Dunstan Bruce (born 31 December 1960) is a British musician and filmmaker who is perhaps best known for his work with Leeds-based anarcho-punk band Chumbawamba, of which he was a founding member. He grew up in the northern industrial town of Billingham.

Career

Musician

Prior to Chumbawamba, Bruce sang for the Billingham-based band Men in a Suitcase. At the beginning of 1982, Bruce joined Chumbawamba and was the lead singer of the band's biggest hit single, "Tubthumping". Bruce left Chumbawamba at the end of 2004 after struggles and a rivalry with Boff Whalley, and the band eventually split up in 2012.

Bruce is the lead singer of Interrobang?!, an agitprop 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.^[1]

Bruce performs spoken word pieces accompanied by music as the Existential Angst of Dunstan Bruce.^[2]

Filmmaker

Bruce has worked in filmmaking, producing a soundtrack for Channel 4's Whatever: A Teenage Musical^[3] and several documentary films, including one about his experience in Chumbawamba called Well Done, Now Sod Off,^[3] which won the audience prize at Leeds International Film Festival. In 2012, Bruce directed a movie about the punk group Sham 69's tour of China called This Band Is So Gorgeous,^[3] which was nominated for the "Best Music Documentary" at IDFA in 2012. In 2014 he directed the music documentary A Curious Life about the folk-punk band Levellers.^[3]