90 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
90 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
Dear Spunk,
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I hope this is something like you want, and I hope it gets there too!
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I`m only a beginner, however. I interviewed the British anarchist
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band, Chumbawamba (via e-mail), and here are the results!
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[A.R.Grange <EGA95ARG@sheffield.ac.uk>]
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"WE'VE COME FOR YOUR CHILDREN!"
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A tecnologically advanced interview with anarchist agit-pop band,
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Chumbawamba, following their recent gig at Sheffield university!
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1) So, do you see your music as propaganda?
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Our music is propaganda in the sense that we're political people by
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> nature and we always side with the underdog. we use the inroads we get into
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> the media (through music) to push ideas/information. there's a big
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> difference between information and education. when you give people
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> information you are asking them to decide for themselves; education usually
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> comes complete with opinions laid out on a plate. we're not interested in
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> trying to tell people WHAT to think.
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>
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2) Chumbawamba say in their web page: "We want to create some sort of context around Chumbawamba,
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which is bigger than the band itself, bigger than the music." What do
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you mean by `context` here, and how do you think you can achieve it?
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We mean that we're more interested in using pop and media time to push
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> ideas (usually anarchist and other people's) than we are in promoting
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> chumbawamba. we'd hate to think that we were using the media to push just
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> music and individual egos. but it's funny because we play the personality
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> game, but justify it because it's a way to get subversive ideas into the
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> mainstream. it sounds pseudy but chumbawamba is our revolutionary cell
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> rather than a career move. revolutionary politics have to be rephrased so
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> that they don't sound odd to people's ears in a mostly right-wing culture.
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> we do it with pop culture - and generally have a good time while we're
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> about it.
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>
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> 3) What inspires the messages behind your music?
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We only write about things which touch us and which we understand. we
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> don't see ourselves as the mother theresa's of the pop industry - saving
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> the poor unfortunates is best left to live aid. we wouldn't patronise the
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> underdog because we still see ourselves as, and empathise with, the
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> underdog.
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>
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> 4) How important do you think you, as a band, are at fighting such
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issues as racism, sexism and homophobia?
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Can't say. you push ideas out but you've no way of knowing how people
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> respond to them. after we released homophobia we got loads of letters from
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> people who said they felt isolated, they said that the song 'homophobia'
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> had made them feel that they wouldn't be isolated on the grounds of
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> sexuality forever. if chumbawamba sometimes provides reassurance that the
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> entire world isn't bigoted, i can quite happily live with that.
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>
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> 5 You seem to have been on the musical / political scene now for
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nearly fifteen years - do you think you`ve changed anything?
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Changed ourselves. we're no longer satisfied with being subversive in a
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> lefty ghetto.
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>
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> 6) Where do you think the revolutionary left, eg, the SWP, are
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going at the moment - and where would you place yourself as regards
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to this?
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I fucking hate the SWP because they're not honest about the fact that
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> they jump on every band wagon to push a party line. most people don't
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> realise that the anti nazi league is a front/recruitment tactic for the SWP
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> or that SWP stewards have handed people over to the police in riot
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> situations. i particularly hate organisations which think that working
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> class people are too stupid to lead themselves. the SWP and the RCP
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both call themselves a 'vanguard'. i have been known to threaten paper sellers.
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>
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> 7 You seem to have had some unfavourable reviews recently (that
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you`ve had the sense of humour to publish in your web page.) What is
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your reaction to people who describe you as such things as a "one
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legged man at an arse-kicking party"?)they should guard their first born child well!
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They should guard their first-born child well!>
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> 8) In a review of your gig at Sheffield University earlier this
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year, the NME said: "there`s nowt anarchistic about playing
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subsidised universities". Do you have any control over where you play
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anymore - what is your opinion of this?
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We can pick and choose venues - i choose to play venues with decent
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> women's toilets and no ice on the insides of the window pane. the NME is
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> full of pale middle class boys who think that anarchy has to mean chaos
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> (actually they rarely think) we're anarchists who believe in organisation.
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>
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> 9) And finally, the question on everyone`s lips - what the fuck
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does Chumbawamba mean?
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It means 'we've come for your children!'
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>
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>
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>
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>
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>
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