Chumbawamba to return with new documentary and 'Tubthumping' reissue

They're getting back up again

Chumbawamba
Author: Scott ColothanPublished 20th May 2021
Last updated 20th May 2021

Nine years on from their split, Chumbawamba are set to return to the fore with a new documentary and a reissue of their biggest hit ‘Tubthumping.’

The politically charged Burnley collective released 14 studio albums over a 30-year career between 1982 and 2012, and they’re best known for their debauched smash hit ‘Tubthumping’, which peaked at no.2 in the UK in 1997 and hit the upper echelons of charts around the globe including the Top 10 in the US.

Singer Dunstan Bruce recently appeared on the Can I Ask You a Personal Question? Podcast and revealed that a documentary about the band is on the horizon.

"We have just finished a documentary about Chumbawamba," Bruce revealed. "It has taken five years to make and that film will answer a lot of questions. I will never get interviewed again once that film is out."

Chumbawamba hit headlines around the world when they soaked the then deputy prime minister John Prescott with a bucket of ice water at The BRIT Awards in 1998. The band were nominated for British Single of the Year but ultimately lost out to All Saints’ ‘Never Ever.’

Commenting on the political aspect of the band, 60-year-old Bruce said: “We were really politically motivated and our outlet was the music. We wanted to change the world."

Bruce also revealed that the continued royalties from ‘Tubthumping’ – a song they’re planning to reissue – have enabled him to live an artistic life.

"I hear the song on different TV programmes all the time like First Dates or Little Fires Everywhere,” Bruce said.

"It’s enabled me to live a creative life by my own rules and desires. We still benefit from that song. People have played the song at funerals. That is weird."

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