Born to run!

WINNING a fell race feels better than coming top of the music charts for Chumbawamba guitarist Allan "Boff" Whalley. But although he is a winning fell runner, the highest point of Boff's life wasn't on top of a mountain, or on stage at some far-flung foreign festival. His biggest moment came last summer at Turf Moor when, to his surprise, Burnley FC marched on to one of his own songs.

WHEN he's not egging his pals on to throw ice over top politicians, you might expect an anarchic pop protagonist like Chumbawamba guitarist Boff - real name Allan Whalley - to spend his spare time drinking, taking drugs or handing out subversive political leaflets.

But, while the music business is sleeping off last night's excesses, Burnley-born Boff gets up early and sneaks into the hills, setting himself mental and physical challenges which are just as tough as his band's political stance.

Chumbawamba's rise to success has been very much like a fell race - a long, hard slog with scant reward before the summit. Some 14 years after forming, they unexpectedly hit the top of the singles chart with their anthem Tubthumping in 1997.

There can't be many sports fans who haven't heard the song's pogo-jump inspiring refrain "I get knocked down, but I get up again" at some match or contest.

But before their chart success, Chumbawamba's stereotypical fan would have been a new-age traveller with excessive body piercing, a bottle of cider and an attitude problem. Boff acknowledges that people may find it hard to equate fell-running with being in an alternative band.

He said: "It's not what people expect. But just because you're in the rock and roll business doesn't mean you have to stay in bed late. "I like the extreme of thinking you can be playing in Berlin at 2am and then the next morning you get up early and find somewhere really nice to go for a run. I can still go out and have a good time."

The fiercely loyal fans who followed Chumbawamba before their chart success may find it easier than most to see the similarities between fell-running and anarcho-pop. Chumbawamba's staunchly political lyrics, aimed at beating facism, sexism and homophobia, try to inspire people in the battle against adversity.

Boff said: "A while ago we had a song called I Never Gave Up. It was about the struggle of people in the concentration camps, but it does fit in with fell running. It's the Chumbawamba politics - not giving up and telling yourself you can keep doing something.

"The mental side of fell running is a big thing. There are a lot of sports where you need a mental attitude, but with fell running there is an intensity.

"Halfway up a mountain, there is nobody telling you to run. You have to learn to force yourself to keep doing it.

"I have a got a real problem with people telling me what to do. If somebody said 'Get up that hill', I would be the first one to walk in the opposite direction. But I love the idea that it is you telling yourself to do it."

Boff said: "Winning a race is better than coming top of the charts, because although the chart thing was good, it wasn't something I have desperately wanted." What was even better than both of those things was when Boff's beloved Clarets started running out to Chumbawamba's chart-topping single Tubthumping last season.

"I was there at the first home game against Bristol Rovers and when it came on, I didn't expect it. I didn't know they would be using it. It was great."

Fellow Clarets fan Danbert Nobacon made himself infamous by soaking Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott at last year's Brit Awards. He, too, has been bitten by the fell-running bug and is a fellow member of West Yorkshire athletics club Pudsey and Bramley.

The pair sometimes run together, but how do they find the time to keep fit?

Boff said: "When we are rehearsing and recording it is easy. I go training every morning first thing. The whole rock and roll music business doesn't wake up till 11am or midday."

Boff finds an early morning run clears his head and helps him musically.

"I have songs in my head all the time. It's impossible for me not to have. If we are working on stuff and writing songs, I will be thinking about it while I'm running."

Earlier this year, Boff came joint first with two other runners in the White Holme Circular Fell Race - a 15 mile battle through hail and high winds. Wasn't he tempted to sprint for the line and pip the other two to the post?

"No, not at all. There's something about fell running. It can be really ruthless and really competitive. But if you take it too seriously then people don't like it. In fell running it's not cool to be really ruthless. It's different from athletics.

"It's not really to do with the rough terrain. I think it's more to do with the sort of people who do it. They are really friendly, even if you are battling against each other. "I won a race just the other week. There were five of us racing at the front, and over the last two minutes it was just a sprint.

"At the White Holme race it was different. I was running with two other lads. Half way round we were all looking to each other to work out where we were going and helping each other round.

"As we got to the end, one of us just asked if we would cross the line together, and we agreed because it felt right. It would have been really horrible if one of us had sprinted off."

Boff didn't enjoy running during his time at Lowerhouse County Primary School in Burnley. Although his father Jim has run for Clayton Harriers for many years, Boff's first real taste of running came four years into his music career, when he was 26.

As a member of an anarchist semi-punk band, it was the strange sight of an athlete with a brightly coloured mohican which caught Boff's eye.

Boff, whose dad Jim and mum Barbara live in Howarth Close, Rosehill, Burnley, said: "My dad does all sorts of running and he kept telling me I should watch a race. So I went and watched my first race.

"I got there and I saw a lad running - he was a punk with a coloured mohican. I just thought it was great. It looked like the kind of sport with no social etiquette about it. And the punk won the race." Boff explained how fell running has brought him closer to his father: "I didn't bond with my dad by going to the football or anything like that when I was younger. We didn't do the father and son thing until was a lot older.

"I see him quite a lot now when I'm running fell races, especially in Lancashire. We sometimes joke that we wouldn't see each other if it wasn't for fell running."

Chumbawamba have put touring on hold while keyboard player Lou Watts has a baby. This has given Boff more time to follow the mixed fortunes of his beloved Clarets.

He found himself laughing out of pity whilst watching this year's heavy home defeats to Manchester City and Gillingham, but has high hopes for next season.

"This year's team started out as a hotch-potch. But now they have a core of really good players and I think they will do really well next season."

Boff spent a lot of time living in the less salubrious districts of Leeds, and anyone who has walked the troubled streets of the once-proud Chapeltown suburb can understand why he relished the chance to get out into the Pennine hills.

For the last few months he has been living in London. But soon he is set to move to Threshfield, north of Skipton. The Yorkshire Dales is a quiet spot for a rock guitarist. But it's closer to his parents in East Lancashire. And it just happens to be in the middle of some excellent fell running terrain.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.