SCP are a bunch of wild wide boys from Cumnock in Ayrshire and from a DIY punk fanzine aesthetic background. They run a communal small press which has, as of this writing, put out one work so far (though they are soon to publish a second work, ‘Vermin’ by Stephen Ritchie), ‘Thugs And Thieves’ (which I took to calling ‘TNT’; I like that explosive acronym cos it accurately describes the semtext wordwork in the book’s pages) by Jackie Gilroy, which is a 64-page softcover A5-sized chapbook. I got one sent to me (thanks for the review copy, boys) and quite literally could not believe what I was reading.

Here was the missing link between the underground in Scottish literature and American literature, the first (but not the last) example of a new soundbased syllabic style sweeping across the Atlantic on sneering hip hop hip hope mix-wings of joy and despair and drugs and booze and blooze and madness and freedom and oppression. The material in it is like a bastard confusion fusion of Irvine Welsh and Iceberg Slim and Ice Cube, a strange, unprecedented pick-and-mix of Scottish slang mixed with rap slang, a new slanguage, and it’s quite unlike anything else that anybody else in Scotland has ever written.

‘TNT’ tells a series of stories (from a first-person narrator) about popcorn pimps (American expression for low-level low-life criminals) and scumbags (Scooby Doo-Gan, Mackie, Paddy Clooney. Manny Mick) writing a chancer’s charter of their lives as they grow up in late 20th century pre-internet Scotland. They make their living (if you can call it a living) doing things like stealing and reselling goods, ripping off charity envelopes, punting drugs (which they, naturally, get super-fucked-up on as if often the Scottish nihilist drink-and-drug-drowned working class wont to want to do) and, although they may be more pathetic than sympathetic in places there is still a power and force and richter-scale shock of the new and vital at their Shane MacGowan-approved hardcore Celtic jigging under a spent conspiratorial moon as they scream deranged methamphetamine incantantions and empty threats and promises of independence at an uncomprehending Scottish sky.

‘TNT’ deals directly with the problem of sectarianism, in Scotland coming as it does from a Catholic writer, and it’s a very powerful text. Beautifully poetic, oblique phrases or lines or slungstrungtogetherweirdwiredwordz shine like black polished sneering diamonds through the work (‘Only the network, chequered, thin blue glow of their veins breaks their transparency.’; ‘swoopscoop’; ‘sweetpeattreat’; ‘We’re the factory island, first world plebs’; and on and on) and what becomes very clear from the way the work is written is that Gilroy is a man whose wordplayboy brain-area never stops aria-working and he is always reworking and rewording things until they become rewarding new Nadsat-like choice cuts to slit the throat of contemporary Scottish literary complacency with.

Now. This is a musical, muscular text about men, testosterone tests and stories of fathers and their gangstar and boxer influences, a confluence of influence and literary affluence aboot wee Scottish laddies growing up under emotionally suppressed hardmanic faithers of faith and ambition and hard work, and the ways Scotland can pick and pull apart the generations, degeneration next, and the laddies pick up their freestyle style from the man they look up to most in their lives. This makes this a difficult text to read with regard to women, because in the text they seem to exist simply to provide sick, misogynistic sexual scenarios for the male characters. I had a serious problem with this, finding some of it, to be perfectly honest, utterly disgusting (though with a depressing ring of truth), but this aspect of things has to be overlooked to the baseline of pure raw word-talent that lies beneath everything. Just look at this, for example, where Gilroy talks about a self-destructive bhoy he knows:

“He’s moving too fast through the Chain, deepfryin his brain and his thieving fairy liquid fae Prestos. Demanding grief. Thinks he’s the fuckin’ invisible man. All methed up, done in. He’s a gem of a bhoy. I’ve never met that kind of spirit of force. A burning star. I know, goin on like a morgue but he’s got a short wick. Watching him go before his teens with dope from score to door fuelled with the Evo. Stuck on that, then in no time he’s poppin and snortin, gettin sophistication with the sugars and beans. Ropey-Opey Do Da De and now he’s a thinjim, dimlit and spotty. Sad as fuck.”

