Chumbawamba have never taken the line of least resistance. Formed in the eighties, influenced by the D.I.Y. ethos of punk rock and the adrenalin rush of anarchist ideas, Chumbawamba began spewing out a mixture of politics, popular culture and loud, loud noise. Never conformist, while the rest of the pop world were queuing up for a Kajagoogoo haircut, Chumbawamba started a squatted commune....in Leeds. They started their own label, AGIT-PROP releasing a slurry of politically minded pop. Last year saw the release of their most successfuly album yet, Tubthumper, and the single Tubthumping which became a worldwide hit and shot the band from relative obscurity into being proper pop stars. That is, if you can be a pop star when you're in a self-confessed anarchist collective...

Chumbawamba appear live on beeb

Welcome to Oi! chat live from behind the scenes at the world-famous studios of Top of the Pops.

beeb: "Chumbawamba have just made it into the charts with their single Amnesia which currently stands at number 10. It's been a busy day at Top of the Pops, stars have been rehearsing like crazy, getting ready to perform their hits at Top of the Pops."

Kerry Hickey asks: "What does Chumbawamba mean?"

Danbert: "It came from a dream I once had - I was stood in front of these two toilets, one said "Chumba" and the other "Wamba" and I didn't know which one to go in to."

Amber Stevens asks: "Do you feel like big rock stars now after the success of Tubthumping?"

Paul: "I wouldn't say rock stars - we're pop stars, and small one's at that."

Paul: "We can still go down to Kwiksave and not be recognised."

Ginny Leskie asks: "Does it feel different now you've achieved commercial success after years of being on the outside?"

Danbert: "Yeah, we've always enjoyed whichever level we've been at...It's not as if we suddenly regard the earlier years as being a waste...But it's fascinating and exciting to have this level of success, to have this platform, suddenly everybody wants to talk to us, and that's great."

Danny Harlden asks: "Can you still listen to Tubthumping now?"

Paul: "We have no choice!"

Danbert: "I still enjoy playing it live..."

Danbert: "We've done a few live gigs, not hundreds..."

Paul: "So it still gives us a buzz playing it live."

matthew Stace asks: "Did you "sell out" by doing Tubthumping, or was it simply a plot to get famous, then start releasing more of your political anthems?"

Danbert: "Neither ! It was all written and finished before we signed to EMI, so we'd already decided that we wanted to make a pop album..."

Danbert: "and we were just following it through. We had no idea it would become so successful."

beeb: "Even when you finished writing it?"

Paul: "We knew it was "the Single of the Album" but we didn't realise what a huge hit it would be..."

ChrisD'S asks: "Why did you call your last song Tubthumping?"

Paul: "Tubthumping means standing on a soap box and shouting out what you believe in like on a Sunday at Speakers' Corner at Hyde Park."

Fred Upton asks: "Did Tubthumping make you a lot of money?"

Paul: "Not yet!"

Danbert: "It will do, but we won't start seeing it until the end of the tax year in April."

beeb: "Why does it take so long?"

Danbert: "That's the nature of it, most of the money comes from sales and copyright from it being performed on radio and and TV. It has to go through a process - something like two accounting departments before it gets back to us."

PROZAC asks: "You've had a huge success with Tubthumping, are you getting bored with people associating you with it?"

Paul: "We wouldn't want to be remembered only for Tubthumping and as Amnesia has proved, we're not just one-hit wonders."

Charlie Edwards asks: "What is Amnesia all about?"

Danbert: "It's about New Labour and Tony Blair and the idea that during the honeymoon of Tony Blair it's easy to forget that Labour are much the same as the Conservatives..."

Paul: "They've forgotten what it means to be The Labour Party."

beeb: "Are there really no differences between the two parties?"

Paul: "Tony Blair's New Labour has taken some Conservative policies even further than even the Tories could have wished for, such as the dismantling of the welfare state."

Danbert: "Student fees, the idea that legal aid might get abolished."

Paul: "Private health insurance, cutting benefits to single mothers, to disabled people, and to the poor in general."

Kev Butler asks: "Do you think pop music is a good forum for discussing political ideas?"

Danbert: "Yeah, we do."

Paul: "That's why we do it."

Paul: "It's a form of mass-media."

