"Beyond anything that any of us had anticipated": Runrig's Donnie Munro on Loch Lomond and the Tartan Army

Few songs capture the spirit of Scottish football quite like Loch Lomond, an old standard that was transformed into a participatory Caledonian experience. For generations of supporters, the Runrig version of the song has echoed around stadiums, fan zones and pubs, becoming inseparable from the passion and pride of the Tartan Army. This summer, as Scotland prepares to return to the World Cup stage, that unmistakable soundtrack will once again take centre stage when former Runrig frontman Donnie Munro performs at Glasgow's OVO Hydro ahead of screening events for the three group stage matches.

The band first recorded Loch Lomond in 1982 and released it as their debut single later that year. While the song itself dates back centuries, Runrig transformed it with their distinctive blend of folk and rock sensibilities, helping introduce it to a new generation of listeners. It quickly became one of the band's signature songs and a staple of their live performances.

I spoke to Runrig singer Donnie Munro about Scotland, Loch Lomond and football heroes.

I wanted to ask you about your own World Cup memories and experiences both personally and as a performer?

Like virtually everybody else with an interest in football in Scotland, I've followed the World Cup successes and failures throughout my life. I suppose I became very conscious of the whole energy of the World Cup, like so many other people during the Ally MacLeod era, where there was this mass euphoria that captured the whole country.

It was something that was very self-evident. Wherever you went, there was a tremendous excitement. And obviously the outcome of that was, ultimately, of disappointment, but there was something really uplifting about just the energy of expectation. So it was great entertainment for everybody. And I've followed World Cup finals from that time onwards.

One of my direct involvements with the World Cup was being asked to perform on the World Cup single in 1990, Say it With Pride. There were a number of Scottish artists, myself included, along with Fish from Marillion, James Grant from Love and Money, The Silencers.

We were each given groups of plays to coach in the song. When you’re a football fan yourself, it's quite a cool thing to be in amongst players that you have admired over the years. I do remember that within my group, I had Eric Black, who was a great hero of mine, he had been an Aberdeen player and had gone to Continental Europe. I also had Jim Bett, Jim Leighton, who had great fun doing the song, and Ally McCoist. I remember McCoist in particular having a good turn when it came to his vocals. The song itself went down well, and then the reality of the competition itself kicked in and it wasn't the most successful outcome, but it was great fun being part of that.

My own experience beyond that is the excitement of standing in the tunnel at Hampden with the team prior to going on the park and then going on and doing Flower of Scotland before the game and then Loch Lomond at halftime.

It's a great privilege and a great buzz and, especially for a football fan, to be in the middle of all that and to be part of that atmosphere. World Cup campaigns and the Scotland team, the whole atmosphere, it’s a really special part of my own memory and musical journey.

The memorable 4-2 win over Denmark at Hampden. | Getty Images

I was at Hampden for the match against Denmark when Scotland qualified. They played Loch Lomond before the match. They played it after the match. It was blasting out in pubs for much of that week. What Runrig did with that song, it has such a great connection with the Tartan Army, it featured at my own wedding, most of my friends’ wedding. Does that enduring power of your version bring a sense of pride?

I mean, it's gone beyond anything that any of us had anticipated and it kind of crept up on us really. We always knew that that version of the song, in the live situation, it really caught the imagination of the audience. I think because it's engaging, that invites participation. It invites the audience to be part of it. I guess that's the secret ingredient, but yes, I mean, we have been amazed by just the depth, if you like, or the reach of that song.

I've been at so many weddings myself, suddenly you find yourself up at the end with everybody else going mentally and hearing your own voice, it's a very odd experience. But yeah, it's a huge compliment that people have kind of adopted the song in such a significant way culturally if you like, as a kind of iconic Scottish celebration. It’s been an amazing experience for us.

There are a number of bands now that are taking traditional into the modern era with difference influences, do you see echoes of what Runrig did in some of the next generation of Scottish musicians?

