Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records
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Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records
- Artist: Chumbawamba
- Rating:
- Release Date: 1986
- Genre: Rock
Review
Long before a song about relentless alcohol consumption ("Tubthumping") made them the toast of sports stadia worldwide, a rather different Chumbawamba stalked the toilet venues of England's counterculture. In 1986, as the rock world congratulated itself on its new, enlightened attitude to world poverty following Band Aid, a refusenik group of Leeds anarchists pointed out some of the inconsistencies behind the arguments. On the aptly titled Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records, Freddie Mercury, Cliff Richard, and Paul McCartney are ridiculed for their patronizing hypocrisy ("How to Get Your Band on Television"). Other targets included apartheid, multinationals, and cultural imperialism. The group's pervasive lyrics were augmented by music varying from punk-thrash to folk and jazz. This was a sophisticated approach entirely divorced from their fellow travelers (who contented themselves with sloganeering and three-chord bluster). For an album that adopted Crass' admirable but po-faced concerns about commercial exploitation of the planet and its inhabitants, the results were surprisingly listenable, and also extremely entertaining -- an "inconsistent, over-wordy dog-bark pop record" according to its authors when it was reissued on CD in 1991 (alongside Never Mind the Ballots as First 2) ~ Alex Ogg, Rovi| Pictures of Soul (2004 Album by Omar Sosa/Adam Rudolph) | |
| Pictures of Status Quo: Profile of the Psychedelic [DVD] (Album by Status Quo) |
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Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records
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Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records
| Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records: Starvation, Charity and Rock & Roll: Lies & Traditions | ||||
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| Studio album by Chumbawamba | ||||
| Released | 1986 | |||
| Recorded | August 1986 | |||
| Genre | Anarcho-punk, post-punk, alternative rock | |||
| Length | 33:04 | |||
| Label | Agit-Prop Records (UK) Southern Records (US 1986 LP) |
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| Chumbawamba chronology | ||||
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| Allmusic |   link |
Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records was the first full-length album by anarcho-punk band Chumbawamba, released in 1986 on Agit-Prop Records. It was released as criticism to Live Aid, which was a rock festival held in aid of charity efforts in Africa.
The sound of Danbert Nobacon vomiting into a toilet was apparently the first thing that sound engineer Neil Ferguson (who later joined the band) recorded for the band.
Track listing
All songs written and produced by Chumbawamba
- "How to Get Your Band on Television" - 8:23 (also listed in two parts as "Prelude" and "Slag Aid")
- "British Colonialism and the BBC" - 2:51
- "Commercial Break" - 1:02
- "Unilever" - 4:23
- "More Whitewashing" - 3:43
- "An Interlude: Beginning to Take It Back" - 2:41
- "Dutiful Servants and Political Masters" - 2:15
- "Coca-Colanisation" - 0:54
- "...And in a Nutshell" - 2:13
- "Invasion" - 5:07
Track details
- "How to Get Your Band on Television" critiques Paul McCartney, Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Cliff Richard's self-promotional techniques, such as Queen's playing in apartheid South Africa. Following a slew of Live Aid-style promotions, sequels and events and the death of Mercury, it was re-written in the 1990s as "Slag Aid", retaining most of the original lyrics. The version of it released on the live album "Showbusiness!" also references McCartney, but adds Axl Rose, Michael Jackson and Johnny Rotten as more modern examples.
Personnel
- Harry - Drums, Vocals, guitar solo on "Slag Aid"
- Alice Nutter - Vocals
- Boff - Guitar, Vocals, Clarinet
- Mavis Dillon - Bass guitar, Trumpet, French Horn, Vocals
- Lou - Vocals, Guitar
- Danbert Nobacon - Vocals
- Dunst - Whirlypipe, Turntables
With
- Simon "Commonknowledge" Lanzon - Keyboards, Accordion, Voice
- Neil Ferguson - Engineer
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