FEATURE TRAINSPOTTING
Extract from
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
The bad-taste bastard breaks the junky's golden rule by pitten oan ‘lleroin'. the version oan Lou Reed’s Rock ‘n' Roll Animal. which if anything. is even mair painful tae listen tae whin yir sick than the original version oan The Velvet Underground and r'Vft'U. Mind you. at least this version doesnae huv John (‘ale’s screeching viola passage oan it. Ah couldnac huv handled that.
— Aw fuck off Raymic! Ali shouts.
— Stick in the boot. go wi the flow. shake it down baby. shake it down honey . . . cook street. spook street. we're all dead white meat . . . eat the beat . . . Raymie burst intae an impromptu rap. shakin his erse and rollin his eyes.
He then bent doon in front ay Sick Boy. whae had strategically placed hisscl beside Ali. never taking his eyes oaf the contents ay the spoon she heated over a candle. Raymic pulled Sick Boy’s face tae him. and kissed him hard oan the lips. Sick Boy pushed him away. trembling.
— Fuck off? Doss cunt!
Johnny n Ali laughed loudly. Ah wid huv n aw had ah no felt that each bone in ma body wis simultaneously being crushed in a vice n set aboot wi a blunt hackshaw.
Sick Boy tourniqued Ali above her elbow, obviously staking his place in the queue. and tapped up a vein oan her thin ash-white airm.
—— Want me tae dae it'.’ he asked.
She nodded.
lle droaps a cotton ball intae the spoon n blaws oan it. before sucking tip aboot 5 mls through the needle. intae the barrel ay the syringe. He's goat a fuckin huge blue vein tapped tip. which seems tae be almost comin through Ali's airm. lle pierces her flesh and injects a wee bit slowly. before sucking blood back intae the chamber. Her lips are quivering as she gazes pleadineg at him for a second or two. Sick Boy‘s face looks ugly. leering and reptilian. before he slams the cocktail towards her brain.
She pulls back her heid. shuts her eyes and opens her mooth. givin oot an orgasmic groan. Sick Boy‘s eyes are now innocent and full ay wonder. his expression like a hairn thit's come through oan Christmas morning tae a pile ay gift-wrapped presents stacked under the tree. They baith look strangely beautiful and pure in the flickering candlelight.
—- That beats any meat injection . . . that beats any fuckin cock in the world . . . Ali gasps. completely serious.
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Irvine Welsh
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Say it loud
First the book, then the play and even the film. Now Trainspotting is to make it into audiobook format. Deirdre Molloy speaks to Scottish actor Tam Dean Burn, who joined its author in the recording studio.
ctor and performance artist Tam Dean Burn is a natural born raconteur. It is fitting. then. that he should team up with buddy lrvine Welsh to record a spoken- word version of 'I'minsym/Iing, released to coincide with the film's opening week.
‘lt concentrates pretty much on the central characters and in particular the heavier smack side of things.‘ says Burn of the audiotape. a three-hour abridgernent of the novel. The duo knocked out the recording in a one-day session at Edinburgh‘s Broughton Street studios.
‘It was good working that fast.‘ says Burn. ‘There was a roughness to it that worked. Something that came across to me was how strong the actual language is for speaking — I didn't want it to end.‘
The passages will be mixed in with verite Edinburgh atmospherics. recorded and arranged by the actor‘s younger brother Russell Burn and Steve Christie of the East Coast Project. The gathering
10 The List 9-22 Feb 1996
process has attracted its own ‘incidentals'. 'Russell
was telling me last night that he’s been thrown out of
three bookies after going in and trying to record.‘ says Burn.
Inspired by the energetic l)lY ethos of the Rebel lnc/ Yellow Cafe club-performance scene. Burn organised the recording of 'l'minsjmm'ng with a view to triggering initiatives outwith the established Edinburgh axis. ‘Once it's out in the public domain. hopefully people will start sampling it.‘ he says. ‘Russell wants to take some of the words focused specifically on Begbie and work on a piece like “Begbie's Theme“.‘
With the media focus on Welsh reaching frenzy point. his friend senses a backlash gathering momentum in certain quarters. Given the hyping of the Author-As-Supercool-Guru over the past year it was perhaps inevitable. but for Burn this bitchiness is counter-productive. ‘lt's really important that people. especially those who are doing things. don't
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92‘ 1: I .' L 1am Dean Burn: ‘Welsh has opened up the tloodgates'
take that approach. Instead of Irvine being up on some pinnacle. and us down below him. it's more the casc that he’s opened up the floodgates and we need to take advantage of that and really go for it.‘ 7ruins/miling. I/u’ urn/ru/muk. published by Rt‘t’tl xlm/rn. .‘s'm's rm .vu/c (m 28 I’vln‘uurv. a! £7.99.