could see that he had his phone open
under the table, and he was googling
me,” Danny laughs heartily. “But given
that he’s the biggest pop-star in the
world, he’s very genuine. I’d seen him
acting other things when he wasn’t
great. I thought that was because
nobody’s helped him. He’d been left
exposed and I could see that.”
It’s been widely reported that as
a young man Danny intended to
become a Catholic priest, before a
wise teacher steered him to a different
path. But with music playing such a
huge role in so many of his projects, I
wonder aloud if he ever had musical
ambitions of his own.
“I played in a school band rather
badly. It was run by a tyrant called
Father Jock McGovin. He’d say, ‘stop
playing’, and then ‘just the brass’, and
26 • JULY 2019
then ‘just the euphoniums’, and then
he’d go, ‘Boyle, you play on your own’.
And I was terrible. But I love music
and I compensate for how bad I am at
it by my devotion to it.” He lists David
Bowie, Led Zeppelin and punk as
defining musical influences.
“The most important part of culture,
arguably, is music. It binds us in a
way that almost nothing else does.
It’s primitive, you’re overtaken by it.
Popular music released a stratum
of the population who really had no
access to culture. And it created a
voice for the disenfranchised, for the
poor, because music is something you
can pick up without high education or
wealth and you can speak through it. I
mean you look at The Beatles, they’re
just four ordinary guys. Music is the
great art form of the less privileged.”
Answers from Danny tend to takeINTERVIEW: DANNY BOYLE
Scenes from Boyle’s
2012 London
Olympic Games
Opening CeremonyIBL/SHUTTERSTOCK