playing music was something to do in their spare time and it would stay that way for the next five years.

In 1978, however, the band moved on a to higher plain altogether with the release of their first album, Play Gaelic, for Glasgow-based Lismor Records. By this time Blair Douglas had long since departed to make sweet music of his own, including the brilliantly eclectic A Summer in Skye. His replacement, Robert MacDonald, no relation to Rory and Calum, joined around the same time as another arrival, singer and guitarist Donnie Munro.

The response to Play Gaelic, and to their increasingly busy live performance schedule, convinced the band that they were on to something. Calum and Donnie gave up teaching, Rory abandoned a career as a graphic designer, and guitarist Malcolm Jones, who had joined along the way, left university. They formed their own label, Ridge Records, and in 1979 they released Highland Connection to a receptive public.

"We'd always had the idea that Gaelic could cross over and be accepted in a different environment, not just at home in the Highlands and Islands," says Calum. "And although the songs reflected the Gaelic tradition, particularly on the third album, Recovery, a concept album which dealt with the social history of the Scottish Gael, we weren't a folk band."

Indeed, the sound was much bigger, more powerful and wider ranging than folk music and it became more so with the arrival of drummer Iain Bayne, then keyboardist Richard Cherns, an Englishman who remained with the band until 1986, when he left and was replaced by the former Big Country member Peter Wishart. Sadly, at this time, Robert MacDonald, who had fought a long battle with cancer, died.

At this point the band was poised for a further move up the ladder. A brief, abortive flirtation with a London-based record company saw them releasing their fourth album, Heartland, under their own Ridge imprint. But as they continued to build their audience through constant and increasingly farther flung touring, associating with a major label became inevitable for them to reach their full potential.

1987 was a signal year for several reasons: they toured Canada for the first time; they made their first appearance behind the Iron Curtain; and in August, they supported U2 at a mammoth outdoor gig at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh. They also released The Cutter and The Clan, which was instantly re-released when they joined Chrysalis Records the following year.

Momentum was really building now. Once in a Lifetime, released in 1988, caught the excitement of their live performance on record for the first time. The follow-up, Searchlight, went straight into the UK charts at number 11 in 1989, and 1990 was barely thirty minutes old when Runrig started to cause a fuss - their live Hogmanay performance from George Square attracted unprecedented television viewing figures and fans jammed the BBC switchboard with calls.

Five sold-out nights at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall followed later in the year, confirming the band's pulling power, and their City of Lights video charted at number 7 in November.

1991 saw their eighth album, The Big Wheel, enter the UK charts at number 4 and their single Hearthammer take them into the UK Top Forty for the first time. Their history, Going Home, as told by journalist Tom Morton, also hit the shops running and their Highlands and Islands tour caused mayhem. The biggest excitement, however, came when 45,000 people flocked to Loch Lomond to see the band perform under the skies.

Success was becoming almost routine now. Their Amazing Things album won the British Environment and Media Album of the Year award in 1993. An Uhbal As Airde, originally an advertisement for Carlsberg lager became, in 1995, the first Gaelic song to reach the UK Top 40 and on one spectacular day that year they supported the mighty Rolling Stones in Schuttorf, in Germany, and immediately flew to Jubeh where they, in turn, were supported by Mike and the Mechanics.

Through all this, though, Runrig has always kept a strong, personal link with its fans and when the end of an era came in 1996 with the departure of Donnie Munro, they decided to mark the occasion with a 'best of the story so far' collection, Long Distance, for which their fans chose the track list.

"Donnie had been becoming increasingly interested in politics," says Calum, "and towards the end of the Mara tour, he said he was leaving. We didn't want to make a statement about it for quite a time because there might have been a change of plan and after time to reflect, we might all have wanted to call it a day. But we decided to continue because we felt that we still had something to give."

As Donnie went off to stand in the 1997 General Election - running unsuccessfully against the Liberal Democratic Party's leader-in-waiting and coincidentally a big Runrig fan, Charles Kennedy, the search began for his replacement.

This was no easy task - nor was it quickly resolved, but presently a front man was found in the big voiced form of Nova Scotian singer-songwriter Bruce Guthro whose appearance on In Search of Angels in 1999 and subsequent live da tes saw him welcomed into the Runrig fold with open arms.

The Stamping Ground, released in May 2001, consolidates the relationship and sees Runrig moving forward with the involvement on the song Running to the Light of S�o Paolo-based Scot, producer Paul Mounsey, who recorded his own individual interpretation of the band's song Alba on the first of his splendid Scottish-Brazilian-techno crossover albums, Nahoo.

For Calum, The Stamping Ground, stands alongside Runrig's best albums. "When we were putting it together, I often thought that parts of it touched on the Recovery album from twenty years before. As soon as we heard Bruce, we new instantly there was something special there and bringing him in has really been a new start for us."

"Of course, a lot of the reason for carrying on had to do with our audience and how loyal they were to us," he adds. "Although it's changed here and there over the years, inevitably, as some drop off and others come in, we've always had a terrific fan-base. There's still some of the hard-core support that has been with us all along. Some of them now bring their grandchildren."

(Liz More, May 2001)

Dieses Album enthält kein Booklet