To me this says more in 110 words about self-destructive anarchic Scottish youth than Irvine Welsh did in all his own wordwork, at least feel-for-language-wise. There is a genuine genius genus at wordwork here, subject matter aside. References to (male) poets and lyricists and novelists abound in the text (Brendan Behan, Charles Bukowski, Gil Scott-Heron, Bobby Gillespie, Jello Biafra, ad infinitum), signposts to Gilroy’s internal musings and amusements and machinations, rebel yeller psychescreams and dreams of release and relief from existential and colonialist bondage, and this book is Scottish-Irish rebel music sui generis. You can almost dance to this text, seriously, and it’s your duty to shake your booty to this cutie word-beauty.

Having said this, though, it must be said that in places Gilroy is so into his own wee self-constructed wordworld that the text becomes somewhat incomprehensible; he knows what he’s saying, but hardly anybody else does. For example, from P44: ‘A geekfreak drawnspit of the star of the chainsaw massacre.’ That’s pretty oblique, but what he is saying is that this geeky guy is the spitting image of a drawing of Leatherface, the star of ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’. I couldn’t understand all the text, got 95% of it, and it will be difficult for a lot of people to penetrate and rate his penmanship. But for those willing to take the time and effort and expend the energy it will definitely expand their view of what Scottish literature, and lyrical literature in general, can be and do and try.

Now. After all that literary backslapping and cocksucking, to the interviews coming into view below. First off we have an overview of Single Cell Press (named after a phrase in ‘TNT’ about supposed worldwide web terrorists and their ‘single cell’ assault on whoever they see fit or unfit), which is followed by Jackie Gilroy’s first ever interview. He has turned down interviews with the likes of the Daily Record and The Guardian, so you’re getting a first (to the last so fast I give ‘em the blast so fast that their life has passed before their ass has even hit the grass – Dolemite) here. Thanks a million to Gilroy for doing this. Jackie m’manic maniac main man, you can write like fuck and yer a vital signs and designs anti-bland one man bhoy banned band. Props from this side of the frantic Atlantic. Keep up the good wordwork. Cos Scottish literature is a much better place for it.

And now without further ado…

SINGLE CELL PRESS INTERVIEW

SO WHAT EXACTLY IS SCP?

SCP are inspired by other presses like Payback – Clocktower - Rebel Inc as well as people like Mark Thomas and Banksy. We are dedicated to bringing left field culture to the fore and giving “off the radar” writers in particular an identifiable home.

ANY OF YOU TRAINED IN LITERATURE?

Nope but two of us made remedial at school.

WHAT’S YOUR PUBLISHING AGENDA?

Our immediate plans are to follow up ‘TNT’ with ‘Vermin’ and our third release ‘Revolution Rock’. We’ll see where that takes us and decide after more endless debate what direction we should take with the material in front of us. We aren’t precious about things like format and view things mostly on a project to project basis. We don’t do bondage.

WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN A WRITER YOU PUBLISH?

We see ourselves in a punk light and want to give similar opinionated voices the opportunity to speak through a community of single cells. We believe in an organic approach in letting the press grow as it goes. We are as a press fixated by bottom up perspectives so that’s probably as near as we could get to committing to criterion.

DO YOU GET ANY PUBLISHING GRANTS FROM THE SAC OR WHEVERE, OR IS IT PRIVATE MONEY YOU USE TO PUBLISH WITH?

Little League Productions is Gary’s record label. They paid for the first print of ‘Thugs’. We received the princely sum of £500 from Scottish Enterprise for a business start up. We targeted the Celtic community with a Hip hop style Street Team and sold over 800 copies around Celtic Park on match days.

MUSIC SEEMS LIKE AN IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR OPERATION. PLEASE EXPLAIN YOUR AFFILIATION WITH LONDON INDIE RECORD LABEL LITTLE LEAGUE PRODUCTIONS.

