14 March 02004

Sunday afternoon anarchists

I'm spending part of my Sunday reading Boff Whalley's book Footnote*, and am tickled as usual by the awkward frisson that someone as bourgeois as me loves Boff's band Chumbawamba and the anarchist ideas they stand for. (It was the same when I bought the Dead Kennedys' Holiday in Cambodia, with its lyric: "Play ethnicky jazz to parade your snazz on your five grand stereo..."; and I realised they were singing about me.)

So it comes as a kind of reassurance to find that even a Liberal Democrat MP like Richard Allan also reviews Chumbawamba's English Rebel Songs approvingly. Where his appreciation seems even more out of kilter than mine is that he provides a link to buy the album at Amazon.co.uk so that he makes money every time someone decides to buy the album from this anti-union corporate retailer on the basis of his review [update 18.3.02004: this is no longer true — see comment]. I recommend buying the album, and the book, direct from the Chumba shop (no commission).

Posted by David Jennings in section(s) Cultural Calendar, Reviews on 14 March 02004 | TrackBack
Comments

Damn, but you've got me on the Amazon link. I did think twice about using Amazon links when I set up the review section on the blog because of ethical considerations but I went ahead because I thought the Movable Type plugin that links it all together was clever. It was a "let's try out these clever web services" moment.

I will put in the more appropriate Chumba link for this one when I have a moment.

PS Nobody has ever followed a link and made me money anyway so I have nothing to lose and everything to gain by following a sounder path...

Posted by: Richard Allan on 16 March 02004 at 12:25 AM
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