RUNRIG | Latest News

Pre Edinburgh Castle fan get together

A pre show get together has been organised on the afternoon of the 26th of July in the Bongo Club in Edinburgh's Royal Mile. There will be Karaoke competition and more fun and games

The event is free, although any donations towards costs would be appreciated, and any additional monies raised shall be donated to a charity!

The Bongo Club is part of a charity group called Out of the Blue, who help and encourage young musicians and artists in Edinburgh and often help promote them through concerts, club nights as well as providing them with learners classes and practice rooms. You can visit the Bongo Club website and read more by clicking here.

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Year of the Charts

We are all popping the single malt corks at the Runrig Office as we have just heard the great news that Year of the Flood is this week's No 1 in the Official UK DVD Music Charts beating even 'older timers' like Neil Diamond, Led Zeppelin and Madonna. This comes on the back of a Danish No 1 run and a mid-week position of No 2 in Germany in the first week of release.

You can view the official chart by clicking here. Year of the Flood can be purchased from our online shop together with an exclusive audio CD. Also check out our new range of summer tour T-Shirts too.

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DVD release information

Unfortunately, and with great regret, we have just found out that we will have to delay the date of the DVD release. This is particularly frustrating for all concerned, as the PR, distribution and retail teams were all waiting on the starting line ready to go. The problem is a technical one within the manufacturing process, and we have no option but to delay the release.

Fortunately the impact will not be too bad as the manufacturing plant will ship out on Tuesday 29th April. We will ensure that shipments to fans and to retail outlets will be as quick as possible from receipt at the office and distribution outlets.

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Year of the Flood available for pre-order

We are delighted to announce the release of Year of The Flood, the long awaited DVD of the Beat the Drum event. Filmed at Drumnadrochit, Loch Ness on 18 August 2007, Year Of The Flood will bring back many memories of that unforgettable day when 17,500 people gathered to celebrate the band’s flagship event of Highland Year of Culture 2007, on what was to prove to be the wettest day for the area in living memory. A day of music and celebration – a day of relentless deluge - an event that had the unique distinction of becoming legendary the second it was over and a day that none present would ever forget!

The film attempts to capture it all, just as it was – the mud, the rain, the music, the Highlands and ultimately the ‘never say die’ spirit of a remarkable audience that saw it through to the end, as only a Runrig audience could.

The DVD will be officially released in the UK and Denmark on 28 April, followed by Germany on 4 May. Also, alongside the DVD, a CD release, with selected tracks from the event, will be available exclusively from our online shop and the Aberdeen office.

Both the DVD and CD are available to pre-order from our online shop. A special combination offer is availble for customers who wish to purchase the DVD and audio CD.

Customers who purchased the Souvenir Disc can fill out the discount slips and send it to the Aberdeen office where the DVD will cost £13.99 inc p&p, or the DVD combo pack £18.99 inc p&p.

For all mail, and telephone orders please contact;
Runrig Office
1 York Street
Aberdeen
AB11 5DL
01224 573 100

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Coming Home exhibition moves to Skye

The Runrig Exhibition Coming Home has moved from Lochmaddy, Isle of North Uist, to Aros in Skye. It opens on the 17th of March and is running to the end of the year.

The exhibition covers three distinct areas of band history; the early years (1973-1986) playing round the islands of Skye and the Outer Isles, the Donnie / Chrysalis era (1986 –1997) when the scale of operation reached a higher level with crossover popular appeal and when the international dimension became part of the picture and finally the remarkable regeneration of the band as it moved into the Bruce era, 1997 till the present day.

For more information on viewing the exhibition, visit the Aros centre website by clicking here.

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Runrig return to the Castle

Runrig are delighted to announce their Scottish summer show on the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle on Saturday the 26th July. After 2007 being such an exciting year for the band, the show at Edinburgh Castle is a significant event for the band in 2008.

Calum said ‘This is a show we’re really excited about. It’s been too long since we last played on the esplanade – they were always great occasions for the fans – music in the heart of the capital city on a summers evening - you just couldn’t get a better atmosphere.’

Tickets – seated and standing – go on general sale on Friday 15th February from 9am, priced £35.00 (plus booking fee). Tickets will be available from ticketmaster. Gates open at 7pm.

