Chumbawamba


Chumbawamba are an English band who started out playing punk rock but over a 25-year career have gone on to play music in a wide range of styles, including pop influenced by dance music and world music, and now play acoustic folk music. The band is best known for their song "Tubthumping". Their work is generally influenced by an anarchist political stance and by an irreverant attitude to authority.

Band history

Early years

Chumbawamba were formed in 1982 from two other bands based in Yorkshire, The Passion Killers and Chimp Eats Banana. Inspired musically by The Fall and the anarchist political stances of Crass, Chumbawamba's activities in the early years were based around a communal house in Armley, Leeds. Stalwarts of the cassette culture scene, the band was featured on many compilations. Chumbawamba were at the forefront of the 1980s anarcho-punk movement, frequently playing benefit gigs in squats and small halls for causes such as animal rights, the anti-war movement, and community groups. The band shared all touring revenue equally between every member of the band as well as the crew that helps them perform each night, a practice that they still adhere to. The band's collective political views are often described as anarchist.

Sky and Trees and Agit-Prop Records

By the mid-1980s Chumbawamba had begun to release material using the vinyl format on their own Agit-Prop record label, which had evolved from an earlier project, Sky and Trees Records. The first LP, Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records (1986) was a critique of the then current Live Aid concert organised by Bob Geldof, which the band argued was primarily a cosmetic spectacle designed to draw attention away from the real political causes of world hunger.

Their 1988 album "English Rebel Songs 1381 - 1914" was a recording of traditional songs from that period, and was very different from their preceeding work.

One Little Indian Records

By the late 1980s and early 1990s, Chumbawamba had begun to absorb influences from techno music and dance culture. The band moved away from their original anarcho-punk roots and evolving a pop sensibility with releases such as Slap! (1990) and the sample-heavy Shhh (1992) (originally intended to be released as Jesus H Christ!, this album had to be withdrawn and re-recorded because of copyright problems).

After signing to the independent One Little Indian record label, Anarchy (1994) lyrically remained as politically uncompromising as ever, continuing to address issues such as homophobia (see song "Homophobia" [1], the music video of which features the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence), the Criminal Justice Act and the rise of fascism in the UK following the election of a British National Party candidate in south-east London in 1993.

EMI controversy

Chumbawamba drew criticism from the band's original following in 1997 when the members signed to the major label EMI in Europe, particularly as much of their earlier output had explicitly attacked this corporation; they had even been involved with a compilation LP called Fuck EMI in 1989. However, the band argued that EMI had severed the controversial link with weapons manufacturer Thorn a few years previously, and that experience had taught them that, in a capitalist environment, almost every record company operates on capitalist principles; "Our previous record label One Little Indian didn't have the evil symbolic significance of EMI BUT they were completely motivated by profit." They added that this move brought with it the opportunity to make the band financially viable (all members were up until then working in other jobs to make a living) as well as to communicate their message to a wider audience.

Chumbawamba's biggest chart hit, "Tubthumping", features what, without the context of the accompanying liner notes (removed from the US release of the Tubthumper album for copyright reasons), appears to be one of the most apolitical of any of the band's lyrics. It was also during this period that Chumbawamba gained some notoriety when male vocalist Danbert Nobacon poured a jug of water over UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott at the 1998 BRIT Awards.

Chumbawamba released the album WYSIWYG on EMI in 2000, and parted from the label in 2001.

MUTT Records

In 2002, Chumbawamba formed their own record label, MUTT, for UK releases.

Under MUTT, Chumbawamba released their eleventh official album, Readymades, as well as Sic - Adventures in Anti-Capitalism, a paperback book of political and musical writings by friends and acquaintances of the band.

General Motors paid Chumbawamba $100,000 to use the song "Pass It Along" for a Pontiac Vibe television advertisement in 2002. Chumbawamba gave the money to the anti-corporate activist groups Indymedia and CorpWatch.

In 2004, the band released an album of 'world music' influenced songs entitled Un, which addressed such current concerns as the looting of the museums in Iraq (On eBay) and Buy Nothing Day.

In 2005 Chumbawamba opted to take a hiatus from full-scale touring and recording projects, but a trimmed-down acoustic line-up of Boff Whalley, Lou Watts, Jude Abbot and Neil Ferguson continued to tour the UK and Europe throughout 2005 and 2006. It was this line-up that recorded the album A Singsong and a Scrap, released late in 2005. The hiatus looks set to continue indefinitely, with the band announcing on their web site in 2006 that there are no plans to perform or record as a full band again.

In 2007, Chumbawamba were confirmed to be playing at the Glastonbury Festival.[1]

According to the band's website, a new album is currently in a brainstorming phase, with collaboration happening over the internet. Meetings to solidify content are set for June. The band stated that "the new album will be acoustic and probably won't sound like A Singsong and a Scrap."

The name

Over the years, the band have been asked many times what "Chumbawamba" really means. While there are many speculations, the band generally answer that it's a gibberish word, meaning nothing. According to Chumbawamba's official FAQ :

Chumbawamba doesn't mean anything. At the time we formed (early '80s) there was a rush of bands with obvious names. It was the time of ‘peace punk' and you couldn't get across a youth club dance floor without bumping into a Disorder, a Subhumans, a Decadent Youth or an Anthrax t-shirt. We liked the sound of Chumbawamba because it wasn't nailing ourselves down. Thatcher On Acid were a good band but it's lucky for them that Thatcher stayed in power for 11 years. If her influence had only lasted 18 months Thatcher On Acid's sell by date would have come and gone a lot sooner. We wanted a name which wouldn't date [2].

Other explanations which have been given include the following:

When the band members offer up such examples as those listed above, they are playing a "game" of telling the media and various other sources a different and more outlandish thing every single time they are asked (This is jokingly referenced in the Chumbawamba documentary "Well Done, Now Sod Off" but could well be true given the nature of some claims and the differences between each story); ranging from the "Monkey/Typewriter" experiment all the way up to such ones as the "Dream Toilets" and ones as mundane as the football mascot .

Line-up

The band's membership has varied over the years, with the line-up and musical assignments in the early years being especially fluid (members were known to switch instrument between, or even during, gigs).

The longtime members have been:

Partial discography

(Original releases dates and labels given. Some material has been re-issued on other labels in the US.)

1980-1985

1986-1990

1991-1995

1996-2000

2000-2005

Television appearances

Chumbawamba songs in film

A partial list of films featuring songs by the band.

Chumbawamba songs in multimedia

A partial list of multimedia contents featuring songs by the band.

Further reading/references

External links

Citations