Did you ever wonder why Danny Boyle’s 1996 film Trainspotting was given that title?
Well, Noel Gallagher didn’t know – and it cost him and the band the chance to feature on the soundtrack!
The film’s producer Andrew Macdonald and costume designer Rachel Fleming have revealed that Oasis turned down the offer because Noel assumed the film was literally about trainspotters. Which, to be fair to them, probably wouldn’t have been all that interesting.
Um, that’s not what it means, Noel (Anthony Devlin/PA)
Being from near Manchester, Danny had envisioned a Britpop soundtrack for his hit film, and it eventually included classics by Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Blur and Pulp. But Oasis weren’t so keen.
Rachel told The Guardian: “He (Noel) came to the launch party in Cannes, but I don’t know why he didn’t do a piece of music.
“I met Noel at a thing the other week and he said to me: ‘I would have done something, but honestly I thought it was about trainspotters. I didn’t know.’ That’s what he actually said.”
The Trainspotting sequel in the making (Jane Barlow/PA)
In case you, like Noel, were in any doubt about what “trainspotting” actually means, there are a few theories.
While some use it as a euphemism hinting towards a heroin habit, the movie buffs say the title refers to a particular scene in Irvine Welsh’s original book, which didn’t appear in the film, where Begbie and Renton come across a drunkard at a disused railway station. The old man turns out to be Begbie’s father.
The revelation comes a few months before the release of the film’s sequel T2, which follows the characters’ lives 20 years on.
It will star the original cast including Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle, but we are not sure if Noel has been approached about the soundtrack again…
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