The big thing about the trad scene in Scotland is that it has grown so much over the last 20, 25 years. The number of players and the quality of players has been amazing. But you're right, that fusion that coming from growing up with a knowledge of tradition and traditional music, but also a desire to be contemporary.

It’s a great thing, that inspired, in a sense Runrig - we were never in that sense a traditional band. We had grown up with the knowledge of tradition, particularly the songs and we did start as a kind of ceilidh band in the early days. Most of what we did was based around new writing, with the exception of a few songs. What we did was bring our inheritance of gaelic trad music and song together with our natural interest in rock and pop music.

I guess that in our time, at that point in our lives, it was very similar to the kind of thing that people are doing now with dance music, with bands like Niteworks, for example, who are bringing in really interesting work based around electronic music and infusing that with tradition.

It's a very strong thing, I think. And I guess the thing about traditional music and about folk music of any kind is that it is something that is just always growing and will adopt new influences. The important thing is that the respect and the understanding and the context of the tradition itself remains. So nothing is being taken away and what is happening is that it's being added to.

Runrig at Edinburgh Castle | TSPL

With that big gap between World Cups, it means that younger fans are getting to experience this World Cup for the first time and the fever around it and that outpouring of Scottish emotion and music and revelry. Is that something that you're looking forward to seeing at The Hydro?

Well, it's a great manifestation of that. Look, there's nothing better, every nation, every country, every community up and down the land, regardless of how large or small, always responds to excitement of having your own heroes. And it's especially the case when you look at national sports, that people really want something to attach themselves to. And the excitement of a World Cup series is really something that you start to feel percolating right through the whole of society.

Lots of people who are not necessarily committed to being involved in either watching football or playing football on a weekly basis are suddenly caught up in the kind of euphoria and the expectation and the aspiration. It's not like a very inspiring thing and of course it's a great excitement and to be invited to be part of that at The Hydro is something I'm really looking forward to.

Did you have any football heroes or music heroes that swept you up with euphoria at different times of your life?

Well, it's really funny, I’ve had lots of musical influences over the years. I mean, coming from the Highlands, my first introduction to performance and music came through a very inspiring art teacher I had who was really into North America and folk revival music with people like Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie. So I started off at maybe 11 or 12 year old singing a lot of American music.

That's always been there and the singer, Tom Paxton, who was around at that time, I had the buzz of finding myself many, many years down the line on the same stage as someone whose songs I'd been singing way, way back. That was quite a journey. With Runrig, I also had the joy and experience of working on the same stage as Bob Dylan when we played the London Fleadh, two great heroes of ours, Bob Dylan and Van Morrison, both on the bill and both on together.

I have to say one of my own great inspirations was the band Big Country who were contemporaries of ours, but still one of the best shows I've ever seen in my life. Big Country at the Edinburgh Playhouse and Stuart Adamson just being a fantastic performer with incredible energy.

The Aberdeen player, John Hewitt. I'm an Aberdeen fan and Hewitt was one of the great heroes of the Aberdeen's European success when he come on as a supersub. By complete coincidence I found myself in a situation where Hewitt was quite close and he remains the only person I’ve asked for an autograph.

I was invited to perform at a Gottenberg Greats event in Aberdeen. That was, for me, just an amazing thing to be sitting at a table with all these people who I’d admired over the years. That was, for me, just an amazing thing, to be sitting at a table with all these people who I'd admired over the years. I was lucky, I'd been studying in Aberdeen around the time when Aberdeen was really on the rise, around the Alex Ferguson period when they went on to have incredible success, winning the league championship, but also then going on to win the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup and the Super Cup. It was amazing.

All three of Scotland’s group games at the World Cup will be broadcast live at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro. Scottish anthem Caledonia will ring out as Dougie McLean also joins the Hoolie in the Hydro house band for a special set which will include his most famous song. You can find more details here.