Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Syzygy wrote

The alleged context behind this song and Chumbawamba going from an anarcho-punk band to topping the pop charts is so rad. From somewhere else on the net:

The tl;dr version is that KLF had a novelty hit in 1988 under the name The Timelords. It was a project created for the sole purpose of scoring a number one hit in the UK, and they actually did it. And then they wrote a book called “The Manual” so someone else could follow in their footsteps. It’s long been rumored that that’s exactly what Chumbawamba did, because apparently there’s a picture of one of them on the back of the single reading the book. I still remember how surprised I was when I found out who Tubthumping was by (Chumbawamba? It might as well be Crass). But once I found out about The Manual, the whole thing made a lot more sense. I’m not sure if Chumbawamba ever confirmed or denied this either way, but it all definitely adds up.

Also I love this bit in their wikipedia page:

In 1997, Chumbawamba scored their biggest chart hit with "Tubthumping" (UK No. 2, US No. 6), which featured an audio sample of actor Pete Postlethwaite's performance in the film Brassed Off on the album version.[9] This was followed up in early 1998 with "Amnesia", which reached No. 10 in the UK. During this period Chumbawamba gained some notoriety over several controversial incidents, starting in August 1997 when Nutter was quoted in the British music paper Melody Maker as saying, "Nothing can change the fact that we like it when cops get killed."[10] The comment was met with outrage in Britain's tabloid press and was condemned by the Police Federation of England and Wales.[11] The band resisted pressure from EMI to issue an apology and Nutter only clarified her comment by stating, "If you're working class they won't protect you. When you hear about them, it's in the context of them abusing people, y'know, miscarriages of justice. We don't have a party when cops die, you know we don't."[11]

5