Chumbawamba Calling It Quits After 30 Years

Thirty years after forming — and 15 after scoring a Top 10 hit with the ubiquitous ’90s hit ‘Tubthumping’ — British alternative outfit Chumbawamba have broken up. The so-called anarchist punk collective announced the split with a lengthy note to fans posted on their official website.

The lengthy note begins:

That’s it then, it’s the end. with neither a whimper, a bang or a reunion. Thirty years of ideas and melodies, endless meetings and European tours, press releases, singalong choruses and Dada sound poetry, finally at an end. It’s hard to sum up why without sitting you down one at a time and having a proper conversation, but that’d take too long.

It basically continues to explain that keeping Chumbawamba going took too much time and energy, and that they couldn’t maintain the necessary commitment after all those years together.

Chumbawamba issued more than 15 albums over the course of those decades together, but no piece of music they recorded was nearly as unforgettable as ‘Tubthumping,’ which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Its chorus “I get knocked down, but I get up again” followed by the lyrics “He drinks a whiskey drink / He drinks a vodka drink / He drinks a lager drink / He drinks a cider drink” may be some of the most memorable of the ’90s.

They have a few U.K. shows lined up between now and the end of the year, and then they will “hang up our guitars, trumpets and football rattles.” Check out their remaining scheduled shows here.

Watch the Chumbawamba ‘Tubthumping’ Video