>
>Dear mailing list,
>                            before this becomes public i thought i'd write
>and tell you which labels we've decided to release TUBTHUMPER (the album)
>on. In the UK, Europe and Asia it will be on EMI Electrola and in the
>States it'll be released on Republic Records.
>
>We thought long and hard before we finally decided what to do, and i'll
>explain the reasoning behind our choices.  Our experiences over the last
>fifteen years have robbed us of the naive view that there's 'good' and
>'bad' capitalism.  We learnt the hard way that 'indie' isn't shorthand for
>integrity - it's become a style guideline rather than (how we originally
>percieved it) a shortening of the word "independent". (Duh).
>
>As a band we've tried releasing records in various ways: we started our own
>record label, Agit-Prop, but found that we had to choose between being a
>boss/label and a band. We were OK at the creative end of running a label
>but we were crap at the business side and lost a lot of money helping bands
>put out records which didn't sell very well. During that time we  used an
>independent distributor; mad as it seems now we told them that as
>anarchists we wanted to work on trust rather than from contracts. It took
>us a while to learn that 'trust' is another word for 'sucker' in the music
>industry - basically, we got ripped off more by our own naivety than by the
>industry.
>
>We signed to One Little Indian - our last label - thinking that we'd found
>a label that we had things in common with. We'd known Derek Birkett (OLI's
>boss) since his days in the band, Flux of Pink Indians, and we assumed that
>the label had other objectives as well as profit. We knew the label would
>only keep us as long as we sold enough records, but that seemed like a fair
>deal.
>
>In the end, though, the label became preoccupied with it's financial
>problems; and as we were one of the few bands who didn't lose them tons of
>money in =A3200,000 videos and ultra-expensive promotional failures, OLI wer=
>e
>keen for us to stay safe, don't try anything new, and release an annual
>imitation of "Anarchy" to keep the float topped up. (Which we weren't
>prepared to do). The final straw was a sudden interest in taking away
>Chumbawamba's artistic control. ("Go away and write some stronger
>songs...")
>
>We told OLI that we wanted to leave in December 1996. When we started
>looking round for another company we realised that we no longer made a
>distinction between 'major' and 'indie'.  We knew labels would see us only
>in terms of whether we were profitable so we stopped pretending that we had
>to have some vague political trust in whoever released our records; plus we
>were fed up with constantly bypassing the "popular" part of popular
>culture, not being able to play in places like the USA, and watching as a
>million other crap bands were getting the airtime/press space to talk
>absolute crap whilst we sniped tinily from the sidelines.  We wanted to
>work with the labels who'd work the hardest in our interest.
>
>We went to Germany to sign with EMI at the end of last week, and one of the
>EMI blokes asked us if it was problematic for us to be signed with EMI. I
>said it was, because EMI has symbolic status.  Chumbawamba's early history
>is rooted in (so-called) "peace punk", and EMI was always shorthand for
>everything evil about the music industry. Signing with EMI for us finally
>lays the ghost of peace punk, its political mistakes and its misplaced
>logic, to rest. It isn't the eighties any more... you can't fight a
>modernised army using outdated weaponry.
>
>We haven't actually signed with Republic (in the US) yet but we will be in
>the next couple of weeks. Our attitude is that we want to make records that
>people actually get to hear, (and don't have to buy in specialist record
>shops at import prices...) and it looks like we have more chance of doing
>that with EMI and Republic.
>
>We realise that some people are going to be unhappy about our choices, but
>it's not our job to placate people with false distinctions between 'good'
>and 'bad' bosses. Our job is to spread propaganda, throw up debate and
>argument, cause some trouble, and carry on making music which goes against
>the grain of these shallow times. We reckon all these things deserve to
>reach a bigger audience.
>
>Those of you who don't give a shit who we sign with must think i've rambled
>on too long, but we felt we owed an explanation to those of you who do,
>
>alice
>on behalf of chumbawamba
>
>P.S. EMI has long-since ditched its connection to arms trading, by the way..=
>.
>
----------

> Re: Chumbawumba: the mighty comeback!
> On Mon, 18 Aug 1997
> 
> Just when you thought they were has-beens, Chumbawumba debut at number 2
> on the UK national charts!!!!  (jam)
> 
> "You can never get ahead by giving head to the Man" (Bobby Conn)

> What does Chumbawumba mean?  (jeff)

> "chumbawamba" is the art of telling someone something for years and years
> until they REALLY believe you, and then - quietly one night - doing the
> exact opposite to everyone's amazement!  it's a real buzz seemingly...
> 
> i have no idea what "chumbawumba" means though - sorry.   (scott)
> 

> aha-this is quite an (un)interesting piece of trivia here:
> Boff and Dan from the 'wamba once had this comedy band in Leeds called
> "Chimp Eats Banana" and released(well,sort of) a cassette called
> "Cardboard Box"(like PIL's "Metal Box") and featured such classics as
> "Lonely Policeman","Oh Dorothy" and "My Nanaration".I guess this was
> around 1980 or so.I have a tape of it at home.My guess is that
> Chimpeatsbanana evolved into Chumbawamba once more people started getting
> involved.
> Ironically enough,the 'wamba have featured on Rugger Bugger's classic
> "FUCK EMI" compilation.
> Good luck to 'em.    (ben)

> don't get me wrong - it's good to see them selling tons of records,
> although someone at EMI is wetting themselves at scoring the most anti-EMI
> band on the planet.  someone's up for a promotion.  (scott)