The Megantic Outlaw Live at Celtic Connections

A new show devised by Lewis musician and teacher Calum Martin, best known for his Gaelic psalm recordings with the Back Free Church congregation, The Megantic Outlaw takes its name from that popularly bestowed on Donald Morrison (1858-1894), a once-celebrated figure in the frontier folklore of Quebec, where his parents settled after being cleared from Lewis.

After shooting a bounty-hunter over a disputed family debt, Morrison spent ten months on the run, frequently sheltered by other Scottish settlers in the region. Martin’s Gaelic folk-rock song cycle, recently released on CD, begins with the family’s voyage from Lewis, following the story through to Morrison’s capture, imprisonment, and eventual death following a hunger-strike.

Helping Calum perform The Megantic Outlaw album live will be an all star Trans-Atlantic band, consisting of Runrig members Malcolm Jones (guitarist/piper/multi -instrumentalist) and Blair Douglas (accordion/keyboard) as well as Fraser Fifield (saxophone/pipes/whistles) a hugely individual and multi-talented musician who transcends various musical genres and one of the youngest ever traditional Mod Gold Medallists Isobel Ann Martin (backing vocals).

From Nashville comes Arvel Bird, the most popular Native American recording artist on tour today who secured top honors as Artist of the Year at the Native American Music Awards in 2007.

Venue : The Classic Grand
Date : 31st January
Time : 7:30pm
Tickets : £12.50

Click here to purchase tickets from the Celtic Connections website. The Megantic Outlaw is available to purchase from the Ridge Records section in our online shop.

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Loch Lomond No.1 in Scotland / No.9 in the UK Chart.

The band created a big, seven minute TV moment with their performance on last Friday’s Children in Need extravaganza. For anyone who missed the show, you can check out Bruce dancing with Jackie Bird etc. on You Tube

This weeks chart positions have just been announced and both Runrig and their vocal collaborators, The Tartan Army are over the moon with the result. Although there was big disappointments at Hampden Park last night as far as the football was concerned, the winners once again were the Tartan Army, so today’s chart success is something positive to celebrate. They can now turn their attention to the World Cup. Well done everyone involved. Keep buying the single on download or CD – please keep the money coming in.

We have some signed, printed copies of the single artwork on canvas available for auction. All bids to the Runrig office and all proceeds go to Children in Need. Send an email to the office stating how much you wish to bid over the current bid.

The current highest bid is £400.

You can see the bands performance on Children in Need on You Tube by clicking here.

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A single is born

After working well into the night and a brief stop for a few hours sleep it was back into the studio again at first light to complete the mix. By lunchtime it was ready. The band then headed off to Germany to resume the tour and engineer Kristian Gislason and business manager Steve Cullen made a dash for the nearest airport to meet the mastering deadline. It is booked in at the mastering suite in Copenhagen later in the afternoon.

The single will be available across Scotland at the following stores - Woolworths, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Virgin, HMV and leading independants from Monday 12th of November. It is available for pre order at both HMV and Amazon by clicking on the links. The band will be performing the new single on Friday the 16th of November on BBC Scotland for Children In Need, so please tune in and show your support.

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Double Platinum award for Everything You See

Denmark's amazing love affair with Everything You See continues. After the band's show in Arhus at the NRGI Arena last Friday night , a team from Recart, the Danish record company, came backstage to present the band with yet another platinum disk for Everything You See.

The band have currently finished a week of sell out shows in Denmark and start the German leg of the tour this week. You can check out the full list of tour dates and get all the ticket information by clicking here. With very few tickets remaining for the final shows of the Everything you See tour you'd better hurry!!

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Come and support the band for Children in Need

BBC Scotland have kindly allowed us to take 50 of our own fans to join up with members of the Tartan Army for the live televised performance of Loch Lomond, at Children in Need, Friday 16th November, at BBC Scotland, Pacific Quay, Glasgow.

The broadcast slot is set for 8.30pm, Due to restrictions on space and bearing in mind the content of the complete programme it will be impossible for anyone to stay on beyond the Runrig performance. But never mind, the Loch, the Army and the Riggies are going to be the main event. It promises to be quite a party.

Anyone wanting to go should put their names and contact details in an email with the subject title 'Tickets for Children in Need' to office@runrig.co.uk no later than Friday 9th of November. We will then put the names in a hat, and lets hope you get lucky.

