Danbert Nobacon

Chumbawamba were at the forefront of the 1980s anarcho-punk movement, frequently playing benefit gigs in squats and small halls for causes such as animal rights, the anti-war movement, and community groups.

The band's collective political views are often described as anarchist.

They made several songs about the UK miners' strike, including the cassette Common Ground and a song dedicated to the pit village of Fitzwilliam, which was one of the worst cases of economic decline following the strike.

By the mid-1980s Chumbawamba had begun to release material using the vinyl format on their own Agit-Prop record label, which had evolved from an earlier project, Sky and Trees Records.

The "RED" label, based in Wrocław in south-west Poland during the late 1980s, only released cassette tapes and, despite the limits enforced by Polish authorities, was able to release Chumbawamba's music, in addition to bands from the USSR, East Germany and Czechoslovakia.

By the late 1980s and early 1990s, Chumbawamba had begun to absorb influences from techno music and rave culture.

Chumbawamba were a British anarchist punk band formed in 1982 and disbanded in 2012.

Chumbawamba formed in Burnley in 1982 with an initial line-up of Allan "Boff" Whalley, Danbert Nobacon (born Nigel Hunter), Midge and Tomi, all four previously members of the band Chimp Eats Banana, shortly afterwards joined by Lou Watts.

The band made their live debut in January 1982.

Their first vinyl release was a track ("Three Years Later") on the Crass Records compilation album Bullshit Detector 2.

They were initially inspired musically by bands as diverse as the Fall, PiL, Wire, and Adam and the Ants and politically by the anarchist stance of Crass.

Another of the band's early releases was under the name "Skin Disease", parodying the Oi! bands of the time so successfully that they were included on Back On The Streets, an Oi!

compilation EP put together by Sounds magazine journalist Garry Bushell.

By the end of 1982, the band had expanded to include Alice Nutter (of Ow My Hair's on Fire), and Dunstan "Dunst" Bruce (of Men in a Suitcase) and were living in a squat in Armley, Leeds on Carr Crofts road, with Harry "Daz" Hamer and Mavis "Mave" Dillon joining soon after.

Stalwarts of the cassette culture scene, the band released a number of tapes including Be Happy Despite It All and Raising Heck With Chumbawamba, and were featured on many compilations.

The first release was the Revolution EP in 1985, which quickly sold out of its initial run, and was re-pressed, reaching No. 4 in the UK Indie Chart, and staying in the chart for 34 weeks.

The first two, Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records (1985) and Never Mind the Ballots (1987), were repackaged as one disc under the title First 2.

The first LP, Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records (1986), was a critique of the Live Aid concert organised by Bob Geldof, which the band argued was primarily a cosmetic spectacle designed to draw attention away from the real political causes of world hunger.

The band toured Europe with Dutch band the Ex, and a collaboration between members of the two bands, under the name "Antidote", led to the release of an EP, Destroy Fascism!, inspired by hardcore punk band Heresy, with whom they had also toured.

Both the Ex and Chumbawamba were released on cassette tape in Poland during this period, when music censorship was entrenched in Iron Curtain nations.

Chumbawamba's second album, Never Mind the Ballots...Here's the Rest of Your Lives, was released in 1987, coinciding with the general election, and questions the validity of the British democratic system of the time.

The band adopted another moniker, Scab Aid, for the "Let It Be" song release that parodied a version of the Beatles song recorded by the popstar supergroup Ferry Aid to raise money for victims of the Zeebrugge ferry disaster.

The 1988 album English Rebel Songs 1381–1984, originally released as English Rebel Songs 1381–1914, was a recording of traditional songs.

They had been involved with a compilation LP called Fuck EMI in 1989, and had criticised the label in many of their earlier songs.

The band members quit their day jobs to begin concentrating on music full-time as they could now guarantee sales of 10,000 and they moved away from their original anarcho-punk roots, evolving a pop sensibility with releases such as Slap! (1990) and the sample-heavy Shhh (1992) (originally intended to be released as Jesus H Christ!, this album had to be withdrawn and re-recorded because of copyright problems).

They also toured the United States for the first time in 1990.

When Jason Donovan took The Face magazine to court that same year for claiming he was lying by denying he was gay, Chumbawamba responded by printing up hundreds of 'Jason Donovan – Queer As Fuck' T-shirts and giving them away free with the single "Behave".

After signing to the independent One Little Indian record label, Anarchy (1994) lyrically remained as politically uncompromising as ever, continuing to address issues such as homophobia (see song "Homophobia", the music video of which features the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence), the Criminal Justice Act and the rise of fascism in the UK following the election of Derek Beackon, a British National Party councillor in south-east London in 1993.

The album was the band's biggest success to date, reaching the top 30 in the UK and the singles "Timebomb" and "Enough Is Enough" both entering the low end of the UK Singles Chart.

The latter featured Credit to the Nation's rapper MC Fusion.

The live shows to support the album were recorded and went to make up their first live album Showbusiness!, released in 1995.

One Little Indian also re-released Chumbawamba's back catalogue, which meant that the first three albums were released on CD for the first time.

Chumbawamba parted with One Little Indian during the recording of the 1996 album Swingin' with Raymond, although they did release one last CD entitled Portraits of Anarchists, which came with copies of Casey Orr's book of the same name.

They are best known for their 1997 single "Tubthumping", which was nominated for Best British Single at the 1998 Brit Awards.

Other singles include "Amnesia", "Enough Is Enough" (with MC Fusion), "Timebomb", "Top of the World (Olé, Olé, Olé)", and "Add Me".

The band drew on genres such as punk rock, pop, and folk.

Their anarcho-communist political leanings led them to have an irreverent attitude toward authority, and to espouse a variety of political and social causes including animal rights and pacifism (early in their career) and later regarding class struggle, Marxism, feminism, gay liberation, pop culture, and anti-fascism.

Chumbawamba signed to EMI in Europe in 1997, a move that was viewed as controversial by many of their followers.

In July 2012, Chumbawamba announced they were splitting up after 30 years.

The band was joined by former members and collaborators for three final shows between 31 October and 3 November 2012, one of which was filmed and released as a live DVD.