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Baker's Dozen

Lust For Music: Irvine Welsh's Favourite Albums
Joe Clay , March 4th, 2014 06:05

With Filth recently released on DVD and a new novel due later this year, the Edinburgh author places a long-distance call from Miami to give Joe Clay the rundown of his top albums

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Iggy Pop – Lust For Life
I would go for The Idiot, but I have to choose Lust For Life because of the Trainspotting association. It was amazing that Iggy and Bowie had that time in Berlin where they produced those amazing albums – Low, "Heroes", The Idiot and Lust For Life. It was an astonishingly creative period for them. It's difficult to pick out one of these albums and say it's the best. There's just something amazing about that fusion between Bowie-orientated, Kraftwerk-influenced music and Iggy's own voice and his energy and pop sensibility.

When it came to the Trainspotting soundtrack we talked about what we wanted and we all chipped in our ideas. I was really determined to have an Iggy track on it, and there was a real consensus for 'Lust For Life' and where it actually comes in on the film is just perfect. I knew lots of the bands and musicians around that time so it was easy for me having that personal contact to get things licensed.  I never thought that I'd become friends with Iggy Pop, but he lives close to me in Miami and it's just one of those weird quirks of fate that somebody that you had on your wall as a kid becomes a pal. It's weird looking back and thinking about it like that, but it just becomes commonplace. You establish a relationship with somebody over the years.