It’s like déjà vu all over again, but this time it’s Chumbawamba vs. Winston Peters. The band that once got us all head-bopping to ‘Tubthumping’, has thrown a spanner in the works of New Zealand’s deputy PM, telling him to quit blasting their anthem at his political shindigs.
Winston Peters, the seasoned politico at the helm of New Zealand First, has been all about that 1997 banger, even riffing off the “I get knocked down, but I get up again” line in his chatty moments. But Chumbawamba ain’t having a bar of it. They’re spitting chips over Peters pumping their tune at events, especially given his latest spiel on nixing gender studies and comparing Māori co-governance to, you guessed it, Nazi ideologies.
Boff Whalley, the axe-man of the group, is laying it on thick, saying no way did they give Peters the nod to mix their track with his politics. They’re all about the people, not politicos playing the race card or peddling conspiracy yarns. The band’s message? ‘Tubthumping’ is for the battlers, not some vote-hungry suits.
The band’s even got Sony Music Publishing on the blower, serving up a cease and desist to Peters’ party. But Winston? He’s having none of it. On X, he’s chucking a wobbly, calling out “leftie shill reporters” for stirring the pot and dismissing the cease and desist as poppycock.
Peters reckons it’s all a storm in a teacup and that his crowd loved the song at their meet-up. He’s so unfazed he’s even having a lend of Chumbawamba’s one-hit wonder status.
But the plot thickens as Stuff reports Apra Amcos is stepping into the fray, sending that cease and desist notice on behalf of Sony. They’re saying, hold up, you can’t just spin a track and imply the artist is on board with your caper.
This ain’t Chumbawamba’s first rodeo either—they had a dust-up with UK’s Farage back in 2011 over the same song. And let’s not forget the National party’s $600,000 oopsie for riffing off Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’.
So what’s the moral of the story? If you’re gonna hitch your wagon to a pop anthem for a political hoedown, you might wanna check if the band’s game – or else you could end up with more than just a knocked-down rep.
