punks for peace
Authors of a song that stuck in your head through the late nineties, Chumbawamba are anarchists without the agro, and are spreading the good word at Apelsin.
TEXT FRANCIS MERSON feedback
I’ve got a suspicion that the management of Apelsin chooses their acts based solely on how preposterous the name of the band is. Last month it was I Am Kloot, and now they’re rolling out the red carpet for Chumbawamba. Maybe the name Chumbawamba means nothing to you, but the words of their mega-hit “Tubthumper” — (“I get knocked down, but I get up again, you’re never gonna keep me down”) — have been hammered firmly into the collective unconscious. Everyone knows the chorus of this song by heart, without the faintest idea where it’s from. As I am sure you’ll be delighted to hear, Chumbawamba have written other songs too — stacks of the things over their more than twenty-year career. The group was born in Leeds in the far-off year of 1982, under the star of the anarcho-punk movement and amidst the political rebellion reigning in the UK of that time. The wellspring of ideas for Chumbawamba’s music is what they view as political and social injustice, which are the usual idees recues of left-wing politics: capitalism, war, globalization, starving children, etc. These are all worthy causes, of course, but a good cause is not enough to make a good song. This is the main flaw of Chumbawamba, whose songs seem to be informed by their own ideology rather than musical ideas. Groups like the Sex Pistols, which appeared around the same time as Chumbawamba, used anarchism as a fashion accessory – the politics was all just part of the punk image. The success of the Pistols lay in their principally new sound and catchy musical material, while their ideas were completely incoherent. Chumbawamba has the opposite failing: their political activism gets in the way of serious music-making. It is no accident that their only real hit, “Tubthumper,” is totally apolitical. But, to be fair, Chumbawamba does use a wide palette of sound in their creations, with elements of folk, techno and some nice vocal harmonies. And given that they have fans in Russia, not all of whom understand the group’s lyrics, there music obviously appeals to someone per se. Come and make up your own mind at Apelsin on April 1. The concert starts at 9 p.m., and entry is 400 rubles. |