We all come from a music background and see things from a fusion of punk principles and Hip hop culture perspective. We see the site as being a cultural statement even though it is a bit like saying, “If you had taste you’d be into this.” See? You made me say it. We stand by all the sites links as being who we think are happening. We’ll have a forum on the site come early 2006 with five topics: books-music-politics-cinema-football. So if anybody thinks we’re talking pish then they can get in touch so we can publicly slaughter them furthermore for being dead or middle class. Little League (www.littleleagueproductions.com) is Gary’s label but is set up similarly to SCP.

HOW MANY COPIES OF EACH BOOK DO YOU PRINT?

We do a thousand run each time due to our financial constraints. With ‘Thugs and Thieves’ we are now into our third run. Not exactly enterprise wise.

HOW DO YOU SET THE PRICE THEY WILL SELL AT?

£3 is as low as we can get. That way things tick over and we feel comfortable that people aren’t being fleeced.

WHO PRINTS THEM FOR YOU?

Payola in London.

HOW MANY HAVE YOU SOLD SO FAR, BEARING IN MIND THAT AT THE TIME OF THIS INTERVIEW YOU HAVE ONLY PUT OUT ‘THUGS AND THIEVES’?

We’ve sold over 1700 and gifted 500.

I UNDERSTAND YOU SELL YOUR PUBLICATIONS ON THE STREET AS WELL AS THROUGH YOUR WEBSITE. DO YOU FIND PEOPLE INTERESTED? HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN WHAT YOU ARE SELLING? HAD ANY INTERESTING REACTIONS FROM THE PUBLIC? IS IT ONLY IN GLASGOW YOU SELL THEM?

The Street Team has served us well. Combining our previous experience of selling left weekly’s and knowledge of Hip hop tactics we’ve found our best and worst reactions. The good thing about doing football matches is the diversity of people you meet. Most of the folk that stop and talk and buy are the chattering sort but we do get a lot of young folk asking lots of questions which kind of sharpens what you’re doing. Our line of approach is direct - Why not read something decent? We’ve concentrated on Glasgow because we are a West Coast Press and the subject matter did dictate to us but we did do a day at the Festival in Edinburgh; selling most of the books that day to people from outside Scotland. We met up with a rep from SCB a distribution company from San Francisco and did a deal with them on our forthcoming books.

WHAT DOES CUMNOCK THINK OF YOU, AND VICE VERSA?

Cumnock couldn’t care less about us; they’ve got more important things to be getting on with like getting by. It’s a town that has been politically punished for over twenty years. Except Gary, we are all heavily involved in the community and do unpaid voluntary work with Youth Clubs, Adult learners and addicts in Cumnock. The people are like everywhere else, bigoted, racist and conned.

ANY SCOTTISH WRITERS YOU PARTICULARLY RATE? ANY FROM OTHER COUNTRIES?

Tom Leonard / Gordon Legge / Alison Kermack / James Meek / Matthew Ryan Hoge / Neils Mueller / Futurama Team-USA.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF IRVINE WELSH AND HIS EFFECT ON CONTEMPORARY SCOTTISH WRITING?

He is part of that distinguished line of Scottish working class writers of Burns-Gibbon-Brown-Kelman. He’s just the bloke that took us back there opening the door to the whole Clocktower generation of scribes. His effect was something akin to the Sex Pistols’.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF CONTEMPORARY SCOTLAND IN GENERAL?

It’s not any worse than it’s ever been. We see a lot of things happening at ground level; kids embracing all sections of the Arts with a confidence uncharacteristic of previous generations of Scots. Politically the country is bust and more people in our experience are recognising that. It feels like an eve but of what we’re not so sure.

DO YOU DETECT ANY DEFINITE TRENDS IN SCOTTISH WORDWORK ON THE STREET? ANY KIND OF RECURRENT STYLE STRIKING YOU?

Yeah, Americano, Hip hop terminology just seeps out of the kids more and more. The rest use words like limousine and prom-tailgate and freeloader-campus and zero tolerance with alarming regularity.

I UNDERSTAND YOU MET STEPHEN RITCHIE IN SOMEWHAT UNUSUAL CIRCUMSTANCES. PLEASE ELABORATE.

