anarchy

Chumbawamba attracted and alienated their audience with the danceable diversion and riveting revolutionary rage of this thought provoking triumph.  The Burnley, Lancashire, England anarcho-punks had drawn a hard line from their inception with the pointed political content of albums like 'Another Year Of The Same Old Shit', 'Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records', 'Never Mind The Ballots', 'English Rebel Songs 1381-1914',  'Slap!', and 'Shhh'.  After a decade of musical insurrection on their own Agit-Prop record label, the band signed to the independent One Little Indian record label for 'Anarchy'.  The collective produced, engineered, and composed the album with Boff on guitar and vocals; Dustan Bruce on vocals and percussion; Neil Ferguson on keyboards and guitars; Paul Greco on bass; Harry Hamer on drums and programming; Danbert "The Cat" Nobacon on vocals; Alice Nutter on vocals; Louise Mary Watts on vocals and keyboards; and Mavis Dillon on vocals, trumpet, French horn, and bass; with additional production and engineering by Neil Ferguson, vocals by MC Fusion, Simon "Commonknowledge" Lanzon on accordion, Kerry and Casey on the "Georgina" intro, and Geoff Reid on mandolin.  

Nutter describes 'Anarchy' as “the politics which announce your life; I do do-this and I do do-that … The best idea & what happens is, we never take the first idea that comes up. Somebody will say something and we'll start to argue around it, say "that's a good idea, but & " And ideas get modified, but our creed is, the best idea wins. But, not in a ruthless way, it has to be that we reach some sort of decision that we're all happy with. If there's a point where one person isn't happy, we rarely just go ahead with it...It's not one person at all & before we do anything we all sit down together and we talk about what we want the songs to be about. Everybody gets a say in it. From that we split it up into categories. People check categories about what they want to write about. And from that point onward, they'll be fitted to drum loops. And someone else will start altering and changing things around. So, it's not a precious process at all, again it's the best idea wins. And everything is altered, you cannot be precious about the things that you've done in Chumbawumba. Because we realize that individually we probably do all that, but we sound much better if we work as a group.

 'Anarchy' features a sound that infuses their punk and traditional music with rave and techno to produce an anthemic pop canvas for their political lyrics.  The choice of a graphic photo of a live birth for the album cover proved too controversial for most stores and for many potential fans, and was replaced by an image of roses for some pressings.  Nevertheless, the album managed to break into the top thirty of the UK album chart.  





http://www.chumba.com/








'Anarchy' 
full album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypkzgwZUqwo



All songs written and arranged by Chumbawamba except where noted. All songs produced and engineered by Chumbawamba and Neil Ferguson.

"Give the Anarchist a Cigarette" – 4:07
"Timebomb" – 3:40
"Homophobia" – 2:31 (Melody trad.)
"On Being Pushed" – 0:31
"Heaven/Hell" – 2:26 (Melody trad., from Hungarian folk tune "Hidegen")
"Love Me" – 3:51
"Georgina" – 2:26
"Doh!" – 0:20
"Blackpool Rock" – 0:28
"This Year's Thing" – 4:04
"Mouthful of Shit" – 3:45
"Never Do What You Are Told" – 1:22
"Bad Dog" – 4:31
"Enough Is Enough" – 4:34 (Chumbawamba/MC Fusion)
"Rage" – 2:50
"Timebomb" (vocals by Jimmy Echo) (Secret track )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDqD8dARWiE

phonograph

The Wizard of Menlo Park made a name for himself when he announced his latest invention of a device that could record and play back sound. Thomas Alva Edison had already issued several patents for improvements to the telegraph and telephone that made them more practical, using his proceeds to open the first research and development laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey.  It was there that he stumbled upon the machine that would make him famous.  In an experiment to see if he could record a telephone conversation, he used a stylus on a tinfoil cylinder.  He surprised himself when his recording of 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' played back:  “I was never so taken aback in my life. I was always afraid of things that worked the first time.”  

He brought his new invention to magazines to give demonstrations, which brought national recognition and led to his nickname: "The Wizard of Menlo Park".  He shelved the device to work on developing the incandescent light bulb, during which time other inventors made improvements on his revolutionary 'sound writer'.  The phonograph would usher in a new age of music and sound recording.  

'Mary Had a Little Lamb'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBXyuY2J20o





The Song of Mr. Phonograph
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEZWf2torO8





The Bee Gees - Edison





Chumbawamba did their song 'The Wizard of Menlo Park' as a bouncy tribute to the famous inventor.




