Chumbawamba inform New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister to cease utilizing ‘Tubthumping’ at rallies

Chumbawamba have instructed New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister to cease utilizing their observe  ‘Tubthumping’ at rallies.

• READ MORE: Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells?! – Chumbawamba’s Dunstan Bruce

Final weekend (March 17), New Zealand’s deputy prime minister Winston Peters –who leads the right-wing New Zealand First occasion which is a part of the nation’s coalition authorities – walked on stage to the British group’s 1997 hit track earlier than giving his controversial “state of the nation” deal with.

Per BBC, Peters reportedly mentioned plans to take away gender and sexuality classes from the college curriculum and stated that NZ First and their supporters have a “actual likelihood to take again our nation”. He additionally used ‘Tubthumping’s track’s lyrics on the finish of the deal with, telling the viewers “we obtained knocked down, however we obtained up once more.”

“Chumbawamba wrote the track Tubthumping as a track of hope and positivity, so it appears solely odd that the ‘I get knocked down…’ chorus is being utilized by New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters as he barks his divisive, small-minded, bigoted insurance policies throughout his current speeches,” stated the band’s former lead guitarist Boff Whalley in an announcement despatched to BBC News.

He continued: “Chumbawamba want to make it clear that we didn’t give permission for Peters to make use of the track and would ask him to cease utilizing it to attempt to shore up his misguided political opinions.

“Chumbawamba doesn’t share any of Peters’ concepts on race relations and want to remind him that the track was written for and about atypical individuals and their resilience. We now have requested our document firm Sony to challenge a stop and desist discover.”

Dunstan Bruce, Chumbawamba’s former lead singer and one in all it’s founding members, addressed Peters’ use of the track in the course of the BBC’s Newshour programme saying that the observe was written about a big combined and migrant inhabitants coming collectively in Leeds.

“For this man, Winston Peters, to then try to hijack the track and use it as a part of his marketing campaign, the place he’s expressing political opinions that I discover fairly egregious, I simply thought that that’s not one thing that we might simply sit again and let occur,” he stated (per BBC).

He continued: “It’s occurred fairly just a few occasions with the right-wing politicians in the USA, within the UK, in Australia, who’ve all tried to make use of the track, and now clearly New Zealand.”

Bruce then stated {that a} “stop and desist” letter is distributed as a response to “publicise the truth that our politics don’t align with these individuals on the appropriate”.

It appears the media care extra in regards to the Chumbawamba story than we do. We really don’t care.

There’s nothing to ‘stop or desist’.

The track labored like a appeal for our first public assembly after the election. The over 700 individuals within the crowd thought so too.

We will probably be certain…

— Winston Peters (@winstonpeters) March 19, 2024

Peters took to his official X/Twitter web page to handle using ‘Tubthumping’ at his rallies. “It appears the media care extra in regards to the Chumbawamba story than we do. We really don’t care. There’s nothing to ‘stop or desist’,” started his tweet.

He continued: “The track labored like a appeal for our first public assembly after the election. The over 700 individuals within the crowd thought so too. We’ll remember to file the ‘stop and desist’ letter in a protected place if it ever arrives. I might use one other of their hit track titles as a quip on the finish of this put up however sadly they solely had one.”

In different information, Bruce lately opened up about Chumbawamba’s feud with Manic Avenue Preachers saying: “I realise it’s completely justified that they hated us!”