Former Chumbawamba frontman's new solo show Am I Invisible Yet? comes to Leeds Playhouse

The song has featured in How I Met Your Mother (alongside countless other TV series and films), was used to wake up the crew of Atlantis on day four of their final mission orbiting the earth and the song’s most famous lyrics, ‘I get knocked down, but I get up again’, are emblazoned in neon on the side of the Leeds Playhouse.

It’s been quite the journey for a song that began in Leeds, birthed from a squat occupied by Britain’s foremost anarchist pop-punk band. Chumbawamba gave us, in 1997, a song that would reverberate down the decades and provide a cultural lightning rod, but since the group disbanded over a decade ago, it has continued to provide for the arts world.

Former members Alice Nutter and Boff Whalley are these days both highly regarded writers for screen and stage respectively and now Dunstan Bruce former frontman of the band (as much as an anarchist punk-pop band can have a frontman) has followed in their footsteps not just writing for the stage, but appearing on it too, in his one-man show Am I Invisible Yet? “It’s basically my personal journey around the idea of: ‘What do you do when you reach middle age, when you’re still angry, and want to remain relevant and visible?’ Where’s your place in the world?,” he says.

“I’m taking people on an existential voyage using poetry, prose, music and film. To be clear, it’s not a cosy fireside chat reminiscing about my ‘Tubthumping’ past; it’s more a vital blast of angst, anger and desire. It’s a love letter to hope, humanity and the haphazard heart. It’s full of humour too – it’s not a po-faced lecture.”

The warning from the frontman of Chumbawamba that audiences shouldn’t expect ‘a po-faced lecture’ feels a little redundant. The punk spirit remains, despite the relentless march of time. This former punk is determined to grow old at least a little disgracefully.

On whether or not he feels he can still change the world, he says: “I think we are changing the world every day in small, small ways. Maybe the goalposts moved, maybe the bar lowered, maybe my expectations changed, maybe I turned into a realist but yes, I came to realise that change can occur in loads of different ways. It doesn’t have to be some huge magnificent gesture or a massive seismic shift to feel like you’re making a difference.

“Touring the show and doing the post-show Q and As has helped me understand that maybe I’m contributing every day, nudging people, pushing people, inspiring people, irritating people even to get back into the fray. I still had something to say and I didn’t want to fade away so I decided to make a noise about it. Hopefully it rubs off on people who come to see the show. Hopefully it makes a difference. Hopefully I can be a catalyst, a firestarter.”

The invocation of a firestarter, which surely immediately sparks a memory of The Prodigy to those who remember the 90s, provides the perfect opportunity to talk about the band and its monster hit.

From experience I know that music acts who have one particularly big hit are not always forthcoming on said hit. Bruce missed that memo. “It was totally bonkers. We never set out to have a hit single, to be famous. We were happy being an independent band making a small living from constantly touring. It was an absolute blast. We’d found a way of getting it to work and it was incredible. When Tubthumping happened though we grasped the moment with both hands, we jumped in, we took the risk because we had nothing to lose,” he says.

“We wanted the adventure, we wanted to do something different, we wanted to see what it was like being in the mainstream, trying to change the world from within. We tried to do something with that platform, with that fame. I love what Chumbawamba achieved, what we tried to do with that moment of fame. And how we have accidentally inveigled our way into popular culture. I love that Leeds Playhouse embraced our slogan. It is such a universal slogan; you can apply it to just about any situation yet it was this anarchist pop band who popularised it. I love that.”Dunstan Bruce performs Am I Invisible Yet? at Leeds Playhouse on November 26. Tickets leedsplayhouse.org.uk