Havin' It Lager!

SMASH HITS | July 17, 1996

There's no escaping Underworld's Bom Slippy. From its slot on the Trainspotting album, the tune has become the soundtrack of 1996. Every hip advert seems to have it drumming away in the background. People are walking the streets chanting "Lager, lager, lager..." (though maybe there's just a lot of thirsty people out there), and constant airplay by Radio 1 DJ Pete Tong finally coaxed the band into re-releasing it as a single.

"We had so many requests for it and the reaction was so positive that we had to re-release it," explains Underworld frontman Karl Hyde. "Although it's not something we'd usually do." But where does "Lager lager lager..." come from?

"Taps," deadpans Karl. Cheers, mate!

Let's try again. Where do you get your lyrics from?

"Listening to people's conversations. I hear the most incredible things all the time, especially on trains, and some of the best lines are from drunks. I just sit there and write them down." Many 'serious' journalists view Underworld's real-life lyrics as poetry, and Karl is the first to admit he'd prefer to be known as a poet. "After all, I'm not the world's greatest singer or guitarist," he shrugs.

Karl's even gone as far as to bring out a book with John Warwicker, ex-member of Fleur (the not very good band in which he and fellow Underworld man Rick Smith once played). Entitled Mmm... Skyscraper I Love You, it features Karl's lyrical thoughts about New York, laid out as skyscraper-shaped poems. That'll be art, then.

But then, Underworld aren't as laddy as Bom Slippy would suggest. They're involved in a design/advertising company called Tomato (they did the Orange mobile phone adverts and the TSB cinema ad), Rick is a dad and is always going on about his baby girl, and Darren (Emerson) is usually off somewhere doing a spot of DJ-ing. Put Karl in a room of lads and he'd probably "end up sitting in a room on my own."

When they play live, however, they're stormin'. Never rehearsing and always pulling something new out of the bag. "It's a great job," grins Karl. "We're really happy." Quite right, too.