Film / News
Chumbawamba co-founder Dunstan Bruce heads west to introduce his new film
Remember Chumbawamba? Had a big hit with Tubthumping. Brought joy to the nation by pouring a jug of water over John Prescott.
The band’s origins were in the Crass-inspired anarcho-punk scene of the early eighties, their first LP being the Live Aid piss-take Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records. Chumbawamba disbanded in 2012. But at the age of 59, retired co-founder Dunstan Bruce set out to recover his early radicalism. He charts his progress in a film, perhaps inevitably titled I Get Knocked Down, which also offers a history of Chumbawamba.
The film takes the form of a reworking of A Christmas Carol, in which Dunstan is visited by the antagonistic ghost of his anarchist past – his alter ego, ‘Babyhead’ – who forces him to question his own life, sending him on a search for his long-lost anarchist mojo.
is needed now More than ever
Now he’s taking the film on the road for a series of events followed by in-person Q&A sessions. I Get Knocked Down is showing at the Little Theatre Cinema in Bath on March 31 (go here for tickets) and at the Watershed in Bristol on – no kidding – April 1 (go here for tickets).
If this doesn’t sate your appetite for all things eighties punk, you may wish to know that Moby (yes, that Moby) has just bunged his new Punk Rock Vegan Movie on YouTube, where it’s free to view. Don’t worry if you don’t like punk music as other musicians are involved too, including Rob Zombie and Alissa White-Gluz.
Main image: Watershed
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