He was working one of the burger vans at Parkhead. He’d seen us jumping about trying to sell the book and asked to buy a copy. He went on to tell us that he’d just finished reading Lester Bangs’ ‘Carburettor Dung and Psychotic Reactions’ and it had inspired him to write. We couldnae believe it, all being Bangs fans ourselves, it was like it fell out of the sky. He sent us a short story called ‘Spazzy’ that we agreed unanimously was the way to go forward. The result was ‘Vermin’ which includes ‘Spazzy’ along with another seven short stories.

WHAT WAS IT ABOUT IT THAT MADE YOU WANT TO PUT IT OUT AS A FOLLOW-UP TO ‘TNT’?

It just seemed like the same kind of irreverence. We’re all about that kind of approach because that’s what as a collective we got a buzz from reading. In literary terms we’re nearer to people like ‘Viz’ and ‘Brute’. It’s gotta have some twisted gags like Rude Kid.

HAD ANY INTERESTING REACTIONS TO ‘TNT’ OR YOUR WEBSITE?

Most of our plaudits have come from the US especially through the site. We’ve had the reprehensible thing thrown at us from thorough browed brit lit lovers but that’s always enjoyable.

ANY KIND OF WRITING YOU HATE?

Most of it. Papers. Magazines. The top ten. Science Fiction. Fantasy. Romance.

DO YOU WORK BY COMMITTEE AND TAKE DEMOCRATIC DECISIONS WHEN PUBLISHING, SEEING AS HOW THERE ARE FIVE OF YOU? ANYBODY HAVE THE FINAL SAY?

We try to make the decisions based on us all agreeing with the feel but sometimes somebody’s got to make a decision one way or the other and that’s usually Mark.

HOW MUCH DOES A WRITER GET FROM EACH COPY OF HIS WORK SOLD? OR IS HE GIVEN A FLAT FEE UP FRONT? OR ANY OTHER WAY OF DOING BUSINESS?

Jackie never wanted paid. He was happy enough that it was doing something for us. We paid Stephen Ritchie £500 up front because we had it. Once the costs are covered we’ll do a 50/50 split on the profit; half to him and half to the press.

ANY FAVE BOOKS FROM WHOEVER IS AVAILABLE TO DO THIS INTERVIEW? ANY YOU ALL AGREE ON? Mark - Behan’s ‘Borstal Boy’- Angela Davis ‘An autobiography’ - L.G.G.’s ‘Sunset Song’

. We all agree on all of Lester Bangs and Hunter S. Thompson’s work.

ANY FAVE BANDS, AS ABOVE?

Mark - Big Flame – Roots - Blackalicious.

We all agree on Gil Scott-Heron.

HAVE ANY PLANS TO EVENTUALLY MOVE TO PRINTING PAPERBACKS IF YOU GET THE CASH?

Yup, definitely and hard backs too and movies.

ANY BOOKS YOU WISH YOU’D PUBLISHED?

‘Young Adam’.

ANY FAVE SCOTTISH MOVIES?

‘That Sinking Feeling’ - ‘Acid House’ - ‘The James Gang’ - ‘Sweet Sixteen’.

WHAT IS THERE TO BE PROUD OF IN CONTEMPORARY SCOTLAND, CULTURAL OR OTHERWISE?

That all our best work comes from the street; whether it’s Jinky Johnstones’ wizard feet, Irvine Welsh’s magical way with our language or a Peter Mullen film. The fact that there are around 100,000 kids all across Scotland that care for their parents in some cases the most difficult of scenarios unpaid and unaided. These are the same kids that the government’s ASBO (anti-social behaviour order) is targeted at. SCP know whose side they’re on.

YOUR WEBSITE SAYS YOU ARE LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO PUBLISH, AND ARE LOOKING FOR WORKS OF UP TO 40,000 WORDS. IS THIS MORE A FINANCIAL OR AN AESTHETIC THING, OR BOTH?

A bit of both. We like the idea of day or weekend reads. A kind of discipline employed to prevent any waffle.

HAD ANY INTERESTING REACTIONS, POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE, FROM THE CURRENT SCOTTISH ESTABLISHMENT OR ARTISTS?

