The short stories range from the realistic to the ridiculous, employing a wide, albeit largely the same, cast of downtrodden, drug addicts. Madonna blethers with Kylie Minogue about shagging blokes from Leith, brains switch bodies and God exercises catharsis. However, that's not to say the realistic stories don't stand side-by-side with them, drug addled frenzies more than compensate, on top of a scathing social commentary which leaves no shit unturned. iW: What do you think about the difference between a British and an American audience? I’ve spoken to other writers who’ve felt that American audiences are more open to fantasy than British? Welsh: I prefer the idea that it starts off quite crazy and then goes nasty and then it comes up again in the third. I think it’s important to end up on number three as the other two have quite nasty endings. Last year saw the loss of Denise Johnson, whose soulful vocals infused Screamadelica. Gillespie says: “She was a big part of the band.” Tenement Kid is dedicated to influential producer/DJ/mixer Andrew Weatherall – who also died last year, of a pulmonary embolism – and Primal Scream guitarist Robert “Throb” Young , who succumbed to drink and drug addictions and died in 2014, aged 49 , several years after leaving the band. BG Brexit is an English and Welsh thing. Scotland and Northern Ireland voted remain. I don’t want to bring nationalist politics into this, that’s not my thing. I guess all nationalism is exclusive, not just English nationalism… When it happened, I thought, well, maybe this is English nationalism, which is, for me, frightening.

The Acid House by Irvine Welsh | Waterstones

Welsh's writing, for all its bleakness, can give you an invigorating head-butt; The Acid House feels loveless and depressing. It's a shame, because in his more restrained moments, former documentarist McGuigan has a real eye for images: watch the closing shot of A Soft Touch, which tells you everything about Johnny's situation in one stark snapshot. So ye hud they powers, ye jist couldnae be bothered usin thum. That's why ah'm interested in ye Boab. You're jist like me. A lazy, apathetic, slovenly cunt. Now ah hate bein like this, n bein immortal, ah canny punish masel. Ah kin punish you though, mate. That's whit ah intend tae dae.”I ask Gillespie and Welsh for their thoughts on Brexit and Scottish independence. In July, Gillespie expressed concern about Brexit making life harder for musicians. Previously, he described Scottish independence as “inevitable”, while emphasising that he in no way considered himself to be a nationalist.

Acid House - Irvine Welsh - Google Books The Acid House - Irvine Welsh - Google Books

The people here seem unable to get out of the grooves in their lives, and a fairly existential look at nature-vs-nurture slow-boils in these stories. Particularly in the novella, A Smart Cunt, which feels very akin to Trainspotting (almost like a draft, honestly, as the characters could very well be the same just with different names). ‘ It seemed that drug-taking over the years had reduced me to the sum total of the negative and positive strokes I received from people,’ the narrator, Brian asserts, ‘ a big blank canvas others completed.’ Like many in this book, Brian isn’t a bad dude and is fairly bright but at every turn is a friend ready to shoot-up or offer another wild night. The world around these characters, it seems, is always ready to bring them down. But there are those in the same situation, like Brian’s brother, who was able to clean up, get educated and get a good job. Brian wonders if the fault is on him, or the world around him. Popular writers write the same novel over and over again. They cater to their own obsessions and the fantasies of their fans. Whenever Welsh tries to write about America, it all falls apart completely. But he is awesome when he stays local and writes about Scottish dysfunction. Welsh: I think it was probably very helpful. To be honest, when I did this, because the stories were already there and they are so much inside the main character’s head, it was very easy to just start off with the dialogue and inject parts from there. It was the easiest thing to do and I loved it. The first chapter of the story, "The Granton Star Cause", premiered before completion of the other two parts. [4] It was also shown on Channel 4 on August 3, 1997. [5] The short film offended elements of the UK tabloid press with a depiction of a cynical, jaded, foul-mouthed God. [5] Filming of "A Soft Touch" and "The Acid House" concluded in late 1997. [4] The completed film premiered at the Marché du Film (Cannes Film Market) in May of 1998, [1] and was released in the UK on January 1, 1999. [6] E un autor pe gustul meu, numai bun pentru a-ți rupe obișnuitul, frumosul și la care vei Ah!-ooo-iii mai mereu.Do you remember his funeral? We were in that place in Clapham, and everybody was there, from across all different places and times. He kind of united everybody. That was the last night everybody was together and then, bang, the pandemic hit. In a strange way, if he had to go, that was the time to do it. It’s hard to talk about. It’s deep, personal stuff, I don’t want to upset his family. It was a long process … Throb was my brother, a co-songwriter, a big personality, an incredibly creative, talented man. When we were making Vanishing Point, he kind of stopped being present. He wasn’t there. He missed the whole record. When he was there, when he came up two or three times, he was on another planet, he was gone, he couldn’t play. When Andrew Weatherall passed, everything in the world just seemed to turn to shit. It was like the end of an era, for want of a better term Irvine Welsh