Dunstan Bruce (born 31 December 1960) is a British musician and filmmaker who is best known for his work with
Leeds
Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
-based
anarcho-punk
Anarcho-punk (also known as anarchist punk or peace punk) is an ideological subgenre of punk rock that promotes anarchism. Some use the term broadly to refer to any punk music with anarchist lyrical content, which may figure in crust punk, ha ...
band
Chumbawamba, of which he was a founding member. He grew up in the northern industrial town
Billingham
Billingham is a List of towns in England, town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in County Durham, England. The town is on the north side of the River Tees and is governed as part of the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees unitary authority ...
, County Durham.
Career
Musician
Prior to
Chumbawamba, Bruce sang for the Billingham-based band Men in a Suitcase. At the beginning of 1982, Bruce joined Chumbawamba. He is lead singer on the band's biggest hit single, "
Tubthumping
"Tubthumping" is a song by British rock band Chumbawamba, released in August 1997 by EMI, Universal Records (1995), Universal and Republic Records as the first single from their eighth studio album, ''Tubthumper'' (1997). It is the band's most ...
" (1997). Bruce left Chumbawamba at the end of 2004, along with
Alice Nutter, Harry Hamer and Danbert Nobacon, when the band transformed into an acoustic/folk outfit who eventually split up in 2012.
Bruce is the lead singer of Interrobang?!, an
agitprop
Agitprop (; from , portmanteau of ''agitatsiya'', "agitation" and ''propaganda'', "propaganda") refers to an intentional, vigorous promulgation of ideas. The term originated in the Soviet Union where it referred to popular media, such as literatu ...
post-punk band he formed in 2012 with ex-Chumbawamba drummer Harry Hamer and ex-Regular Fries guitarist Stephen Griffin. They released a critically-acclaimed eponymous album in 2018.
Bruce performed a spoken-word piece accompanied by music as the Existential Angst of Dunstan Bruce.
Filmmaker
Bruce has a film production company. He collaborated on Channel 4's ''Whatever: A Teenage Musical'', and worked on several documentary films: ''Well Done. Now Sod Off.'' (2000) during his time in Chumbawamba,
''I Get Knocked Down'' (2021) about his experience in Chumbawamba, ''A Curious Life'' about the folk rock band
Levellers (band)
Levellers are an English folk rock and anarcho-punk band formed in Brighton, East Sussex, in 1988, consisting of Mark Chadwick (guitar and vocals), Jeremy Cunningham (bass guitar), Charlie Heather (drums), Jon Sevink (violin), Simon Friend (gu ...
, and ''This Band Is So Gorgeous!: Sham 69 in China'' about the punk band
Sham 69
Sham 69 are an English punk rock band that formed in Hersham in Surrey in 1975. They changed their musical direction after seeing the Sex Pistols play live in early 1976. They were one of the most successful punk bands in the United Kingdom, ac ...
. It was nominated for "Best Music Documentary" at the 2012
International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the world's largest documentary film festival held annually since 1988 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Description
IDFA is an independent, international meeting place for audiences ...
.
In 2022, his
one-man show ''Am I Invisible Yet?'' played in
New Milton
New Milton is a market town and civil parish in the New Forest District, New Forest district, in southwest Hampshire, England. To the north is in the New Forest and to the south the coast at Barton-on-Sea. The town is equidistant between Lymi ...
.
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
*
*
Am I Invisible Yet? ReviewI Get Knocked Down
I Get Knocked Down review – enjoyable blast of pop history from Chumbawamba frontman
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruce, Dunstan
1960 births
Living people
English punk rock singers
English rock singers
People from Billingham
English anarchists
Chumbawamba members
21st-century anarchists