Andy O’Hagan and Bill Drummond have gone out of their way in the past to say good things about us. We’ve had absolutely no reaction from the Scottish Literary community, despite repeatedly goading them, other than encouraging words from Glasgow press Object Permanence and Tom Leonard. We get decent props from the Scottish Hip hop scene too.

WHAT DO YOU ULTIMATELY HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH WITH SCP?

I’m not being frivolous but a gang of banging publications would do for a start.

ANYTHING YOU WOULDN’T PUBLISH?

Yeah, most of it.

Peace
Mark

DE PRESSED: JACKIE GILROY INTERVIEW:

HOW OLD ARE YOU? (LAUGHS) 37

WHEN DID YOU START WRITING?

Sometime in my early teens.

WHY DID YOU START WRITING? ‘Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables’ (Dead Kennedys’ first classic album - Graham) had a massive effect on me. I was a kid so I thought I had to be in a band but I never had the talent to be a front man and I couldn’t be fucked being an accomplished musician. What I liked about the whole band thing is that I got writing the lyrics and titles and that seemed relevant to me as opposed to sitting in a kitchen scribbling.

WHAT DO YOU GET FROM WRITING?

Probably the same buzz old dears get from Sudoku’s. The arrangement of words on the page has always interested me more than the point.

YOUR WORDWORK CONSTANTLY CONSISTENTLY MENTIONS POETS AND LYRICISTS AND NOVELISTS. DO YOU DRAW MORE INSPIRATION FROM ANY OF THESE FIELDS OVER THE OTHERS?

I’m a punk and so it follows. If I had been born a baby boomer then I’m certain it would have been Kerouac that got me started. I believe in instinct first and foremost and although sometimes, like most things, it doesn’t work it’s usually cynically accurate. I lived through a golden age of lyricists including the revolution within poetry in rap. Words in motion, all that business, that’s how I see it. It’s got to have a rhythm, a groove to it or I can’t feel it.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF CONTEMPORARY HIP HOP?

It’s in the middle of change and for the first time I find myself listening to more UK Hiphop than I do US. Skinnyman is the best writer on the block by a proletarian mile. As the youngest of world cultures it had to go through what it has recently degenerated into but it’ll come again and when it does it’ll have been worth the wait.

IRVINE WELSH’S WORK HAS OBVIOUSLY HAD A BIG EFFECT ON YOU; DOUBT ‘TNT’ COULD HAVE HAPPENED WITHOUT ‘TRAINSPOTTING’. HOW DID HE INSPIRE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU THINK OF HIM THESE DAYS?

The exact same way as Jello did but in an even more familiar psyche and tongue. When ‘Trainspotting’ came out I was playing bass in a band trying to fuse punk and funk with song titles like “Of Whores and Comic Singers”. So I kind of feel like a part of that period like Cathy Craigie and many others were. He was clearly the sharpest but it wasn’t all about him, though it probably was in places like London, or otherwise you’d have to level the same suggestion at people like Alan Warner, Gordon Legge and Duncan McLean. I think that period had more to do with Punk and fall out than it did Irvine Welsh. ‘Trainspotting’ is centered on Junk whereas ‘Thugs’ is on Sectarianism. I admit that the characters are similar and that I have tried to drive the story on base humour but I know I didn’t copy him.

He’s a smart cunt that in the main makes the right decisions. His reasons for doing ‘One City’ were all sound. Sometimes he talks pish but who doesn’t.

SCP SAY THAT HIP HOP STYLE IS BECOMING MORE AND MORE INTO SCOTTISH WORDWORK THEY’RE SEEING. IS THIS BECAUSE IT’S A MUSICAL FORM THAT OPPRESSED SCOTTISH PEOPLE CAN RELATE TO? OR IS IT JUST COS IT SWEARS A LOT AND WE DO TOO?

My experiences are all west coast based so I’d agree but I’m not sure about the rest of the country. Glaswegians, in particular, have difficulty in distinguishing between how they see things and how the rest of the country does. Glasgow has, for the past forty years, had a fixation with Detroit and Black Muzak in general so I tend to think that wordwork that they refer to comes principally from that relationship.

