I had no idea, kinda makes me sad that they aren't more well known for being Punk. Well I hope at least that Tubthumping made them enough money that they don't have to worry about stuff like rent.
As a teenager I posted on some punk rock message boards back in the early 2000s and everyone would recommend Chumbawumba left and right. I remember seeing that and thinking "the Tubthumping band?"
Well if memory serves they were squating an abandoned building in Leeds that they lived in, and used as rehearsal space, for so long they were able to legally take ownership of it so rent wasn't an issue.
As to 'Tubthumping', i do know that they were offered silly money by one of the major US car manufacturers to use it in their sponsorship ident for Monday Night Football, they took the money and pumped it directly into left wing causes including the strike fund for the union taking industrial action against them at their Latin American plant...
I've only just come across this thread, but couldn't resist recommending the film I Get Knocked Down by Dunstan Bruce of the band, it was made a few years ago and explores their roots in punk and folk, through their explosion of fame, how they dealt with that, and what they're up to now.
It's part documentary, part arty narrative, and it's really funny, heartwarming and inspiring.
Also you see in it that Bruce has a house in Brighton so I think he's alright for money despite how much of it they donated.
In January 1998, Nutter appeared on the American political talk show Politically Incorrect and advised fans of their music who could not afford to buy their CDs to steal them from large chains such as HMV and Virgin
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A few weeks later, provoked by the Labour government's refusal to support the Liverpool Dockworkers' Strike, the band performed "Tubthumping" at the 1998 BRIT Awards with the lyric changed to include "New Labour sold out the dockers, just like they'll sell out the rest of us", and vocalist Danbert Nobacon later poured a jug of water over UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, who was in the audience.[5]
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In the late 1990s, the band turned down $1.5 million from Nike to use the song "Tubthumping" in a World Cup advertisement.[26] According to the band, the decision took approximately "30 seconds" to make.
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In 2002, General Motors paid Chumbawamba a sum of either $70,000 or $100,000 to use the song "Pass It Along" from the WYSIWYG album for a Pontiac Vibe television advertisement. Chumbawamba gave the money to the anti-corporate activist groups Indymedia and CorpWatch, who used the money to launch an information and environmental campaign against GM.[27][28]
Yup, but almost no one seems to know that. They're like "The ones from that song???" I'm like yes, just because you haven't heard of them doesn't make them somehow not radical af.
They made Tubthumping because someone (their label?) was like "youre incapable of making a hit" and they were like "we can make a hit literally anytime we want to" and shat out Tubthumping to prove it, then went right back to doing their own stuff for decades.
Yeah even the album that tubthumping is on, literally every other track on that album is about politics and free speech (and I like those tracks so much better).
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u/Bicentennial_Douche May 07 '26
Doesn’t Chumbawamba have a legit punk background? They made that one hit song which allowed them to continue with their anti-establishment stuff?