IGGYYeah I put down the tray table,and snorted the whole gram,and this beautiful tall,very dark stewardess was available,but then I started drinking:I had to take the edge off.

IRVINEWhat you do after a gram,yeah …

IGGYWhen I got to the hotel I realised I'd forgotten her number,which was terrible,and because I didn't hook up with her,I got together with a notorious groupie who had a friend who had some angel dust,so I took it before the gig.

IRVINEThey didn't mind about coke on planes in those days?

He was very polite and that goes a long way with me.

Iggy Pop

IGGYWell,I didn't mind!

Iggy and I then swap cocaine stories,before agreeing that it's terrible drug but you need to test it thoroughly and repeatedly to be absolutely sure.

IRVINESo what about this four-track EP,how did it come about? How did you guys get together?

RICK[Director] Danny Boyle,asked me to help withT2 Trainspotting,and we got quite excited about how to look at music differently from the first film,because then there was no composer involved. We thought,'What if we had an original piece of music from Iggy,that would play in this particular scene',so my manager chased a connection with Iggy. The timing kind of worked out,and you were in London,about to do some shows?

IGGYI was on tour doing thePost Pop Depression tour with Josh Homme.

RICKYou were at The Savoy and graciously said yeah,because you know,we both felt a strong connection toTrainspottingand I turned up thinking I've got one chance here to convince this gentleman that we should work together on a piece of music. So I brought basically half my studio and we hired a hotel room and I set it up and sat waiting.

IGGYWell yeah the thing was traumatic for me really,the whole thing,the way it came at me while I was on this tour with guys 25 years younger than me doing the rock tour schedule and I get'Danny Boyle wants to talk to you about doing something for a movie'. I thought'well that sounds great but I'm in the middle of a tour. My performance is a big deal to me,but they had this songShotgun Mouthwash[a track by Underworld collaborator High Contrast that ended up as the opening music inT2 Trainspotting]. So I listened to it and I thought'well that's fine,what do they need me for?'And Danny said'well we like that but we wondered if we could get some Iggy Pop intoShotgun Mouthwash,and I thought'no you can't f---ing get Iggy Pop into the f---ingShotgun Mouthwash but I didn't say that,I said'well I could just see what I can do'.

Time for some editorialising from me:the venue for collaboration for this fusion of punk and techno was The Savoy. That's right,none other that the posh hotel on the Strand where Churchill held cabinet meetings. It does have a rock'n'roll connection though,Dylan'sSubterranean Homesick Blues video was shot in the adjoining alley for that'street'feel. But,uh,how come chaps?

IGGYI was at The Savoy just getting ready to play London and met with Rick,whom I liked as he was very polite and that goes a long way with me. We were able to get to know each other a little. He had a number of tracks ready. And then my mind was racing because when you are confronted with somebody who has a whole damn studio there in the hotel room in front of you and 30 finished pieces of very polished music,you don't want to be the wimp that goes'uh uhhh'…

IRVINEThat view of friendship that you have on that track, I'll See Big,is fairly consistent in everything you've done and written throughout the years. If you think about it,I'm Bored onNew Values"I'm free to bore my robot friends …"So has that been a kind of theme or an issue:that you're keeping old friendships,but also sort of you being conscious of being successful and that possible tension?

IGGYI wrestle with the whole concept,about half the time I feel like a chump. And then the other half of the time it's like'well what else am I gonna do,like just be empty all the time'. You know you go back and forth,because there is an extreme to which some people can operate through dominance,acquisition,manipulation. I was able to talk about these things because this was still in my mind,somehow connected to the hapless heroes ofTrainspotting. You know like when the war is over the old buddies break up.

IRVINESo this track didn't make it onto the movie. Why was that?

IGGYWe did try it and then Danny came on saying,'You have the most extraordinary voice … I'm not going to use any of the tracks'Right! And I went like'woah f---!'

IRVINEWell,they're world class at giving you bad news,film directors though,yeah.