THIS MAY SOUND LIKE A STUPID QUESTION IN LIGHT OF WHAT YOU WRITE IN ‘TNT’, BUT DO YOU THINK THAT SCOTLAND STILL HAS A SERIOUS PROBLEM WITH SECTARIANISM (DESPITE JOKE MCCONMAN’S VERY IMPORTANT PERSONAL CRUSADES AGAINST IT)? WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT? WILL IT EVER GO AWAY?

It’s not a stupid question and I don’t think it’s anything like as serious as it used to be. As always it’s got fuck all to do with the midget idjut and his munchkins. The IRA’s declaration of ceasefire and the following Good Friday Agreement has had more effect than anything else. Sectarianism like racism will always be a part of any society run by bosses. It’s them that invented and exaggerated it for their own benefit. If you want to solve any problem then removal of the source would seem to me like the preferred option. What the Americans are doing in Iraq is their logical conclusion of those tactics. Sectarianism isn’t confined to Scotland; it’s a global problem like immigration is.

HOW IMPORTANT IS BEING CATHOLIC TO YOU, AND HOW DO YOU THINK THIS HAS SHAPED YOUR WORDWORK SENSIBILITY?

I’m not a Catholic anymore and haven’t been for over twenty years. Still I owe them a big thanks for making me a rebel. Years of inane ceremonies and shit talk made me the man I am.

HAVE YOU EVER HAD ANYTHING ELSE THAN ‘TNT’ PUBLISHED’?

‘Come on Die Young’. I’ve had reviews of bands published under the pseudonyms of Debra and Red Rites.

HOW MUCH OF ‘TNT’ IS STRAIGHT AUTOBIOGRAPHY?

It’s me encompassing a wider Catholic experience in Scotland. I have never been a misogynist but most of the men and boys I was brought up with were and still are. Writing ‘Thugs’ clarified bigotry and my part in it. In some ways it was an exorcism for me. Confusion is a state of mind, to quote (James) Hogge, and I think I achieved that with ‘Thugs’. So even though the story reads like an auto it’s not really. It’s more like a series of confessions.

ARE YOU PLEASED WITH HOW ‘TNT’ TURNED OUT?

Yeah, I am. It’s more honest than I ever intended.

DRUGS AND ALCOHOL ARE ANTI-SOCIAL MECHANISMS IN SCOTLAND TO SELF-SUBJUGATE THE POPULACE AND KEEP IT FIGHTING AMONGST ITSELF. DISCUSS OR DIS AND CUSS.

Yes they are but no more so than motors and mortgages.

DO YOU USE ANY REAL NAMES IN ‘TNT’?

No.

HAD ANY REACTIONS TO THE WORK FROM THE PEOPLE IN THE BOOK? ARE THEY REAL PEOPLE?

I haven’t but my brothers keep me posted on what some of the more clued in have sussed out. But it’s usually about incidents rather than the characters which are based on collections of real people but include elements of celebrity Catholics.

I MUST ADMIT, I FOUND THE TREATMENT OF WOMEN IN ‘TNT’ PRETTY HARD TO TAKE; THEY SEEMED TO EXIST ONLY TO BE URINATED OR EJACULATED UPON. I NOTICE THAT YOU EULOGIZE YOUR DAD AND NOT YOUR MOTHER. WHY IS THIS?

I’m glad to hear it but if you’re going to write about the base behaviour of Scottish men then you can’t avoid it. I’d love to tell you that I realised just before writing ‘Thugs’ that misogyny was just an over used stereotype of Scottish men. I wanted to make it clear that even a guy like Sparky who is a reasonably well read sort still hadn’t worked it out. I know many, many misogynists that adore their mothers. I know that many supposedly loving husbands kill their beloved wives and when they’re not doing that they go and murder prostitutes that nobody bothers investigating. If you look at the second half of the book carefully then you’ll find him changing his tone in his drawing conclusions. My mum never featured because the book is specifically about men. Most people have an idea in their head what these monsters look like but I suspect I see them more often than that.

