What does Chumbawamba actually mean?
What’s in a name? In the realm of the music industry, quite a lot, as it would turn out.
Nevertheless, choosing the perfect band name has been an elusive skill for countless groups over the decades, leading to various nonsensical and terrible band names. Even The Beatles, if you really stop to think, isn’t a fantastic name. Then again, at least it makes more sense than Chumbawamba.
Although the Burnley outfit are often written off as one-hit wonders, thanks to their 1997 smash ‘Tubthumping’, Chumbawamba were around long before the advent of that pub karaoke anthem. In fact, their history dates all the way back to the days of punk revolution during the late 1970s, under the original name Chimp Eats Bananas. Admittedly, that original name isn’t the worst band name to ever arise from the punk years, but it’s not exactly on the level of a Rolling Stones or Black Sabbath.
Inevitably, then, that original name didn’t last forever. By 1982, Boff Whalley, Danbert Nobacon, and Midge had moved on from their days of primate mastication, and Chumbawamba had officially formed. From then on, the group became a consistent presence within the underground world of anarcho-punk, confronting the harsh realities of life under the reign of Margaret Thatcher.
Although they didn’t trouble the mainstream music industry at any point, their 1980s output remains some of the greatest socially-conscious anarcho-punk to ever grace British airwaves. When they eventually did hit the mainstream, thanks to a 1997 contract with EMI, which saw them branded as ‘sell-outs’ by many of their punk comrades, they still didn’t share much in common with the prevailing music scene of the time, and one question always remained: what or who is a chumbawamba?
So, what does it mean?
Seemingly, while every other anarcho-punk band chose a suitably confrontational, no-nonsense name, Chumbawamba decided to lean into the nonsensical nature of the music industry, concocting a name without any real-world meaning. A Chumbawamba isn’t anything, it is a word without any real meaning, and one which the band landed upon by pure chance.
Whalley, during one interview with Bandcamp, finally shed light on the exact origins of the band name, which had been shrouded in mystery for decades at that point. “While we were busking in Paris, these North African drummers used to come busk near us,” he recalled. “And when they started, you couldn’t hear yourself think. They were fantastic! They used to sing, ‘chum chum ba wailan.’”
So, after putting an end to Chimp Eats Bananas, the band appropriated that North African inspiration. “It was great rhyming, and we thought we would call ourselves Chumbawailan because it doesn’t mean anything and was open-ended,” Whalley continued. “All the punk bands had a hard-edged name and you kind of knew what you were getting.”
Eventually, that name morphed into Chumbawamba, with Danbert Nobacon explaining, “It was snappier off the tongue.”
As far as band names go, Chumbawamba was never likely to grab the mainstream’s attention in the same way as other bands of that era, but then the Burnley outfit were never out to capture the attention of the mainstream. If anything, the nonsensical nature of their name only played into their punk rock sensibilities and, particularly in the case of ‘Tubthumping’, a determination not to take themselves too seriously.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Punk Newsletter
All the latest Punk content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.