Chumbawamba‘s Dunstan Bruce had opened up about their feud with Manic Street Preachers saying: “I realise it’s totally justified that they hated us!”
In a new interview with NME, the frontman of the anarcho-pop band was asked to name the Welsh indie icon who once ranged of Chumbawamba: “The worst group that has ever been created. If you’re going to wear a skirt, at least make an effort to look like a woman! You can’t just put on a fucking bit of rag on and look like an ugly bloke at a stag night!”
Bruce responded correctly with Manic Street Preachers bassist Nicky Wire.”Oh my God! You’d think the Manic Street Preachers, whose subject matter was concerned with the state of the world and were from industrial working class towns, would have lots in common with us, but they hated us,” he said.
He continued: “They once did guest singles reviews for the NME as well, and really slagged us off in that as well. Although we did used to have a song called [1994’s] ‘Mouthful of Shit’ and one of the verses is about the Manic Street Preachers, so in saying that out loud, I realise it’s totally justified that they hated us! [Laughs]”
NME‘s Gary Ryan went on to add: “Afterwards, in 2000, you listed Nicky Wire among the ‘Passenger List for Doomed Flight #1721′, listing the irritating public figures you hoped would perish in a plane clash…”
With Bruce saying: “That was definitely after. Not that we hold a grudge or anything!”
Elsewhere in the interview, Bruce was asked to reminisce on Chumbawamba’s controversial dispute with John Prescott. At the 1998 BRIT Awards, Chumbawamba member Danbert Nobacon doused the MP with an ice bucket in solidarity with striking dockers in Liverpool.
“The reason we’d taken the dockers to give a speech if we won British Single of the Year and threw the water over John Prescott was because he could have resolved that dispute and he refused to even though it was a union that he used to be a part of,” He said.
Chumbawamba backstage during The 18th BRIT Awards 1998 with Britannia Music Club, London Arena, London, UK, Friday 09 February 1998. (Photo by JMEnternational/Getty Images)
He added: “It was that hypocrisy of people on the left once they get into positions of power and they immediately turn their back on the people who got them there.”
Last year, Chumbawamba turned down £30,000 for their music to be used in a new Jeremy Clarkson show. Guitarist Boff Whalley revealed the news on X/Twitter: “I can’t tell you how much satisfaction that gave us,” he wrote.
In other news, Yard Act covered Chumbawamba’s hit ‘Tubthumping’ at their five night residency in Leeds last year in May. They were joined by comedians Nish Kumar and Phil Jupitus, as well as Irish singer-songwriter CMAT.
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