Chumbawamba

Chumbawamba was an anarcho-punk band formed in Leeds, best known for their 1998 song Tubthumping. They were active from 1980 to 2012. Members included Boff Whalley, Danbert Nobacon, Lou Watts, Dunstan Bruce, Alice Nutter, Harry Hamer, Dave Dillon, Paul Greco, Jude Abbott, Neil Ferguson, Phil Moody, and Matthew Surina.

We supported Aerosmith and their show was full of bombast and laser effects and we knew we couldn’t compete. So we gathered round one microphone and sang an a cappella song about fascism.

Lyrics

Shhh, 1992

• I'm not so brave, and I'm not so crazy
  And I'd rather be a coward than pushing up daisies.
  • "You Can't Trust Anyone Nowadays"

Anarchy, 1993

• Nothing ever burns down by itself; Every fire needs a little bit of help.
• Smoother words, nicer suits — don't be fooled, they're still wearing jackboots!
  The words get tired when you hear them every day!
  The Nazis changed, but they never went away!
  • "Enough is Enough"

• Alcohol, testosterone, and ignorance and fists
• Beware the Holy Trinity: Church and State and Law
  • Homophobia

• In a world full of no ones
  I am a someone.
  • "Timebomb"

Showbusiness!, 1994

• So if you meet with these historians, I'll tell you what to say:
  Tell them that the Nazis never really went away.
  • "The Day the Nazi Died (Acapella)"

Tubthumper, 1997

• I get knocked down
  But I get up again,
  You're never gonna keep me down.
  • "Tubthumping"

• We live for words and die for words,
  Principles we can't afford.
  • "One by One"

• If any ask us why we died
  We tell them that our leaders lied
  Sold us out down the riverside
  Whose side are you on?
  • "One by One"
  • compare Rudyard Kipling's Epitaphs of the War: Common Form, "if any question why we died / we tell them that our fathers lied".

• You see me
  You hear me
  There are millions
  Think just like me
  • "Outsider"

• This is tearoom England. They'll kick your face in so politely.
  • "I Want More"

• Burns are red, bruises blue
  Out with the old, cheated by the new.
  • "Amnesia"

WYSIWYG, 2000

• Where do you want to go today? Somewhere you can never take me.
• Send this song to twenty people.
  Add your name, don't break the cycle.
  Pass it along, by word of mouse.
  Save the world, don't leave the house.
  • "Pass It Along"

• Versace and Prada mean nothing to me:
  You'll buy your friends, but I'll hate you for free.
  • "She's Got All the Friends That Money Can Buy"

• By the time we got to Woodstock
  It was going up in flame
  In June, under the silvery moon,
  Why do all your songs turn out the same?
• We've got that old-time religion
  Where we still won't cross the picket line
  You've got Rush Limbaugh on your side,
  But I've got Ricky Tomlinson on mine.
  • "I'm Not Sorry, I Was Having Fun"

Readymades, 2002

• It's a long walk to the gallows
  It's a small step to swing free
  Crying in the tower for my conspirators and me
  Gunpowder and modem and a dream of liberty.
  • "Don't Try This at Home"

Un (2004)

• Peter Kropotkin in the way we talk,
  Charlie Cairoli in the way we walk.
  • "Just Desserts"

• There are those paying fancy prices
  To pretend they have fancy lives
  But at every charity banquet
  The majority stay outside.
  • "When Fine Society Sits Down To Dine"

• That stuff inside your houses and that stuff behind your eyes.
  • "On eBay"

A Singsong and a Scrap, 2005

• The people at the top have further to fall.
  • "Laughter in a Time of War"

• I was taught by Adam, but I blame it on Eve.
• Say 'amen', and shoot to kill.
  • "Walking into Battle with the Lord"

• Look at the small print: it's what we agreed
  Sign your name before we teach you how to read.
  • "The Land of Do What You're Told"

The Boy Bands Have Won, 2008

• Take the train,
  A last goodbye,
  Throw your rhymes at passers-by
• Back in Leeds, The news we heard
  No-one killed, And no-one hurt
  Wish all the young men used only words.
  • "Word Bomber"

Singles

• Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl, but she's pretty much obsolete.
  • "Her Majesty", 2002

Interviews

• [W]e’ll be remembered as a footnote; the band who chucked water over the Deputy Prime Minister; the band who had a hit with [a] song about falling over and getting up. And I’m happy with that, to be honest. Of course we’d like to be remembered as being part of British culture, as having played a part in talking about the changing world around us. But let’s face it, [the] Falling over song will win in the end.
  • https://web.archive.org/web/20100307042902/http://www.spiralearth.co.uk/attitude/editors_chumba_1.asp

• In general, ‘reverent’ is not an adjective to be applied to Chumbawamba.
  • https://web.archive.org/web/20101108054218/http://www.spiralearth.co.uk/attitude/editors_chumba_2.asp

• [W]ithin the band, we’d all still have to hold tight to the rigging and make sure we were still heading in the same direction, make sure we were doing what we wanted to do together. And enjoying it! Because all this talk of Pitching in and Taking Advantage makes it sound like no fun, like Mao-suited Communists chirping the Party Line. Chumbawamba (despite what a lot of people might think) was never like that. We were too busy laughing to not have fun.
  • https://web.archive.org/web/20101109072650/http://www.spiralearth.co.uk/attitude/editors_chumba_3.asp

• We had been making music for 15 years so nothing fazed us. We supported Aerosmith and their show was full of bombast and laser effects and we knew we couldn’t compete. So we gathered round one microphone and sang an a cappella song about fascism.
  • https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/apr/05/how-we-made-chumbawumba-tubthumping

• If you see us [perform] live, you know we have a sense of humor because we're just not cool. We wear stupid costumes. It's not dignified. It's more Liza Minnelli than [The] Verve.
  • http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/chumbawamba-19980205

• The way we exist isn't to be a shining example for the world. All the 10-point plans in the world don't change the fact that ultimately we do this because it makes us feel euphoric.
  • http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/chumbawamba-19980205

Statements

• Our deepest sympathies go out to the families of all Margaret Thatcher's victims.
  • Public statement made on the occasion of Thatcher's death, 2014
  • https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/chumbawamba-send-fans-thatcher-in-memoriam-record-four-years-after-pre-order-8569074.html

• Nigel Farage is an arse. His party is made up of bigots and its policies are racist.
  • https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/down-under-theyve-forgotten-the-difference-between-the-brownites-and-the-blairites-8168156.html

• We'd be much less likely to object to MP3 than to a bootlegger because selling records without our permission is vastly different to people having access to our stuff for free.
  • Chumbawamba FAQ, via Archive.org, published no later than November 2006

• And have you ever noticed how it's never poor or working class people who object to someone else making a living from work?
  • Come and have a go, 1998