WAS THAT YOUR DAD’S REAL STORY IN THE BOOK?

Word for word.

ANY SCOTTISH WRITERS/ARTISTS/MUSICIANS YOU RATE OR HATE?

Tom Leonard and Kevin Williamson; as for hate then that would be most of them. I detest flotsam.

THE WORK HAS A STRONG MUSICAL SENSIBILITY, AND A LOT OF IT READS LIKE LYRICS. EVER BEEN IN A BAND, AND IF SO WHAT WAS THE NAME(S)AND WHAT DID YOU DO?

The Salt Cellar. I was the bass player that wrote the lyrics.

HOW DO YOU THINK DRUGS CAN BEST BE DEALT WITH IN SCOTLAND (APART FROM SMOKING OR SNORTING OR SHOOTING THEM)?

Kevin Williamson’s analysis of the problem and the SSP’s policy to legalise all drugs and take them out of the hands of gangsters by putting them at the heart of the health service is the only game in town.

WHERE DO YOU SEE THE FUTURE OF SCOTLAND LYING?

Hopefully in conflict with a little class war to shake some sense through the place.

‘TNT’ SHIFTED STRUCTURE. THE FIRST FEW PARAGRAPHS WERE ABOUT CUMNOCK IN A DIFFERENT STYLE THAN THE LOOSELY CONNECTED ANECDOTES THAT FOLLOWED THEM. THEN AT THE END YOU MOVED INTO A DIFFERENT MODE FOR THE FINAL CHAPTER (LOVED THE MONARCHY HOMICIDE FANTASY, BY THE EWAY - HILARIOUS) AND IT WAS AS IF YOU WERE WRITING A DIARY OR SOMETHING AND OCCASIONALLY ADDRESSING THE READER DIRECTLY.INTERESTING STYLISTIC SHIFT; (KINDA REMINDED ME IN A WEIRD WAY BY ‘NAKED LUNCH’ BY WILLIAM S BURROUGHS) WHY WAS THIS?

I can’t really explain it other than that’s how I felt it. I set out to write a manic, confused and ridiculous tale about young disaffected Scottish Catholic men and I think I managed that. It’s not a manifesto; I’ll leave that for cats like Alan McCoombes and Frances Curran. I’m a Bukowski man at heart; there is no one point but a puree of thought. I love Burroughs too but none of it was intentional.

WHO ARE THE ‘PERVS’ MENTIONED AT THE START OF THE BOOK?

It only works if you mention it in the same breath as ‘Chapters’. ‘Chapters and Pervs’; I liked the sound of it, its connotations and obvious ambiguity. All the female characters in ‘Thugs’ are named after Porn Stars that shared the same surname with Scottish Football Referees.

DO YOUR PARENTS KNOW ABOUT YOUR WORDWORK? IF THEY DO, WHAT DO THEY THINK?

They do but they don’t get it. They think I’m a crackpot. Both of them are still practising Catholics despite my best efforts.

HAD ANY INTERESTING REACTIONS TO ‘TNT’? BEEN PLEASED WITH THE REACTION TO IT?

I couldn’t care less and I don’t mean that to sound glib but if it wasn’t for my brothers none of this would have seen the light of day. I’m glad it’s launched the press and I’m made up when people pass comment good or bad.

SCP AND YOURSELF SEEM TO HAVE A STRONG (ANTI) SOCIALIST ETHIC AND AESTHETIC. THE SSPA YOUNG PARTY AUTO-SODOMIZED BY ITS OWN STUPIDITY AND INFIGHTING. DISCUSS.

That’s a media myth you’ve got a hold of there. What’s stupid about disrupting a bought parliament, going to jail in protest at nuclear weapons or dawn raids on asylum kids? As for the infighting it’s done us the world of good. The air’s clear now and bona fide radicals are driving the party again. The SSP, unlike any other party in the UK, produces practical solutions and practices direct action. If the SSP were a band they would be PiL. Not always brilliant but very necessary.

‘TNT’ WILL NOT BE COMPREHENSIBLE TO MANY PEOPLE. DOES THIS BOTHER YOU AT ALL?

