LA Times Interview with Chumbawamba

Los Angeles Times

Sunday, October 19, 1997

Po(p)litical The radio-friendly 'Tubthumping' may sound like a lighthearted bar song. But the goal of British group Chumbawamba is anarchy.

By JERRY CROWE

Listening to "Tubthumping," the catchy new single by the English rock band Chumbawamba, you'd never guess that the song was recorded by a group of anarchists bent on overthrowing the British government.

It seems nothing more than a party anthem, an ode to drinking ("He drinks a whiskey drink / He drinks a vodka drink / He drinks a lager drink / He drinks a cider drink"), celebrating life and wasting the night away.

Only the defiant chorus gives a hint to the band's politics: I get knocked down But I get up again You're never going to keep me down "It's a song for the underdog," explains Dunstan Bruce, who sings the lead vocal over a lilting melody. "It's a song for all those people who only get a chance to express their opinion when they stand up in a pub drunk and start mouthing off about something, or when they're singing on the way home from the pub. . . .

"It's a song for those people who don't really have a voice."

Dissecting a best-selling single is a strange turn of events for Chumbawamba, a group of five men and three women from Leeds who until this year had survived 15 years together and released eight albums in England without producing anything more than a cult hit. (The name is drawn from one of the musicians' dreams in which a men's restroom was labeled "chumba" and the ladies' room "wamba.") Usually the band members, all in their 30s, are asked more about their actions than their anthems--such as titling their first album, released within months of the Live Aid famine relief charity concert in 1985, "Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records."

Or featuring a childbirth photo on their 1994 album, "Anarchy," leading some retailers in Britain to wrap it in plain brown paper and others to ban it altogether.

But nothing has drawn attention to Chumbawamba like "Tubthumping," the lead track on its new album, "Tubthumper," which was released last month on Republic/Universal Records.

(The band's Web site explains that a tubthumper is "an orator, a ranter, a soap-box preacher. . . . Tubthumping is about carrying on the fine tradition of spreading subversive information.") The question is, can anarchism and pop stardom coexist? "They're totally compatible," says Bruce. "Anarchy isn't about being in your own little exclusive club. Our whole attitude toward what we do is, we want as many people as possible to hear what we've got to say because we think what we've got to say is of much more value than what, say, the Spice Girls or Oasis have to say."

The group's goal, adds bandmate Alice Nutter, is "the breakdown of the state. . . . We cannot see a case anywhere for one group of people having more power than another. People should have the power to control their own lives."

The success of "Tubthumping," of course, opens a whole new audience for Chumbawamba--even if the song's message is lost on most listeners.

"It's just a party song," says music director Mike Savage of L.A. radio station KLYY-FM (107.1), who says "Tubthumping" has ranked among Y-107's top five most-requested songs almost since he started playing it in August. "You hear it on the radio and it puts you in a good mood."

Savage says "Tubthumping," which is knocking on the Top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100 chart, continues a trend of "upbeat, happy pop songs" gaining a firmer toehold on alternative radio as grunge fades out.

"Music goes in cycles," Savage says, "and I think it's time again for some happy-type music."

Curiously, though, Chumbawamba's march up the charts almost never happened.

Its British label, One Little Indian, rejected the initial version of the album about a year ago, telling the band to take a year off and write some new material.

Chumbawamba revolted--what else?--and was dropped by One Little Indian in December.

"Tubthumping" might have died there if it hadn't been heard by VH1 programming executive Lee Chesnut, who heard it in the spring on a compilation CD. Taking an immediate liking to the song and noticing on the album sleeve that Chumbawamba was unsigned, Chesnut phoned his friend Monte Lipman, who runs Republic Records with his brother, Avery.

Within a day of hearing the song themselves, the Lipmans were in touch with Chumbawamba's management team in England, which sent a copy of the rejected "Tubthumper" album to Republic's offices in New York.

It took the Lipmans only one listen before making an offer to the band, which eventually signed with Republic after rejecting offers from a handful of other U.S. labels.

"Part of the charm of the record is that it's really hard to compare it to anything else at this point," says Monte Lipman. "It's great music."

Combining dance beats, samples, ironic commentary and working-class voices, "Tubthumper" is a satisfyingly eclectic mix of songs that Chumbawamba hopes will not be dwarfed by the success of the lead single.

Not that the group, which will play Nov. 4 at the Palace as part of a two-week U.S. promotional tour, hasn't found particular satisfaction in the rise of "Tubthumping" after its treatment by One Little Indian.

"We've spent many nights laughing over that," says Bruce. "I don't know whether they're kicking themselves or not, but it was quite a result for us after being rejected by them."

The album, released on Sept. 23, has sold about 83,000 copies--despite the band's exhortations to fans through its Web site to steal the record from their local retailer.

"We realize that the things we say are completely unfashionable," says Nutter, "but we're pushing for an absolutely massive fundamental change. We don't believe we'll ever see it, but that doesn't stop us from actually working for it."

Or having fun along the way.

"It would be pointless carrying on if we all hated what we were doing," says Bruce. "Luckily for us, we're doing something we love while at the same time saying something worthwhile."

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Jerry Crowe Is a Times Staff Writer