Your dad’s favourite 90’s tubthumpers Chumbawamba have a plan to keep singing (when they’re winning), launching a Kickstarter campaign to fund a feature documentary about their accidental rise to fame.
While the British band have become synonymous with the fist-pumping refrain “I get knocked down/but I get up again/you’re never gonna keep me down” and “Pissing the night away” from their biggest chart hit Tubthumping, most of us don’t realise Chumbawamba were actually more punk than the Sex Pistols.
The anarchist popstars became notorious in their home country for their rebellion against the political regime, using all of their musical profits to fund groundbreaking anti-capitalist movements and, this one time, they even soaked Britain’s Deputy PM John Prescott in ice water at the 1998 Brit Awards. Now that shit is cold.
Now, they’re asking for a helping hand to raise the £40,000 (roughly AUD$81,708) needed to create a independent, collaborative feature documentary charting the true story of their rise to global fame in the 90s.
Chumbawamba frontman-turned-director Dunstan Bruce has teamed up with award-winning filmmaker Sophie Robinson to launch a crowdfunding campaign to bankroll the effort, promising a “warts-and-all” exposé dubbed I Get Knocked Down (The Untold Story of Chumbawamba), with the instructional tagline: “How to survive as an anarchist pop star – keep your friends, political self-respect, and sense of humour when everyone hates you”.
The former anarcho-punks are also asking fans who were around back in the Tubthumping days to shoot through their paraphernalia, like flyers, home video footage, or photos to info@igetknockeddown.com.
If they’re good enough, they’ll be included in the doco alongside 90s archive footage and interviews with the band and their modern contemporaries.
If they reach their goal, the Chumba’s aim is to showcase I Get Knocked Down on the festival circuit from Spring 2016, and follow it up with a theatrical release.
The Kickstarter end date is August 1st, to donate and help get I Get Knocked Down up and running, head to the campaign page here. Billy Bragg’s already on the case.
Ever wondered what happens when an anarcho-syndicalist band has a huge pop hit? Back this film and find out https://t.co/mwKeUKtzXA
— Billy Bragg (@billybragg) July 1, 2015
Watch: Chumbawamba – Tubthumping