Paul: "What better way of getting ideas across than through popular culture such as music?"

Len Jennings asks: "Pop music should be escapist fun, not serious social commentary...what do you think?"

Danbert: "Probably about 95% of bands treat it as escapist fun, which is cool, but for us it's not enough. We have a lot of fun doing it but feel moved by stuff that's happening in the world to share ideas about it."

alicewho asks: "do you really consider yourself anarchists? and if so don't you think the main principles of anarchy don't actually work?"

Danbert: "No, we work and we have done for 16 years as an anarchist collective which means that we discuss any ideas we have as a group, rather than one person telling the rest what to do..."

Danbert: "The money is shared between the 8 people of Chumbawamba, so there are no egos, and that's anarchy working..."

Danbert: "Most people think that anarchy is chaos, but if you look at anarchist groups throughout history they are well organised."

Paul: "In fact, all anarchy means: "law-less society" as in "no hierarchy laying down the law"."

Liz Gore asks: "Do you believe in a meritocracy? If you do then surely that means some people will be richer than others?"

Danbert: "No we don't believe in meritocracy - that's what Tony Blair epitomises really - he's the one with the biggest smile and the sharpest suit etc..."

Danbert: "By getting rid of the welfare state he's advocating a false idea of meritocracy, it's like an illusion of -yeah, if you work hard you get on in life, but at the same time, a lot of poorer people simply don't have the same luxury to go to higher education."

Stu Buckley asks: "If you're really anarchists why did you want to form a pop group in the first place?"

Paul: "What's un-anarchicistic about forming a pop group?..."

Paul: "The eight of us felt we could discuss our observations of society within a pop group, better than in any other form of media."

Danbert: "Also, it means, for us, that we've got away with doing what we want to do. We've been lucky in a sense. By that I mean we'd rather be working in a band than in a bank. We chose to be in a band, but for 15 years we didn't make much of a living from it, we were able to make a living, but not a great one."

Clare Menzies asks: "Do you think you can make a difference with your political ideas?"

Paul: "We hope so, or we wouldn't be doing this."

Danbert: "For us to put the word anarchy back in mainstream pop - nobody has done that since the Sex Pistols, that makes it worth it. But I think we do more than that as well, we're putting a lot of ideas out that don't normally get into the mainstream..."

Danbert: "Just from the last few months, meeting people, there's evidence that we've inspired people, for example somebody living in a small town in America, feeling completely isolated as a gay teenager hearing one of our songs and telling us that he didn't feel as isolated as before."

Harold Bishop asks: "Have you ever heard Half Man Half Biscuit records? Don't you consider that real anarchy. Never appearing on TV and making no money because of their principles."

Paul: "If they choose not to use TV, that's fine. We choose differently, that is the beauty of anarchy - you're free to make your own choices...Incidently, I think HMHB are pretty cool and wish them continued coolness."

Wendy Kendle asks: "Why are there so many of you in the band?"

beeb: "There's 8 of them!"

Danbert: "It's the way we evolved as a band, as a group of friends and a working group, and it means we can put on a much better live show than if we only had four people...Having different singers makes it a lot less boring than most bands."

Paul: "We can have four lead singers at any given time, a horn section and cabaret-theatre."

Elise Olney asks: "Do you get annoyed because you have to split your profits with so many band members?"

Paul: "Not at all! We wouldn't know what to do with that much money if there were only three of us..."

Paul: "And, more importantly, the ideas which we pass on through our music are formulated by intense discussion which can be very interesting and rewarding because there are so many of us."

Will Johnson asks: "How does it feel seeing your faces on posters and on TV?"

Danbert: "It's funny to see yourselves on telly because sometimes you'll feel crap that day, and you won't look at your best. But other days it comes out okay."

Danbert: "We've been popular for a few years in Europe, much more than here really."

Terry Hill asks: "Do you feel pressurised into writing commercial pop hits now?"

Paul: "No. Tubthumping was more than a year ago when we were at our most commercially unsuccessful phase."

Danbert: "When we were writing it we had to do other part time work to be able to finish the record. I did plastering."

Paul: "And I did washing up, waitering and then finally cheffing at a cafe."

snog asks: "What really happened to Danbert in Italy? Why was he wearing a skirt/dress?"