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Loch Lomond for Children In Need

With the band out on the road, one week into their album tour, a major missive came into the office this week. The Daily Record acting on behalf of the Tartan Army and BBC Scotland are pulling together an exciting proposal that would be the flagship event of BBC Scotland’s Children In Need appeal, 2007.

With the national football team riding the crest of a wave in their bid to qualify for the European Championships, 2008, and the song Loch Lomond being one of the main songs on the Tartan Army hit list, it was felt that getting a new recording of the song together with the Tartan Army would be an excellent fundraiser for Children In Need by way of download and retail release.

With the band touring it made the recording of the song an interesting logistical challenge, but where there’s a will.

The band are really excited about the project and their main aspiration in it all is that it can raise as much money as possible for Children In Need.

To visit the Tartan army website click here.

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Everything You See tour underway

The Everything You See tour is underway and has got off to a great start. The band are really enjoying the shows and are looking forward to taking Everything You see across Europe and finishing the tour back at the infamous Barrowlands.

If any of you who are at the shows would like to send your pictures and reviews, we would be most grateful. We would like to use them in the next edition of The Wire for a full round up of the whole tour.

For those people who haven’t got tickets to see the band yet click here for a full list of dates and ticket information.

All pictures and reviews can be emailed to office@runrig.co.uk or can also be sent to the address below. Images need to be high resolution (300dpi).

Enjoy the Tour!!

Official Address

Runrig Office,
1 York St, Aberdeen,
AB11 5DL,
Scotland UK.
Tel: +44 (0)1224 573100

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Request for fans photographs, mobile video and personal accounts.

Beat the Drum on Saturday was undoubtedly a unique and completely unexpected experience, a fact borne out by way of the anecdotes and personal experiences beginning to surface.

As you all know the concert was filmed for a DVD release and although we also used an official photographer, we felt that in the light of the extreme nature of the event it would be a great pity not to have the experience documented from the fans point of view. If you have any photographs of your own that show this, whether it be pulling cars from the car park, people getting hosed down at the car wash, groups of fans singing in the rain, movie film of the band shot on mobile phone from the midst of the audience etc.. We would be most grateful.

Basically we want to build a databank of images that might ultimately get incorporated into the DVD or the next edition of the Wire. And also please don’t forget to add any written account as back up if you so wish.

Ideally the best method of transfer would be if you could download on to CD or DVD and send it to the office, including your contact details. Alternatively, you can email your images at full resolution to office@runrig.co.uk.

Please get in touch with Mike Smith for any further details.

Official Address

Runrig Office,
1 York St, Aberdeen,
AB11 5DL,
Scotland UK.
Tel: +44 (0)1224 573100

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'Day' Of The Flood

Now that the war is over and the last of the refugees has safely made it back home, we would like to thank each and every one of you for staying with us, sharing with us and surviving with us on Saturday night.

It was a concert like no other we have ever done in our 34 years, and never were the opening lines from the opening song Year of the Flood more appropriate. We sincerely hope we never have to go to these extremes again to share the joy of music. You were amazing, and we thank you for staying there right to the bitter end – we have no idea how you managed to sing, dance, applaud and get into the spirit of the occasion, after the day that you suffered. From all of us, a huge heartfelt thank you.

With all the best advance weather forecasting possible, and with all contingency plans in place, we still never imagined it would have been quite as severe as it was. Because of the conditions, the game plan for the day had to be thrown away and everyone on the organisational side of things just had to get on with things as best as possible - and by and large, they did a fantastic job. We apologise for all the inevitable extra queuing for food, toilets, exits etc – the inevitable chaos that ensued at the car parking and all the other hundreds of problems that people had to face - all a knock on effect of the weather.

We would like to thank the people and the whole community of Drumnadrochit, for giving us a part of their village for the day. We thank them for their understanding, kindness and good humour. We thank the many local people that selflessly gave of their time to help out. Typified by Bruce Wynne, who spent hours pulling cars out of the car park mud. We only hope that in all the upheaval, we have left the village with something positive and enduring from ourselves.

In time, we will all look back on the occasion with different eyes - once the dust has settled, or rather, once the mud has dried – and I know we will be glad to say that we were there.

It really was quite special. Moran taing a’ rithist.

Look out for photos going into the gallery and a full report in the next edition of the wire A souvenir disc containing interviews, images and footage of the event is also available in the shop.

