In 1982 the anarchist pop outfit Chumbawamba assembled in Burnley, England, eventually becoming one of the more improbable stories of mainstream breakthrough. After more than ten years of operating away from widespread attention, during which they routinely denounced the pursuit of fame, the collective joined a major label in 1997 and soon registered an international success with the boisterous single “Tubthumping.” That release remained their high-water mark commercially, yet the band kept producing albums steeped in political themes across the 2000s, several of them placing greater weight on folk traditions.
The original members included Dunstan Bruce, onetime frontman for Men in a Suitcase, Alice Nutter, previously the drummer in Ow My Hair’s on Fire, and computer technician Lou Watts. After contributing a track to a compilation album, the three recruited Harry Hamer and Mavis Dillon from fellow contributor the Passion Killers, thereby completing the Chumbawamba lineup. The group swiftly antagonized British conservatives by staging benefit concerts for assorted anti-Thatcher causes, which soon prompted repeated police raids.
Issued during the Live Aid period of charitable optimism, the debut album Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records: Starvation, Charity and Rock ’n’ Roll — Lies and Tradition arrived in 1986 and sharply criticized the media spotlight and career advancement the band viewed as central to the event. The topic returned in 1987 when a star-studded cover of “Let It Be” raised funds for ferry-disaster victims, prompting Chumbawamba to issue the single “Scab Aid” under the alias Scum. Never Mind the Ballots...Here’s the Rest of Your Lives appeared hurriedly in 1987 to coincide with that year’s general election, while the 1989 EP English Rebel Songs 1391–1914 consisted mainly of genuine fourteenth-century protest songs against the poll tax. With Slap! in 1990 the band began incorporating sampling; the projected follow-up Jesus H. Christ was prohibited just before release because permission could not be secured to cover material by Kylie Minogue, Paul McCartney, and ABBA. As a result, 1992’s Shhh centered on the theme of censorship.
The 1993 anti-fascist single “Enough Is Enough” became their strongest indie-chart performer to that point, and the 1994 album Anarchy also performed well. After the live set Showbusiness! in 1995, the group delivered Swingin’ with Raymond the following year, a concept album depicting a man whose knuckles bore the tattoos “LOVE” and “HATE.” Matters appeared unchanged until the announcement that Chumbawamba had signed with EMI, a decision that bewildered and upset fans committed to the band’s anti-corporate stance. Their 1997 major-label debut Tubthumper nevertheless achieved substantial success on the strength of the catchy “Tubthumping,” which reached the Top Ten in the United States and across Europe. A follow-up single, “Amnesia,” also charted. The new visibility enabled the collective to convey its anarchist outlook to fresh listeners; Nutter, for instance, sparked controversy on the American talk show Politically Incorrect by endorsing shoplifting from large record stores, leading some retailers to remove Chumbawamba titles from their shelves. The split EP The ABCs of Anarchy with Negativland surfaced in 1999, and in spring 2000 the band returned with What You See Is What You Get.
Concerned over potential backlash to lyrics critical of corporations and the press, EMI dropped the act. After a stretch of relative inactivity, director Alex Cox invited them to compose music for Revenger’s Tragedy, an offer they accepted. The documentary Well Done, Now Sod Off! appeared in 2001. That same year the group attracted notice by licensing songs exclusively to corporations aligning with their political criteria. They reconvened for a reunion concert in 2002 and issued Readymades that summer; a second edition, expanded with extra tracks and retitled Readymades and Then Some, followed in October 2003 on Koch Records. Shhhlap!, a compilation uniting the early releases Shhh and Slap!, came next, while June 2004 brought UN, which extended the folktronic approach of Readymades and retained the band’s customary ideological sharpness.
Shortly after UN, Chumbawamba aligned with the No Masters Co-operative and released the acoustic album Singsong and a Scrap. Issued in 2006, the record set aside the electronic club textures of prior work in favor of rich vocal harmonies and traditional Irish folk instrumentation. Their second No Masters release, the similarly unadorned live collection Get on with It: Live, appeared in 2007, followed in 2008 by the folk-oriented studio album The Boy Bands Have Won. After 2010’s ABCDEFG, Chumbawamba disbanded in 2012; their final performance was documented on the live DVD Going, Going.
