#danbert nobacon

The very real award for Most Fun Name Within Chumbawamba definitely went to Danbert Nobacon every year he was part of the collective and probably for some years thereafter. Danbert Nobacon. It’s just so fun to say. I think so. Chumbawamba definitely thought so. Because while I cannot think of any other member of the band being mentioned in any of their songs (excluding live versions such as their final performance of Add Me in 2012), Danbert’s name is, to use another word that is so very fun to say, ubiquitous in their discography. And because I love collecting stuff, I tried to collect every mention made of him in Chumbawamba’s songs (it’s not actually that many and I probably missed something) and also found some other fun things.

Danbert Nobacon, his name no doubt inspired by early Chumbawamba anti-meat attitude (consider, for example, No!). Musically, his main addition to the band’s discography were his “absolutely unembarrassed vocals”. Shhh credits what I can only assume to be his evil alter ego Bert Bacon with “vocals, elastic band, foam”. And then there’s also the 1998 Brit Awards that weirdly ended with British deputy prime minister John Prescott soaked in ice water. In summary, a man of many talents.

1. Because He’s a (Gender Nonconforming) He

Danbert’s first mention on a Chumbawamba record itself appears to have been on 1994’s Anarchy. Feminist Bad Dog is followed by a number of samples before the beginning of anti-fascist Enough Is Enough:

- Hi, boys and girls, I’m Danbert Nobacon, I’m the transvestite of the group. - I like it, I like it.

At this point in time, Danbert was well known for wearing skirts. An anarchist blog recounts: “During his early gigs, he was known for exposing himself to his audiences, and he would often describe himself as a transvestite. During several gigs, he would often be seen wearing a nun’s habit.” A 1997 news article mentions his arrest by Italian police in “a short black skirt and panty hose, which I often wear … supposedly because I didn’t have my passport with me. But the real reason was that I offended their masculinity” (see also ch. 26 of Chumbawamba singer and guitarist Boff Whalley’s autobiography Footnote*, 2003). Appropriately, the live album Showbusiness (1994) credits Danbert with “vocals, tiny dresses”.

Above mentioned blog goes on to say: “In 1987, Danbert released ‘Bigger than Jesus’ on Mind Matter Records ... ‘Bigger than Jesus’ was sold inside brown bags in stores because he decided to use a photograph of his penis for the cover.” Bigger than Jesus features a song called Because I’m a He which reads more like a white cis man’s reflections on intersectional feminism than actual song lyrics, but honestly, good for him.

I would at this point also like to mention one of the stories behind the name Chumbawamba. Yes, there are different ones. Yes, they are all made up. Anyway, Danbert recalls a dream in which he was trying to use a public toilet. However, instead of the usual two genders, the rooms were separated into “Chumba” and “Wamba”, confusing Danbert. Note also the Spanish(-ish) plural: Las Chumbas Wambas.

2. Getting All Mixed Up with Raymond

The following year’s Swingin’ with Raymond (1995) presented us with anti-authoritarian All Mixed Up. I hadn’t paid much attention to this song until recently and I’m only slowly warming up to Swingin’ with Raymond as a whole. The song describes turning a “no-wit whose face fits” into a political puppet leader by the grace of “Queen Victoria of Grantham” Margaret Thatcher. The verses are shouted by Danbert (I think; he is only credited with “666”), who is then crowned king in the pre-chorus:

Good King Danbert at the helm His face on every coin of the realm

Why Chumbawamba consequently ask Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin “Sirhan Sirhan, where have you gone?”, I will leave up to your, the reader’s, interpretation.

3. Of course, Tubthumping

I really don’t have much to say. You know Tubthumping (1997). There’s a “Danny boy” in Tubthumping. You do the maths.

4. He’s in Trouble Again

I’m in Trouble Again on 2000’s WYSIWYG ironically tackles Chumbawamba’s newfound mainstream success. The liner notes describe their songwriting process under EMI:

We ring up our record company and they tell us what sort of thing the kids are listening to these days, so that we can construct our pleasing and melodic tunes with one ear to the marketplace … It’s all so pleasant that we can’t understand why some hurtful, hateful people think that we’re nasty and mean.

In I’m in Trouble Again, the singer is just trying to live their “squeaky clean” life as a pop star, while the cops are digging up their cellar floor looking to get them in trouble again (note the parallel to the marionette in All Mixed Up who is described as “squeaky clean, no skeletons”). The height of mainstream success expressed thus:

Now I turn water into corporate pop And Danbert is a friend of mine.

Danbert’s status of a meme within the collective (a term anachronistic to his time with Chumbawamba) seems perfectly embodied in his overly dramatic and simultaneously silly opening speech for their final concert in 2012. And in the sleeve notes to the respective DVD Going, Going, Boff remembers his first time meeting Danbert:

jesus h christ (part one)

Songwriter and multi-disciplinary artist Danbert Nobacon talks with host Sean Ongley about anarchism, education, social integration, and the creative process involved with his new album, Stardust to Darwinstuff, released with his new studio band, The Axis of Dissent. Oh, we also get to hear about Chumbawamba here and there.