No. I had no choice, it had to be written that way or it wouldn’t have worked.

ARE YOU A SELF-TAUGHT WRITER (AS I SUSPECT YOU ARE, THOUGH I MAY BE WRONG) OR DID YOU STUDY ENGLISH IN ANY MORE FORMAL WAY?

I wouldn’t say self taught entirely, I’ve been lucky throughout my life meeting people who would suggest this poet and that book and that’s as much as anything I’ve done. When I moved down to Ayrshire the only thing I knew about the place was that it was Burns country and I hated Burns because I was full of that city slick nonsense. Coming from Catholic Southside Glasgow to Orange-Baptist Cumnock made me more aware of my racial roots. I started reading Sean O’Casey, Brendan Behan and Jimmy Joyce and that’s about the time I started marrying up what those dudes were saying to the Biafra’s and Eve Libertine’s.

WHY DON’T YOU WANT YOUR UNPUBLISHED WORK PUBLISHED?

I always say no first, with me being a member of the ‘Grange Hill’ generation it just comes naturally. I’ve never been comfortable with attention so I have to go through this process whereby I relinquish all control to another then scarper. I can’t be fucked organising my life so the chances of pulling anything else together are remote. I haven’t stopped writing it’s just that most of it is doodles and skits. Sometimes I think I’m just a closet stand-up comedian.

WHY HAVEN’T YOU DONE ANY OTHER INTERVIEWS APART FROM THIS ONE? PREFER TO LET THE MATERIAL SPEAK FOR ITSELF?

Yeah, that’s it. When the Daily Record asked after ‘Cody’s’ release I was hocking knock off clothes in the poorest part of Cumnock, a scheme called Kier Hardie Hill. A few weeks before they’d run a front page headline claiming Dictator with a photo of Saddam one side and Fergus McCann the other. Saying anything other than Fuck Off seemed ridiculous.

UNDERSTAND YOU WANT TO MOVE TO IRELAND. WHY IS THIS? DO YOU THINK YOU’LL BE BETTER TREATED AS A CATHOLIC OVER THERE? THINK YOU’LL REALLY GO? HAD ENOUGH OF SCOTLAND?

(Laughs) Nah, I was just on the wind. It’s the story of my life; always going somewhere but never getting there. I’ve definitely had enough of Scotland but I can also smell a riot. It’s that ambivalence about the place that I can’t escape probably because I’ve been cast from the same mould.

I WAS TOLD YOU DON’T EVER WANT TO WRITE ANYTHING AGAIN. WHY IS THIS? AND IF ‘TNT’ IS INDEED YOUR LAST PUBLISHED WORK, DO YOU THINK YOU SAID EVERYTHING YOU WANT AND NEED WITH IT?

I definitely need to read more to say anything new. That’s about the size of it. SCP have been chinning me to do a book of poetry but I’m no sure there’s enough there of a decent quality to justify a book. I’m adamant I won’t repeat myself and jeopardise my punk status.

ANY OTHER THOUGHTS OR ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D CARE TO ADD?

Stephen Ritchie’s ‘Vermin’ is the best book I’ve read this year and that’s not another favour to SCP but an honest appraisal.

36-year-old Graham got married in August 2005 to the beautiful Ellen Lee Marshall and moved to Illinois, USA from Falkirk in Scotland. People in his new homeland tell him all the time about their Celtic ancestors. He really couldn’t much care less, but thought the same patter coming from Dennis Hopper, whom he met on the set of Land of The Dead in Toronto (in which the writer got a brief cameo as ‘Undead Journalist’ in an Oscar-worthy performance), was cool. He was told by a teenage waitress in a pizza joint that he speaks very good English. She was right. America is the third country and second continent he has lived in/on. Graham does not suffer fools at all, does not believe in intelligent design, believes all religions should be banned as being a hindrance to future further human evolution, is an obsessed wordplayboy, is wrestling with a novel he has no clear template for, still listens to punk music occasionally though he is too old for it, and is an occasional wind-up merchant because, well, it keeps life interesting.

© 2006 Laura Hird All rights reserved.