Photographs on the day by Andrew King.

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Take a Road Trip - with John R. Weir

We are now in a position to announce the next exciting development in the Beat the Drum experience. Official vehicle sponsor for the day will be the John R Weir Group, and as part of the deal we will be giving away a brand new Smart Fortwo Car. This will take the form of a prize draw, the winner to be drawn from a ‘big drum’ live on stage, before the Red Hot Chilli Pipers set.

Tickets for the draw cost £5 and will only be available from the site, on the day of the show. The band are delighted to be associated with the Smart Car, and we applaud the efforts of car manufacturers that are now beginning to look for eco friendly solutions to the problems of motoring. The Smart Car is a significant move in the right direction.

As an extra giveaway we will include the entire signed Runrig CD back catalogue together with a signed copy of the Flower Of the West songbook. So go on … take a road trip.

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Everything You Hear - The Runrig Campsite Karaoke Night

For all Runrig fans gathering in the Beat The Drum campsite on Friday 17th August, we have very special treat in store. An Everything You See album Karaoke competition. The winner getting to feature in the next Wire and meet the band after the show.

Entry will be free of charge, by wristband, received on checking into the campsite. A form will be available both on checking into the campsite and on entering the Karaoke tent. If you wish to enter this great challenge and make your bid for super stardom write down your name and choice of song. Names will be drawn from a hat on the night, and we will try and let as many fans as possible get their opportunity in the time available. We hope that lots of you take up the challenge and make this a great fun night. The perfect way to pass the evening before the big day itself.

A fans adjudication panel will be picked and they will decide on the best 5 singers to go through to the final sing-off, where the 5 finalists will sing the complete song. The winner will then be chosen. To complete the evening’s entertainment, we have music from Achnasheen Airport and some additional prizes and surprises.

We have arranged to provide full on site bar and catering facilities with an extended licence till 1.00am both days and catering available at all times from the opening of the site Friday lunchtime until closure Sunday lunchtime.

The event begins at 7pm and is strictly for official campsite ticket holders only. All subject to licence.

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Runrig ‘Beat The Dram ’ with Duncan Taylor whisky

In order to toast their Beat The Drum event - next month’s sell-out concert at Drumnadrochit, Loch Ness - Runrig have got together with award-winning whisky merchant Duncan Taylor of Huntly to create a special commemorative malt.

The day long, Beat The Drum event promises a blend and variety of music with a particularly potent Highland flavour, appropriate to this celebratory year of Highland culture. The same description could equally apply to the chosen whisky, a Duncan Taylor special bottling of one of Scotland ’s premium malts of 20 years old. It was selected at a private tasting at the company premises in Huntly and afterwards band member Iain Bayne commented, ‘‘In this significant year of Highland culture we thought there was no better way to mark our own involvement than to do so in the company of one of the finest, most vibrant and special of Highland malts. It also seemed appropriate and fitting to name it, Beat The Dram!’’

The beautifully presented, limited edition whisky of just 500 bottles will be available to purchase exclusively at the festival for £65 per bottle. Each bottle is individually numbered and accompanied by a certificate signed by the band members.

You can visit Duncan Taylor of Huntly by clicking here

The Beat The Drum Souvenir Disc is now available for pre-order in our new on-line shop Am Buth

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More Archive News ||

Pre Edinburgh Castle fan get together

Special Castle concert malt on sale

Year of the Charts

DVD release information

Special Castle guest announced

Year of the Flood available for pre-order

Coming Home exhibition moves to Skye

Runrig return to the Castle

The Megantic Outlaw Live at Celtic Connections

Work on Beat the Drum DVD well underway

Brian takes over the airwaves of Radio Borders

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas

Caroline gets smart!

Loch Lomond No.1 in Scotland / No.9 in the UK Chart.

A single is born

Loch Lomond is Coming

Double Platinum award for Everything You See

Come and support the band for Children in Need

Loch Lomond for Children In Need

Everything You See tour underway

Official Address

Runrig documentary broadcast on STV

Request for fans photographs, mobile video and personal accounts.

Official Address

'Day' Of The Flood

Take a Road Trip - with John R. Weir

Everything You Hear - The Runrig Campsite Karaoke Night

Runrig ‘Beat The Dram ’ with Duncan Taylor whisky