Gaelic rockers Runrig and their former frontman Donnie Munro have discussed working together again after 20 years.
Munro, who quit the band in 1997 to pursue a career in politics, said he has held talks with founding members Rory and Calum Macdonald about potentially collaborating on a retrospective project.
The singer’s only appearance with the band in the past two decades was at ‘Party on the Moor’, their 40th anniversary concert at Muir of Ord near Inverness in November 2012.
“I was with Rory a few weeks ago at a wedding and it doesn’t feel like 20 years of separation at all,” Munro said yesterday.
“We never closed off the possibility of working together again and the reunion a few years ago at Muir of Ord was maybe something of a stepping stone.
“If there was a good reason for doing it we certainly would do. We wouldn’t hesitate.
“We have spoken about going right back and looking at the very beginnings of the band and maybe looking at something around that at some point.
“It’s certainly something that has been discussed, but nothing has been taken forward.”
After leaving Runrig in September 1997, Munro stood unsuccessfully for election as a Labour candidate to both the UK and Scottish parliaments and served as the first Rector of the University of the Highlands and Islands Millennium Institute from 1998 until 2001.
In recent years he has worked as development director at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Scotland’s National Centre for the Gaelic Language and Culture on his native Skye.
He said he “had never questioned” his decision to end his 23-year stint with Runrig, who he joined a year after the Macdonald brothers first formed the band on the island in 1973.
“It was for me the right time,” he insisted. “We were very much formed in a cultural and political background that was very strong in our thinking, and forming our views in terms of our music.
“I think we had our peak years in that sense between 1987 and 1997. It was a 10-year period of really intense creative work.
“I felt as if I had reached a point where I had explored everything as an artist and performer and felt the time was right for me to stop working with the band full-time."
Following Munro’s departure Runrig continued with another singer, Bruce Guthro, and they released their 14th studio album The Story last year.
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