AND IT'S GOODNIGHT FROM ME ...

As you're all no doubt aware, all the gigs we've done since 2005 have been acoustic ones. Obviously lots of you have been asking whether the full-on rock'n'roll spectacle that is the electric band was ever going to make a reappearance. Comments along the lines of, 'I really enjoyed it, but I want to jump up and down and dance', and 'Where's Alice?' have been common. No-one's asked for their money back yet (and we've only had two shouted requests for Tubthumping in over a hundred acoustic gigs), but surely it's only a matter of time before the Danbert Fan Club batters down the dressing-room door and demands an audience with the Brick Suit. So to ward off the riot, here's an explanation.

Basically what happened was this. At the end of 2004, the band (all 8 of us) sat down and took a long hard look at what we were doing, how it was going and how happy it was making us. Some people were interested in pursuing other creative avenues apart from - instead of, not just as well as - being in Chumbawamba. The acoustic set-up, which had kind of started as a side-project after the re-release of 'English Rebel Songs' had taken off to a greater degree than we'd imagined. In addition, the financial burden of taking up to fifteen people from show to show and replacing the expensive gold-wrapped cowboy hats and megaphone batteries meant we were basically playing for nothing, subsidised by a steady trickle still coming in from a hit single almost ten years ago.

So we collectively decided that we'd put the electric band on hold in 2005, and just take the acoustic band out on the road, while the remaining people in the band followed their chosen paths; and then we'd reconvene at the end of the year to evaluate how it had all gone and decide what we wanted to do.

So in 2005, the acoustic band did lots of gigs and made an album. Alice became a proper playwright. Danbert picked up his guitar, worked out which end to hold, and started doing solo gigs and recorded an album with Jon Langford, as well as continuing work on his book. Harry did loads of DJing and worked with Alice on an 'urban musical', to coin a Radio 4 phrase, which led to the birth of the fabulous Sex Patels. And Dunstan, as the MP's say, 'spent more time with his family'. But even that's old news now. Click on the links at the bottom of this page to get updated news from them all.

So when we met up again in December, the consensus was that everyone was pretty much happy carrying on with things as they had been in 2005. After such a long time spent working in an 8-person collective, it's strange and challenging to work in a different way. -Everyone's aware just how important Chumbawamba was (and is) to us, and hopefully we're all carrying what we learnt into whatever-it-is-we're-doing now. So, dear reader, until such time as we are tempted out of retirement by unpaid tax bills, heavy drug habits, child support court orders and a realisation that rock'n'roll was the best job we ever had, the 8-piece all-dancing electric band won't be coming to a town near you.

Cick here to see what Alice has been up to
Click here to see what Danbert has been up to
Cick here to see what Dunstan has been up to
Click here to see what Harry has been up to