I feel it is important to say first-off that this is not my favourite song, just one that holds memories for me. Lots of people I know have stories to tell that involve Underworld�s Born Slippy in one way or another. It seems that something about this song proves annoyingly hard to forget.

After the big screen version of Irvine Welsh�s novel �Trainspotting� appeared featuring this song in it�s dance-themed soundtrack, Born Slippy became - for a brief period in 1996 � a bit of a phenomenon. Running through the streets of Newquay aged 16 when I had just finished my GCSEs, drunkenly shouting �lager lager lager� along with the many other pink-faced holidaying youth staggering the streets, it seemed to epitomise for me all that feeling of exaltation in that brief 6 week gap between leaving school and going to sixth form college.

Sat on our luggage in Shrewsbury station, waiting for our train, my friends and I were palpably excited. Our first holiday without parents or school teachers, and we were consciously aware � although none of us said it � that we were about to move into a new phase of our lives. One where we can go on holiday alone, not wear school uniforms, where soon we will not have to lie about our ages in pubs and will have to make decisions about what career path to take, what University to go to.

That week was clear and hot as Greece, and we lay on the beach all day blistering our skin and dozing like a row of sleepy cows. Each night we went out to drink until the walls went blurry, made idiots of ourselves on the dance floor wiggling our arses in people�s faces, and latching our lips to whatever men were unfortunate enough to stumble into our paths. At club kicking-out time the streets of Newquay were thick with other sun-crisped hooch-breathed teenagers, and like a pack of football hooligans we would join in unison singing �lager, lager lager, white thing mega mega white thing mega mega�. We had no idea what we were shouting, just that it was loud and exciting, and something that our parents would probably have disapproved of.

Ironically, I have since read that Karl Hyde from Underworld who wrote this song wrote it on a night out whilst in the depths of alcoholism, and had meant it as a cry for help rather than as a drinking anthem. He said that a drunk sees the world in fragments, and he wanted to recreate that. I think he might have succeeded.

Thinking back, that summer when Born Slippy was at number two in the charts was a turning point. Although my friends and I all went on to sixth form college, we began to go our separate ways in the way that friends sometimes do when they suddenly notice they have nothing in common. Nothing lost though and no regrets, we can all at least say we had a wild time in the summer of 1996 when Underworld were in the charts.

Megan is an Occupational Therapist, originally from rural Shropshire, but now working in Manchester. She enjoys stories about peoples' relationships, and stories with a bit of a dark side. She gets many of her ideas from loitering around the centre of her hometown, where there seems to be a disproportionately high number of three legged aliens and other disturbingly dysfunctional characters. She awaits contact from Tim Burton, asking her to script his latest film. To read 2 short stories by Megan on the Showcase section of this site, click here.

© 2007 Laura Hird All rights reserved.