More Q bits… first up, Karl Hyde on Born Slippy. I did press on the record when it was first released (’95) and its 750,000 selling reissue in ’97. Now I’m writing about it as the best British record made in the last 50 years. Karl is – and always has been – a total gent. Glad to still be in touch after such a long time.
My memory of the time when Born Slippy was written is incredibly cloudy as I was drunk throughout the whole period. I remember Rick (Smith, Underworld partner) playing me this fantastic and deeply inspiring groove. When I looked in my notebook for any words, it was pretty much all there. As invariably happens, words and motifs got stuck in my head and I never know how to get it out of first gear so I kept repeating them like mantras.
The lyric was written on a drunken trawl through the streets of Soho. Nights back then started at the George on Wardour Street and this one ended up moving to the Ship just down the road. I came back from the toilet and all my companions had left apart form this girl who was the most blonde I’d ever met. I’m pretty sure she was sat with Bill Bailey at this point. I remember pulling a tenner out of my pocket and saying, “Get a round of drinks in” before wandering off towards the tube. The looks on their faces was pure confusion, possibly fear.
I remember saying to Rick that I wanted to respond to his music and the rant that’s on the record came out full force. There’s another verse that Rick chopped out too – I was a little bit miffed at the time. Looking back I’m so glad he did, it was crap!
The day after recording the vocal, Rick called saying, “I’ve put these chords on top and I’m not sure if they’re too cheesy but…” I remember hearing and thinking that’s sublime. It’s cheese but it’s top quality cheese. Camembert electrique even!
So the record comes out and it’s the biggest selling 12” we’ve ever had. Then we get the call that some geezer called Danny Boyle wants to put the track in the film version of Trainspotting that he’s working on. It was a book that mates were tell us it was amazing, about people getting fucked up and out of it. Myself and Rick weren’t part of a druggy culture, we didn’t see the association with our music and getting out of it. So we said no to the request as we didn’t like the analogy that we thought was being made. That being the first and last time we’ve ever said no to Danny Boyle!
Anyway, Danny somehow managed to convince us to go to the edit suite and we saw rough cuts of the film and realised it was quite the opposite of glorification. The film was mindblowing. It so perfectly put the song back into context. The first time we played it live my heart sank ‘cos loads of people were holding cans of lager aloft. The song was really a cry for help – I was asking for help by illustrating a typical night out. I saw the film and what danny did and he completely redressed the balance, gave the song a different level of resonance.
When JBO wanted to re-release it, we refused again! Then Steve at JBO canvassed 100 DJs up and down the country and all but one of them said we had to re-release it, that it was the most in demand record around, people were desperate for it. I’ll never forget that the only DJ who said “don’t bother, it’s shit” was the resident DJ at the Top Rank club in Cardiff!
