Gathered from various parts of the North, the band were allergic to the egos and screaming tantrums which punctuate most pop culture. CHUMBAWAMBA didn't pick members on whether they could actually play anything, the only entrance specifications were an ability to keep time, a hatred of authority and a good heart. They developed musical skills (or in some cases didn't) as they went along.

Never conformist, while the rest of the pop world were queueing up for a Kajagoogoo haircut, CHUMBAWAMBA were starting a squatted commune... in the middle of Leeds' industrial heartland. Discovering that they'd struck lucky when choosing friends, CHUMBAWAMBA decided to share money too. While Thatcher announced that there was no community, CHUMBAWAMBA got on with building themselves one.

They started their own label, AGIT-PROP to release the aptly titled REVOLUTION single. John Peel played it and it went straight to the top of the indie charts. In '86 the Live Aid spectacle prompted CHUMBAWAMBA to record their first album "Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records". Over ten years on, the media now claims that it had grave misgivings about whether Phil Collin's appearing in two continents in the same day would really be a catalyst for lasting change. But at the time, all CHUMBAWAMBA heard was a chorus of: "You heartless bastards!"

CHUMBAWAMBA's second album "Never Mind The Ballots!" was a rushed response to the general election of '87. It was another, somewhat patchy, concept album in which the Leeds' anarchists' declared that a choice between two evils was no choice at all. Having been tagged as purveyors of loud - if intermittently melodic - punk rock, CHUMBAWAMBA decided to make life interesting for themselves again by releasing an acappella folk album. "English Rebel Songs." The album was the last thing that the band's punky audience expected, and signaled CHUMBAWAMBA's unwillingness to toe any party line.

The shouts of: "They can't do that!" went out again when CHUMBAWAMBA jumped headlong into dance music with 1990's "SLAP!" Dance beats and illegal warehouse parties were changing the face of British youth culture; CHUMBAWAMBA's love of a good time and hatred of authority fitted perfectly with dance music's DIY mentality. CHUMBAWAMBA also realised that a new decade required a different political approach. The band were bored with the politics of victimisation, the "BIG BROTHER IS GONNA GET YOU" line. Working on the premise that optimism breeds optimism, "SLAP!" celebrated victories. Its three minute pop songs were packed with tales of the underdog biting back. In Germany and America the band were repeatedly told that a dance album couldn't be political... because politics had to have a sound-track that sounded like a bucket being kicked over. CHUMBAWAMBA begged to differ.

By this point, several band members still shared the same house, but love and lust had resulted in others setting up home elsewhere. The transition from communal to individual living situations had been relatively painless, strengthening rather than weakening friendships.

Having always had a policy of unashamedly stealing the best snippets of pop from any and everywhere, CHUMBAWAMBA decided to release an album that was full of ripped-off choruses. The outcry was better than the album. "JESUS H CHRIST" was never released due to "publishers' objections". Pointing out that all pop music was a process of theft and influence, CHUMBAWAMBA recorded the far superior "SHHH". It dealt with issues of censorship... but it did it in the sweetest most melodic way.

Up to this point CHUMBAWAMBA had released everything on their AGIT-PROP label. CHUMBAWAMBA's success had financed releases by other bands - which all dive bombed in obscurity. The band found it increasingly difficult to run a record label and a band, especially since they had no intentions of becoming "businessmen". AGIT-PROP was a drain that CHUMBAWAMBA couldn't afford... so in 1993 the band decided to sign to ONE LITTLE INDIAN.

The label was chosen because CHUMBAWAMBA had known its owner, Derek Birkett, since his days as a bassist with punk band Flux of Pink Indians. A joint anti fascist single with CREDIT TO THE NATION was the first OLI release, quickly followed by CHUMBAWAMBA's aptly titled "ANARCHY" album. The sleeve, which featured a baby being born, caused the album to be banned from some record stores... the stores claimed it was pornographic!

"ANARCHY's" four minute anthems saw CHUMBAWAMBA reaching a much wider audience, but the band weren't interested in just repeating a winning formula. Their next album "Swinging With Raymond" was the exact opposite of easy listening. Split into two distinctly different love and hate sides, the album contained CHUMBAWAMBA's plaintive, melodic take on love and some of the dirtiest-white-noise hate songs imaginable.

Unusually, CHUMBAWAMBA's line-up hadn't altered from the early days, but times and tastes change and when trumpet player Mavis Dillon decided to leave in '95, the band thought it was the right decision. Jude Abbott replaced him and along with her harmoniser gave CHUMBAWAMBA a beefed-up brass section.

CHUMBAWAMBA have never been constrained by the old cliches of what a band is supposed to be and do. Often working under assumed names, CHUMBAWAMBA have always been jokers with a practical point. During the '87 election campaign the band created a spoof combo, THE MIDDLE and succeeded in getting the Liberal Democrats to endorse them. THE MIDDLE were set to play at the Liberal party conference when someone told the politicians the band's true identity. In '96 CHUMBAWAMBA were outraged by the state's intentionally sensationalist and hypocritical anti drug campaigns. The last straw was when advertisers used a photograph of the dead teenager, Leah Betts and implied that anybody taking drugs had signed their own death warrant. CHUMBAWAMBA replied with a poster campaign of their own which replaced the word 'SORTED' with 'DISTORTED'.

Until CHUMBAWAMBA signed with OLI, the band were to some extent, outside the music industry. Working with an established label made the band realise that they'd been naive' in their assumption that an old friendship would make for a better working relationship. OLI weren't happy with the direction that CHUMBAWAMBA's album (the prototype of TUBTHUMPING) was taking, CHUMBAWAMBA asked OLI if they could leave the label in December '96.

CHUMBAWAMBA signed with EMI Germany in May. The anthemic TUBTHUMPER single is due out in July, to be followed in September by the album TUBTHUMPING. CHUMBAWAMBA plan to continue causing trouble for the foreseeable future.