BLUR frontman Damon Albarn was famously part of the Britpop phenomenon of the mid-1990s, when his band took on and beat Oasis to the No 1 singles spot.
But he has swapped the rock'n'roll lifestyle and fallen in love with the wildlife off the coast of the Isle of Mull.
The man behind hits such as Country Life went swimming with basking sharks while on holiday on the island after checking into the Western Isles Hotel in Tobermory.
Local RSPB officer Dave Sexton, who escorted Albarn, DJ friend Marc Riley and filmmaker and writer Ceri Levy on the trip, said: "They went swimming with basking sharks and visited Staffa and we had fantastic views of sea eagles. He seemed in his element, very chilled, and enjoying what he was seeing."
Albarn's new album, Everyday Robots, has been nominated for a Mercury prize and he plays the Royal Albert Hall on November 15 and 16.
Mr Sexton added: "He's not a mad twitcher by any means but clearly enjoys the peace and quiet as a change to the wild rock star life."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article