4 "(And Roddy Doyle and Ireland as well. It's a
kind of new colonialism. Before Trainspotting took off. I used to think Kelman going on about the class snobbery of the English was paranoid nonsense. then I went down there and I was faced with all that shite. I was basically a performing monkey.
AB 1 got called that at a book launch down in London. There were loads of drunken booksellers. I went out to make a call. came back in. they‘re all pished. and this public schoolboy guy. rugby shirt. was like 'Oh. the monkey's come back.‘ I was like. ‘Excuse me‘." And he said: 'I’erform for us. monkey.‘ l was really insulted. but if you get stuck in. then you're living up to the stereotype of what a Scottish writer is.
Irvine, weren’t you asked to do Celebrity Big Brother at some point?
IW Yeah. I was asked to do that. the one that Bel. won. I was asked to do I'm A Celebrity as well. in the jungle. I wasn‘t tempted. but my wife wanted to spend the time in a six-star hotel in Australia. I think it wrecked John Lydon‘s head. Now he‘s advertising butter. Once you get on that slippery slope. you start doing anything to keep your profile up.
With that in mind, is there such a thing as ‘selling out’ anymore?
IW Everything artistic and cultural is so enmeshed with commercialism and consumerism. so the questions redundant now really. It’s so much a part of the apparatus. art. entertainment and commerce are all intertwined now. so it's almost impossible to posit the question.
EM In the 90s me and my mates tried to work out how we could sell out. a deliberate. non- ironic plan. Everything was finished. so why not‘.’ But we never managed it.
IW When 'I'rainspntting sold l().()()() copies. all my mates thought it was great. l()().()()() and they started moaning. a million and they moaned even more. ()nce something becomes big. the people who were into it at the start justifiably feel like something has been taken away from them.
20 THE LIST 9—23 Jul 2009
.i- nfuififli 2 "_.I
Like Billy Connolly, where people started turning against him when he got famous?
AB He’s a big hero of mine. Long before 'I‘rainsporring I was listening to him telling stories.
IW Me too. Kevin Williamson always says that Billy Connolly is far more influential than James Kelman for our generation.
AB Absolutely.
EM Funnier as well.
M In a lot of ways. Billy Connolly is probably the reason why James Kelman is so po-faced about his art: he doesn't want to be misconstrued as a Glasgow comedian.
AB He's fighting against that idea that the Scottish voice is comic relief. it’s the performing monkey stuff again. I think folk hassled Connolly because he started doing routines about Elton John and Eric Clapton. But at the same time. he‘s at that stage in his career. so to tell stories about the welding days would be ridiculous. I feel for him. he‘s caught
IW He‘s got a castle and a mansion in LA. don't shed too many tears for him.
All three of you have written for film, television and theatre. How do you decide at the start of a project which format a story is going to take?
IW Sometimes if you write something down. it suggests itself more as a short film or a play than a book. you visualise it in that way immediately. It's the storytelling that‘s the essential element. how you tell the story varies. but that‘s always at the heart of it.
AB Are you not directing an Alan Warner movie‘.’
M The finance is always a problem. I‘ve got about half a dozen different film projects at various stages. It’s really frustratinO. you're almost there. then fucked. and on it goes.
EM It's almost impossible to get stuff financed and made in television and film.
IW Channel Four and ITV are just about ready to drop. EM Yeah. they‘re all in real trouble . . . oh look. there's Kirsty Wark.
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