DANBERT NOBACON

Danbert Nobacon managed to become a rabble-rousing hero on the British anarcho-punk scene and a global pop star during his years as a vocalist and keyboardist with the British band Chumbawamba, and he's since gone on to a solo career where he continues to take an uncompromising stand on the issues of the world he lives in. After making his bow as a solo artist, Nobacon first put his focus on acoustic music, delivered with passion and force on albums like 2007's The Library Book of the World (a collaboration with the Pine Valley Cosmonauts) and 2010's Woebegone (credited to Danbert Nobacon & The Bad Things). Without losing sight of his folk leanings, Nobacon returned to a full band and electric instruments with his group the Axis of Dissent on releases like 2020's Mesmerica: Expect a Circus and 2024's Kochtopus's Garden: Now That's What I Call Capitalism, The Musical. As the vocalist and keyboardist of British anarchists Chumbawamba, Danbert Nobacon (real name Nigel Hunter) spent more than a decade rallying against the record industry before that very same industry made him an international star. The Leeds-based Chumbawamba formed in 1982 and quickly became part of the anarcho-punk movement, often playing benefit shows in support of animal rights, antiwar organizations, and the eradication of world hunger. Like the rest of the band, Nobacon sustained himself financially by working part-time jobs, playing solo shows, and funneling profits into the band's successive albums. He also released some low-key solo efforts, such as 1985's cassette-only The Unfairy Tale, the 1987 7" Bigger Than Jesus, and 1988's The Police Are Wonderful, another cassette release that combined tracks he cut with and without Chumbawamba. The group's profile slowly increased, giving Nobacon less time to pursue his solo efforts, and the band's exhausting touring schedule landed them on the roster of One Little Indian in 1993. In a move that angered much of their original fan base, Chumbawamba left Indian to sign with major-label EMI in 1997, despite having contributed music to an anti-EMI compilation the previous decade. (The company had ties to weapons manufacturing.) The decision nevertheless turned out to be quite beneficial, as the band's next single, "Tubthumping," became a Top Ten hit in both America and the U.K., and the album Tubthumper was also a major success. Nobacon was now a star, but that didn't mean he had to behave himself. While attending the 1998 Brit Awards, the singer poured a jug of water over U.K. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's head. He and his bandmates were also outspoken on LGBTQ+ issues, and in 1997 Nobacon was arrested in Italy for cross-dressing in public. (He was released when the police discovered he was one of the singers on "Tubthumping.") Chumbawamba failed to match the commercial success of "Tubthumping" in future years, and Nobacon left the band in late 2004, citing an "artistic deep freeze" as his chief reason for departure. Chumbawamba soldiered on without Nobacon, albeit as an acoustic act. In the year following his exit from the band, Nobacon began playing solo gigs once again, having abandoned the practice 15 years prior. The Library Book of the World, which was recorded in collaboration with the Pine Valley Cosmonauts (led by Jon Langford of the Mekons), was released in 2007, the same year Nobacon relocated to the United States, settling in Twist, Washington, near the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. Nobacon began hosting a radio show, Mystery Motel, in 2009, and in 2010, he published a Young Adult novel, 3 Dead Princes – An Anarchist Fairytale, with illustrations by artist and filmmaker Alex Cox. That same year, Nobacon and his group the Bad Things released the album Woebegone on the Verbal Burlesque label. He became an active figure in the local creative community, acting in stage productions and independent films, designing clothing, and teaching drama at a neighborhood high school. In 2017, Nobacon formed a new group, the Axis of Dissent, releasing the album Stardust to Darwinstuff that year, while he revisited the songs and characters of the Woebegone album on 2018's Woebegoner. He brought back the Axis of Dissent for 2020's Mesmerica: Expect a Circus, which also featured vocalist Kira Wood Cramer and was described by Nobacon as a "thespian punk rock extravaganza." Nobacon delivered an even more ambitious concept album with 2024's Kochtopus's Garden: Now That's What I Call Capitalism, The Musical, a set of political pieces linked by the story of two AI songwriting robots who break free and go on a road trip across the United States.
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