Danbert: "For quite a few years now I've worn skirts - cos I like wearing skirts..."

Danbert: "And I was stopped by police in Florence and they had no reason to stop me - other than that I was wearing a skirt."

beeb: "How did that feel?"

Danbert: "Well I've been arrested about 10-12 times in my life but for other things than wearing a skirt, so it just showed the Italian police to be very biggoted in their attitude, and they kept me for 6 hours in a police cell."

Yvonne Duncan asks: "I loved your single with Credit to the Nation...Why don't you do some more songs with him?"

Paul: "At the moment, Yvonne, we're too busy. Matty Hanson is currently working on a new album - we still have close contact with him, in fact, up until recently Boff and Harry from the band produced Credit's albums."

Rita Farnarkel asks: "What direction are Chumbawamba taking for your next record?"

Danbert: "We're not really sure."

Paul: "We are still at the formulative stage of discussions, it will be a surprise no doubt. I hope so anyway."

beeb: "You seem to change musical styles alot..."

Paul: "Yeah, we get as bored as the next person by listening to the same music all the time..."

Paul: "Right now we're listening to quite a variety of different music from jazz to drum and bass, to pop to folk - all these influences play a part in our music and we still go clubbing when we can. So we keep abreast of new forms of music and we are excited by them."

beeb: "Chumbawamba go jungle??? Really?"

Paul: "Yeah! Check the album out there's some drum and bass rhythms there..."

Paul: "We love to mix and match! Yeah! A Bit of Bukem with a Slice of Spice."

Fleur Hogan asks: "What's the best thing that Chumbawamba have ever done musically?"

Paul: "(laughing) How can we say? Okay the country and western version of Tubthumping, which we sometimes play live on special occasions."

Danbert: "Really the stuff we're working on, the current material is the stuff we enjoy the most because that's what we're involved in."

JoYorkshire asks: "Do you think you will get to number one this time?"

Danbert: "Not in England. I don't know, maybe in another country."

Paul: "Paraguay perhaps."

Danbert: "It's doing quite well in Italy."

Leon Young asks: "When you did Tubthumping on TOTP didn't you feel stupid when everyone did THAT dance??"

Danbert: "It was VERY Top of the Pops and laughable, I thought."

Paul: "It was part and parcel of the TOTP experience!"

Danbert: "We tried to encourage people not to do it, jokingly, just before we filmed because they'd been practising, but they did it anyway."

beeb: "Is it a good experience doing TOTP?"

Danbert: "Yeah, because it's such a part of British Pop music culture."

Paul: "It's an institution isn't it...But we don't like institutions!"

Danbert: "But we love pop culture. I just remember seeing TOTP in the early 70's - people like Sweet and Wizard and Slade and thinking: This is great."

Paul: "Nothing can beat seeing the mad, hitler-moustachioed keyboard man of Sparks for the first time..."

Paul: "Or seeing the Sex Pistols doing Pretty Vaccant."

Karl Grau asks: "Are you playing the festivals this summer, or are you into stadiums now?"

Danbert: "We've never really done stadiums - other than falling down stadiums in Eastern Europe."

Paul: "Concrete Monstrosities. We will be playing Glastonbury, T in the Park and V-98."

Brenda McGregor asks: "Where do you want the band to be by the end of the year"

Danbert: "We're going to be really busy this year so it would be really nice to be home in Leeds for more than a couple of days."

Danbert: "We'd probably like to be thinking what we'd be writing for the next album."

beeb: "Do you all still live in Leeds?"

Paul: "Yeah."

Danbert: "Yeah!"

Danbert: "In the 80's we squatted a house, we all lived together at that time. Alice still lives in that house."

beeb: "Last question please!"

Fred Dinage asks: "do you like oasis. I think Liams a total anarchist."

Paul: "They can write a good catchy pop tune but they really do not have a lot to say. And there's a difference between selfish, decadent anarchy and the kind of responsible social anarchy which we believe in."

beeb: "Thanks very much to Danbert and Paul from Chumbawamba for chatting live to beeb today. There'll be more TOTP chats next thursday!!"

beeb: "One last comment from the boys..."

Danbert: "Thanks for tapping in!"

Paul: "If anything we've said angers or inspires you to go out and form your own pop band then today's chat has been worthwhile. See ya!"