Gritpop group Brother have changed their name to Viva Brother, it was revealed today.

Record label bosses hope that the emergence of a new politicised, radical side to the Slough-based group, who are already the 478th most popular group in the UK, will see them go from strength to strength.

The first sproutings of this new idealism coincided with the band supporting Morrissey on his recent UK tour, where they learned that Viva is the name of the anti-meat eating pressure group Vegetarians International Voice For Animals who proclaim "Viva! believes that the solution to all these problems is in our own hands: the best way to stop the destruction and the cruelty is to stop eating animals now – go vegetarian, or better still, vegan."

Len from the group explained their road to Damascus conversion: "I'm fookin' outraged by Chinchilla farming. It's a fookin' disgrace."

It was Stephen Patrick Morrissey himself who inspired the revolutionary change. When the tour reached Crewe he had the band help him move a portable burger van out of nose shot of the venue.

Seeing the young lads putting their backs into the cause of animal liberation, Morrissey reflected the cry of his many Hispanic followers and cried "Viva Brother!" And thus musical history was made.

One fan of the band said the transformation was overnight: "I was ouside of their dressing room yesterday and I clearly heard Josh Ward shouting, 'Where's me fookin' Pleather Adidas Samba?'"

All the signs are that the political awakening has been across the board however. On learning that Viva was the name of a now-departed woman's magazine devoted to intelligent writing, fashion, music and erotica, the band are rapidly developing a feminist dialectic.

The band are now said to be appalled by their witless video to the track 'New Year's Day', which featured young, tattooed women cavorting in a bath. They have pledged to give ten percent of future earnings to Viva Women, which prints important essays on gender politics, thus: Liquid Foundation Brush: Yay Or Nay For Skin? and My Hair Conditioner Gave Me Hairline Pimples.

The young fan, who wished to remain nameless also added that he overheard the band talking in their dressing room: "We shouldn't have put Len's sister in the video with her spuds out. It's like Andrea Dworkin said, we need to move away from a sexed world of dominance and fookin' submission." "Yeah", came the reply, "intercourse is search and assertion, passion and fury; and its form — no less that its content — deserves critical scrutiny and fookin' respect. Easy Len, you're spilling Max Factor down me Meat Is Murder T-shirt."

Viva Brother's new album Geez, The Personal IS Political, will be released in January next year