Download Free Chumbawamba * Songs

Chumbawamba music biography continued...

and computer technician Lou Watts. The trio teamed with Harry Hamer and Mavis Dillon and the line-up was complete. Their debut LP, Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records: Starvation, Charity and Rock 'n' Roll -- Lies and Tradition, was released in 1986 and was intended to be an attack on what they saw as the phoniness behind the charity event Live Aide. The band would release a few more albums, as well as their biggest indie hit, 1993's anti-fascism rant "Enough Is Enough," before signing with EMI. Though some fans considered the signing with a major label to be a sellout, the band's 1997 major-label debut, Tubthumper, became a huge success thanks to the catchy "Tubthumping," a Top Ten hit in the U.S. and throughout Europe. A second single, "Amnesia," was also a hit. Their newfound popularity also allowed the group to bring its anarchist message to a new audience, which also got to see Nutter on ABC's Politically Incorrect advocating shoplifting from record stores. (A move that had Virgin refuse to stock the album.) In 1998 EMI released the band's first collection album, which featured a mix bag of songs from between 1985 and 1998, under the title Uneasy Listening, which further propelled Chumbawamba into the mainstream spotlight.



Chumbawamba's last release on EMI was 2000's WYSIWYG, which contained a list of all the high profile figures the band would like to see disappear (including Tony Blair and Bono). In 2002, Chumbawamba formed their own record label, MUTT, and used it to release their eleventh studio album, Readymades, which blended samples of folk music and dance beats. In keeping with tradition, however, when General Motors paid Chumbawamba $100,000 to use the song "Pass It Along" from the WYSIWYG album, in a car commercial, Chumbawamba gave the money to the anti-corporate activist groups that were launching a campaign against GM. In recent years, the band has been more acoustically focused and has performed with shifting line-ups, but they continue to stand proudly behind their years of mayhem.