Dunstan Bruce/Kickstarter
Remember Chumbawamba? You definitely know their song “Tubthumping,” though you probably think it’s called “I Get Knocked Down.” Well, that is the title of a new documentary in the works – fully it’s I Get Knocked Down: The Untold Story of Chumbawamba — that will hopefully grab you by your nostalgia for the late ’90s. In fact, the hope is that it will grab you enough to pay ahead, because the film is currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter.
Some bands require more than an episode of VH1’s One Hit Wonders (if that even still exists), and the decades-long controversy-filled story of Chumbawamba is interesting enough for a feature such as this. Few people, including most of those who bought the Tubthumper album like hot cakes in 1997 and 1998 (I witnessed the craze while working at a Coconuts at the time), were or are aware that the group were anarchist punks who “sold out” for the cause.
Dunstan Bruce, who was the lead singer for Chumbawamba on the track “Tubthumping,” is also now the director of the doc, making it quite the subjective effort. Bruce didn’t just decide to take up filmmaking for this, though. He previously directed the doc This Band Is So Gorgeous, about Sham 69 touring China, and others he produced include Jeanie Finlay’s record store doc Sound It Out.
From the Kickstarter campaign video, we at least learn that fellow Chumbawamban Alice Nutter will appear in the doc. Nutter is the female voice you hear in their big hit, and she was one of the more memorable members of the band, particularly for the way she upset retailers over here by appearing on talk shows and telling fans to steal their albums. She looks like she’ll be tons of fun here, too – no really, never mind the ironing – so long as I’ll be able to understand what she’s saying.
Please, support I Get Knocked Down so they can at least pay for subtitles. The campaign, which seeks about $63k, goes through the end of this month. Watch the video below.