IGGYYeah right.'Can we use the remix?'And I was like,'Yeahhh I love it!'because in the remix the vocal was louder.'There's more of me on that!'

We chat a bit longer about theT2 Trainspotting,before backtracking onto the first movie.

KARLWith the originalTrainspottingour mates had said,'Oh yeah it's this film about caning it',so we were like'no our music's not about caning it'. So they got us in to show us some scenes from the film. You know going into the toilet and the whole kind of you know,babies on the ceiling,and we're like'oh OK well that's a whole different thing',and in that case yeah,that's cool.

IRVINEWhen they got in touch to buy the rights toTrainspotting,I was living in Amsterdam,and Danny sent me his film. I knew nothing about that business except that everybody wanted to buy it,but I likedShallow Graveand I thought the characters in the book would work well with that filmic energy. Then I met this guy and he goes'I'll give you a lot of money forTrainspotting'and says,'You know Danny Boyle would be a good director for this',and I go,'Yeah'. Of course I thought he was Danny's producer,but he was just a random guy who had a lot of money,so I sold it to him straightaway. Danny came back and said,'What the f---,you were going to sell it to me!'I said,'Oh sorry gadge,I thought he was your guy! He had a big cheque book you know!'So I kind of f---ed up but we got in touch with this guy and he was very gracious about it and he actually signed it over to Danny,Andrew and John. So it almost didn't happen,basically because of my short-term greed.

KARLJust think what wouldn't have happened. Wow.

IGGYYou sold it to a gangster or somebody?

IRVINEI sold it to some guy,who said he had money,I mean,he bought me a drink like.

KARLWell he was a friendly gangster,the kind we like. Can you imagine,if it had gone to somebody else? Man,there'd be like a whole generation that wouldn't have a theme that …

We all had a bit of a giggle at that one. Moving on back to the EP …

IRVINEWhat aboutGet Your Shirt?

IGGYDid that pop out of me?

RICKWell it did,the title I think was Karl's,and we randomly have titles that don't really mean anything,and the piece was calledGet Your Shirt and you just saw your shirt and was like'Ok!'

IGGYMaybe I took my shirt off? I do that a lot.

IRVINEThat's my favourite track.

KARLIt's got some good lines in it.

IGGYYeah,that's a really nice piece of music,just uplifting,catchy. I could picture like,irritating chicks digging this,but that's good because if you can uplift the irritating,you're godlike at that point. It definitely was fun to listen to,that music.

RICKI find this fascinating. You're all wordsmiths aren't you,and I'm music,and all I felt was flow. You know in a way Iggy did what was like a little dream come true,which was just to respond,be spontaneous,be in the moment,and that was it. I didn't question the subject matter. It just felt so good.

IGGYI kind of mix personal with something I've either heard or read. And then on the Bells and Circles,it's half personal experience with the other part from a book that I liked so much,The Golden Age of Skyjackingor whatever it was (The Skies Belong to Us:Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Skyjackingby Brendan Koerner). I just loved it! I could go on and on and ruin the whole afternoon right now with some amazing things that people did hijacking these airplanes! I need to shut up!

IRVINESo where do you go from here?

KARLOne of the things I love about this is that there isn't any of that –'we're going to release it,then we're going to let people know something's coming!'We're going to do a gig (note:Underworld headlined the BBC's Biggest Weekend festival in Belfast) and that gig is going to be televised,and that's when we drop it. That's when we drop the first track on telly in front of that audience,to the world.

IRVINEI must admit I never saw this coming and couldn't see the styles melding but I'm delighted I'm wrong.

KARLAnd here we all are at this,united by your book,and a good cream tea!

A pleasure to hang with those boys,and cream teas really are the new rock'n'roll. How do I feel about being the glue,the cultural meat in the sandwich between those giant talents of punk and dance music? Well,I know that shit tends to happen in the digital age with technology breaking all barriers down and collaborations once thought weird are now almost de rigueur,but no sense in lying:pretty damn good.

Underworld&Iggy Pop, Teatime Dub Encounters is outJuly 27