"There's certainly no lack of desire on our part," Alan Reid, the keyboard player and principal songwriter, confirmed.

"Inverness - and I'm talking about Inverness specifically - is always one of the best places for us to play."

They will not be visiting Inverness this time round, though. Instead on Thursday the band will be appearing in the Strathpeffer Pavilion, a venue new to the four-piece - or at least Reid thinks so.

With next year's European tour being billed by their German promoters as their 40th anniversary, Reid, the sole remaining founder-member and constant presence in the Battlefield Band line-up, could be forgiven for not remembering every venue the group has visited.

"Me and (band co-founder) Brian McNeill gave up teaching in 1975. We went into full time music thinking that we would try it for a couple of years and see what happens," Reid said.

"If anyone had said then that we'd be doing the same thing in 2009, I'd be amazed - there are people in the band who could be my children!"

Reid is often asked how many people have played in Battlefield Band and estimate around 22 or 23, though several of these were members in its early days when it was still a part time proposition.

However, past members include some of the most respected names in traditional music, including singers Karine Polwart and Davy Steele, pipers Iain MacDonald, Duncan MacGillivray and Dougie Pincock and multi-instrumentalist John McCusker who, like his still serving successor Alasdair White, was recruited while still a teenager.

Reid, who has been nominated as composer of the year in the Scots Trad Awards, sees such injections of fresh talent as part of the reason for its longevity and sees no reason why the band could not continue if he ever decided to call it a day.

"Almost all of these people have gone on to make their own mark," he said.

"Robin Morton, our producer, once said that we are like a college - except that we don't get any funding.

"Most of the situations where we have had changes of line up have been mutual with people saying they don't want to do any more touring or want to do their own thing, but I'm sure there are people going: 'There's that guy on the keyboards, he must be really difficult to work with - everybody else goes and he just stays there!'"

Earlier this week the band flew back from a successful tour of the US, with some venues having been twice as full as on the group's previous tour.

The Batties have long had a strong following overseas and Reid admits he would like to see the group playing in Scotland more often. However, Lewis-born fiddler and multi-instrumentalist White resists any suggestion that the band have become musical ambassadors for Scotland.

"I wouldn't presume to give us such a highfalutin title, but you are conscious that you are out there playing the music that you have grown up with, the country of your own music and your own area," White said.

"Basically you just want people to love it as much as you do. If that makes us in a small way musical ambassadors, then that's a brilliant thing to be associated with.

"Battlefield Band has always been a very outward looking band. It's one of those bands that's just concerned with playing music and trying to put it across to an audience - trying to be accessible, but at the same time maintaining a bit of integrity. That's something I certainly think a lot about."

However, with their latest album "Zama Zama" including tunes from Bittanny and others inspired by Hawaii and a South African mining disaster, the group are certainly not closed to non-Scottish influences. In fact, half the current line-up are non-Scots with piper Mike Katz originally from the US and Irishman Sean O'Donnell on guitar and vocals.

"You don't go around with your fingers in your ears all the time, so you'll pick up different influences from airts and pairts," White agreed.

"But I'm certainly influenced by where I'm from and my playing is always influenced by that root of growing up in Lewis and playing 2/4 marches in the Box and Fiddle Club or accompanying sean nos singing. More and more bands from Scotland are like that now. They are forward looking, but whatever they end up sounding as, their style of playing will always start with that very strong root."

Fresh from their tour, White predicts that the group should bring a bit of trans-Atlantic pzzazz with them with they make their overdue return to a Highland stage this week.

"The further you are on in a tour your playing will be a little more flamboyant than it is at the start because you are putting on a show," he said.

"We're coming off the back of long tour, so the band's really tight and there's a great rhythm and drive I'm really enjoying within the band at the moment."

* Battlefield Band play the Strathpeffer Pavilion on Thursday at 8pm.

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