Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records

1986 studio album by Chumbawamba

Studio album by

Chumbawamba

Released

1986

Recorded

August 1986

Genre

Anarcho-punk
post-punk
folk punk
experimental pop

Length

33:04

Label

Agit-Prop (UK)
Southern (US)

Chumbawamba chronology

Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records
(1986)

Never Mind the Ballots
(1987)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[1]
St Petersburg Times	(favourable)^[2]
Vox	^[3]

Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records is the debut studio album by British band Chumbawamba, released in 1986 on Agit-Prop Records. It was released as criticism to Band Aid and Live Aid.^[1]

Track listing

All songs written and produced by Chumbawamba.^[4]

"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" – 2:13
"...And in a Nutshell" – 0:54
"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 released on the live album Showbusiness! also references McCartney, but adds Axl Rose, Michael Jackson and John Lydon as more modern examples.^[1]

Personnel

Band members

Harry Hamer – drums, vocals, guitar solo on "Slag Aid"
Alice Nutter – vocals
Boff Whalley – guitar, vocals, clarinet
Mavis Dillon – bass, trumpet, french horn, vocals
Lou Watts – vocals, guitar
Danbert Nobacon – vocals
Dunstan Bruce – percussion

Additional personnel

Simon "Commonknowledge" Lanzon – keyboards, accordion, vocals
Neil Ferguson – engineer

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Ogg, Alex. "Album Review". AllMusic. RhythmOne. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
^ Ward, Bill (12 April 1987). "Chumbawamba: Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records". St Petersburg Times. St. Petersburg, Florida. Retrieved 5 March 2024 – via ProQuest.
^ Shutkever, Paula (1 May 1992). "Chumbawamba - First 2". Vox. No. 20. p. 77. Retrieved 5 March 2024 – via ProQuest.
^ "Album overview". Discogs. 26 September 1986. Retrieved 3 March 2017.