Two-and-a-half years later...high on the rush of the Miner's Strike the band were spewing revolution to a backdrop of post-punk noise that was tally, terrible and occasionally wonderful. Still dodging bottles and jobs.

Having decided NOT to join the "Here I Am In A Band I Don't Get To Choose My Own Trousers" exodus towards the London multinationals, CHUMBAWAMBA scrimped and saved and ate only potato peelings so that they could start their own record label, AGIT-PROP was born.

1986 ... while the rest of the music industry were busy pushing ambulances over cliffs to help those at the bottom, CHUMBAWAMBA were foaming at the mouth. "Picture Of Starving Children Sell Records" was the band's vinyl response to LIVE AID. It was the first in a long line of typically topical releases.

1987 ... CHUMBAWAMBA promise tons of people bloodied noses on the "Never Mind The Ballots" LP - a rush response to the General Election and the last flirtation with music that made your fillings rattle. Then came "English Rebel Songs" 10 inch, folk-on-a-rope to scrub away the myth that England had no radical musical history. Sadly CHUMBAWAMBA then had to enter a clinic to get fingers surgically removed from ears.
Once free of the past they released the dance album "Slap". It was a jump into poplifting and the realisation of vocalist Danbert Nobacon' ambition to be a Yorkshire dialect white rapper. He sounded like your grandad on crack.

The Eight then decided to steal an album's worth of tunes, Kylie, Abba and the Stones were put to good subversive use of songs about shoplifting and prudish obscently laws. Publishing companies "found the tone offensive" and blocked the album "Jesus H. Christ". Ever oppurtunist, CHUMBAWAMBA responded with an eclectic dance album on censorship... "Shhh". The band's love / hate relationship with the music industry continued with the anti homophobia ditty "Behave!".

1993 ... together over ten years, almost the same line-up, not quite the same people. From born-again anarchists to simply anarchists. Seriously committed to having a good time all the time. Eager students of sex, less business sense than Steptoe & Sons; better taste in clothes. Took a while and a lot of shambolic dealings to realise it was impossible to run a record company and tour non-stop. But after returning from a year spent touring Europe, America and Scarborough, realise they did. CHUMBAWAMBA signed with One Little Indian Records, and stey still swear blind that they'll always choose their own trousers - but they're not averse to getting into other people's.