Thomas Edison - Mary Had A Little Lamb dance remix by Frank O' The Mountain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqOJYJcZkoY

tubthumping

British anarchist musical collective Chumbawamba took their message to the masses with this anthemic drinking song
and infuriated their hardcore fanbase. 'Tubthumping' brought the radical band into international prominence when they signed with a major record label. Guitarist Boff explains the title:  "It's a term taken from the anarchistic tradition. Tubthumpers stood on street corners, and before factories, on boxes to voice radical political opinions. That requires a lot of guts and we liked the idea so much that we thought we're some sort of modern Tubthumpers with electric guitars and loudspeakers."

When their independent label One Little Indian wanted them to use outside producers for the 'Tubthumper' album, they refused and recorded it themselves with Lou Watts on vocals and keyboards, Alice Nutter and Danbert Nobacon on vocals, Paul Greco on bass, Boff on guitar and vocals, Jude Abbott on trumpet and vocals, Dunstan Bruce on vocals and percussion, Harry Hamer on drums and programming, and Neil Ferguson on keyboards and guitars. When they decided to sign with major label EMI, they were accused of betraying their ideals.  

Nutter explains: "It ain't so simple. We still want to change the whole system, turn it upside down! We're not stars. We're revolutionaries. We just moved our battle zones. We're fighting the system now from within and not from the outside anymore and that's even better. This way we can do far more than we could in the past. If you fight from within the lines, you're bound to be more successful in achieving your goals."

Boff considers: "I don't think politics alone can change anything. I really believe you need good pop and a couple of good beats. You see you need the youngsters to change something. They're the people who will join a revolution and the easiest way to reach the youngsters is with pop. They all love pop and they're bound to listen to lyrics if you put them in some catchy pop songs...We decided to become a successful band. We really tried to achieve that. The reason for it is not to be on heavy MTV rotation. The reason why we wanted to be a successful band was that the more successful you are, the more people hear your lyrics, the more people might actually listen to them, think about them and if we're really really lucky, some might even get off their butts and do something. We don't really know if it will work out but it's certainly worth a try...The most important thing for us was that we got a good distribution, that the people out there get a chance to hear our music and our message. Now our album is available almost everywhere, not as an expensive import, but as a regular album. With an indie-label that wouldn't be possible. Anyway, we needed a new label because Virgin dropped us. We sent them the tape with our new recordings and they sent it right back to us. They weren't interested anymore and we shopped around and found another – even bigger – label...We realize that there is a conflict between being popular and being true to the roots and the message, and we're thinking about how – even if the outside form changes – we can keep our intergrety intact. How we can protect our message. I think if we'd lose our message, we'd be just a flash in the pan, but I don't think that it will happen."

The single for 'Tubthumping'  went to number six in the US, number two in the UK, and number one in Canada.  The song quotes the refrain from Frederic Weatherly's famous ballad 'Danny Boy'; parodies the tune 'Don't Cry for Me, Argentina' by Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice; and references the Baroque Prince of Denmark's March by Jeremiah Clarke.  Its success pushed the album 'Tubthumper' to number nineteen on the British album charts and number three in the US, selling triple platinum.  The band is often called a one-hit wonder, although they did have several hits on the UK indie chart and the follow-up single 'Amnesia' charted at one hundred and one in the US, ten in the UK, and seven in Canada.









http://www.chumba.com/

















We'll be singing, 
When we're winning
We'll be singing

I get knocked down, but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down 
I get knocked, down but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down
I get knocked, down but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down
I get knocked, down but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down

(Pissing the night away, pissing the night away)

He drinks a Whiskey drink, he drinks a Vodka drink
He drinks a Lager drink, he drinks a Cider drink
He sings the songs that remind him of the good times
He sings the songs that remind him of the best times

(Oh Danny Boy, Danny Boy, Danny Boy)

I get knocked down, but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down 
I get knocked, down but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down
I get knocked, down but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down
I get knocked, down but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down

(Pissing the night away, pissing the night away)

He drinks a Whiskey drink, he drinks a Vodka drink
He drinks a Lager drink, he drinks a Cider drink
He sings the songs that remind him of the good times
He sings the songs that remind him of the best times

(Don't cry for me, next door neighbour)

I get knocked down, but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down 
I get knocked, down but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down
I get knocked, down but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down
I get knocked, down but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down







The album version samples the monologue by Pete Postlethwaite in the film 'Brassed Off': "Truth is, I thought it mattered; I thought that music mattered. But does it? Bollocks! Not compared to how people matter."






'Tubthumping' documentary:








full album:



01 - 0:00 Tubthumping
02 - 4:38 Amnesia
03 - 8:46 Drip, Drip, Drip
04 - 13:54 The Big Issue
05 - 18:32 The Good Ship Lifestyle
06 - 23:46 One By One
07 - 29:33 Outsider
08 - 33:40 Creepy Crawling
09 - 37:46 Mary, Mary
10 - 42:43 Smalltown
11 - 45:56 I Want More

12 - 50:11 Scapegoat