The Chameleons

OK Guys n Dolls ! Now for a band that got me into proper music and not the chart garbage I was absorbing at the time........

Don't know if many of you are clued up on POSSIBLY my most favourite band ever. They formed in the early 80's and were around for 4 or 5 years (I was too young then) and produced some fantastic eerie, chilling and fantastically catchy songs. In these parts, Manchester, they've always been classed as goth-ish and 'the nearly men' and are most definitely a cult band. They supported U2 and were highly championed in their early days but record label wrangles and band fall out's led to their demise only for them to reform in 2000 with a five night residence at The Witchwood in Ashton U Lyne and a sell out at Manchester Academy, which is my most treasued gig of all time, even better than one of the dates at The Witchwood that I attended. Unfortunately their reformation, which included a new album, only lasted only a couple of years before more band fall outs ended their second stint.

Loads of respect to Mark Burgess, Dave Fielding, John Lever and Reg Smithies (oh, and Kwasi !). Check out Strange Times, What Does Anything Mean, Basically ? and the absolutely sublime Tony Fletcher EP if you can find it.

Manchester la, la, la !!

Agreed, fabulous, fabulous, fabulous band.

Should've been huge - then again, maybe not, perhaps a little too unsettling and "arty" (in good way) for mass popularity.

Listening to "Mad Jack" now!

Agreed Mr K ! Aaahh, Mad Jack, oh to be in the mind of Burgess when he writes tunes like that......great intro ! First 2 songs, live, I ever heard from them were Swamp Thing and Mad Jack, some things are worth waiting for ! If you've not got it, buy yourself 'View from a Hill', Mark's life story, it's a 'hard to put down' story of his and the bands life.

Now listening to "Caution" - I forgot how epic and wonderful this track is, that loping guitar line that just worms its way into your brain...it's hypnotic.

The thing is they managed to sound lush and full but edgy, sharp and post-punkish at the same time.

A very good recommendation, Mr Vest!

'Caution' is hypnotic as you say, a perfect description. Remember the days when Burgess worked at Man City's ticket office in the mid to late 90's and I was queuing up (unaware that he worked there) and just saw these piercing eyes looking out from behind the perspex screen with a vacant space available for me to walk up to. My arse went, go all star struck and queued up at the next window !!

If i had to choose my Top 5 tracks in no particualr order, it would be........Is It Any Wonder, Swamp Thing, Intrigue In Tangiers and Second Skin. Am going to Manchester Academy 3 in September where the drummer, John, has got a band together to play all their old stuff, will be weird not having Burgess on the mic, but to hear their back catalogue live again, I'm sure will be worth the princely sum of 9.50 !!

My Bury Vest wrote:

'Remember the days when Burgess worked at Man City's ticket office in the mid to late 90's and I was queuing up (unaware that he worked there) and just saw these piercing eyes looking out from behind the perspex screen with a vacant space available for me to walk up to. My arse went, go all star struck and queued up at the next window !!

No way - I had no idea that Burgess worked at Maine road - although I'd long moved away, I still attended the odd game then, I never saw him. He must have loved the tragi-comic state of the club during that time! Bad times, but, oddly good times too, for me as a City fan.

Thanks for that little nugget of trivia, that's brilliant!

"In Shreds" is one of my all-time favourite songs. An 'uddersfee-eld mate with great music taste introduced me to the Chameleons back in 1987. That particular track used to get played all the time at Burberries' Tuesday nights (in Birmingham), when the place would go nuts and mass invasion of the dance floor ensued. Ah, good times!

It was great catching "Second Skin" on 6 Music the other day. It's a mystery why they still don't get a lot of airtime, even on alternative radio stations. They're missing a trick not playing guaranteed floor fillers!

Despite being a follower of Elbow and a fanatical Bunnymen fan, there is no doubt that the Chameleons were the greatest rock band ever to walk the planet. By a long shot. Unlike the Bunnymen who at their peak could as powerful(?), they never put a foot wrong in their entire career. Their legacy will be more important than The Beatles or The Velvet Underground. In fact to call what they create "music" is an insult, they create transcendence, something beyond normal experience. Listening to "Second Skin" really is like floating on air, amid living, god-like noctilucent clouds.

Nice one Dr Evil, you're on the money there, the number of bands that have ever REALLY moved me are few and far between but The Chameleons and Elbow are at the top of the very short list. It's timeless music and doesn't sound at all dated........Got a beltin' canvas piccie of the band in my flat, looks fab.

Very, very excited. The date in September 'John Lever's Second Skin' as mentioned in my earlier post has now been confirmed to have original singer Mark Burgess in the line up !! What a weekend. Elbow on the Friday, John Lever on the Saturday and City v United on the Sunday !!

My Bury Vest wrote:

Very, very excited. The date in September 'John Lever's Second Skin' as mentioned in my earlier post has now been confirmed to have original singer Mark Burgess in the line up !! What a weekend. Elbow on the Friday, John Lever on the Saturday and City v United on the Sunday !!

Blimey - what a fab weekend, lucky sod. I hope that the fact that you are seeing Mark Burgess on Saturday is a good omen for Sunday.

My Bury Vest wrote:

Very, very excited. The date in September 'John Lever's Second Skin' as mentioned in my earlier post has now been confirmed to have original singer Mark Burgess in the line up !! What a weekend. Elbow on the Friday, John Lever on the Saturday and City v United on the Sunday !!

Pity United are going to ruin your weekend

I'm keeping my powder dry oneofthethree, at least Sir Baconface is getting a little hot under the collar, it's making all us Blues laugh, if nothing else !!

If anyone is after a laugh go on YouTube (sorry, can't access YT from work), put in Mark Burgess - Secon d Skin - Moon Under The Water and you'll see an inebriated My Bury Vest appear, attempting to 'dance' on stage for a couple of minutes, mid song !!

It's from his solo gig last October and it's just appeared

Brilliant MBV - that gave me a much needed laugh this morning.

ticky wrote:

Brilliant MBV - that gave me a much needed laugh this morning.

Cheers Ticky, it's weird, when I was up there I felt unstoppable. When I watched it back last night, I felt miniscule !! Should be shown to all youngsters, THE EFFECTS OF BINGE DRINKING !!

A Class Act. One of Manchester's finest and it just shows that despite the advancing years a truly great entertainer never loses it.
Mark Burgess wasn't bad either.

First on Absolute Radio's M.E.N. coverage, now on YouTube... We'll have to start asking for your autograph soon.

GO ON MBV!

Shucks, thanks for your kind remarks, really, I wanted to give the guy a massive embrace as he's once of my musical heroes, anyway, I vaulted off early, as two rather large bouncers were approaching the stage !

Leg-end in his own right John Robb posted this reverent little writeup today:
Louder Than War

mrswoman wrote:

Leg-end in his own right John Robb posted this reverent little writeup today:
Louder Than War

I was there last night MrsW - it was absolutely brilliant to hear the tunes and the venue was amazing - just stunning.

Like the child in me, I did 3 or 4 stage 'hops', not dives, so was sort of on the stage again......I'm aching, got potential bruising all over my body and can hardly hear a thing - yes, it's only half of the original line up but I'm not precious about line up's and all the old arguments within the band, IT WAS JUST AMAZING TO HEAR THE SONGS.

Met Mark outside aswell - he was genuinely a lovely fella and had time for me and my mate, I didn't wanna go over but my mate courteously brought him over !

Here's the setlist....

PERSON ISN'T SAFE ANYWHERE
PAPER TIGERS
MONKEYLAND
PLEASURE AND PAIN
LESS THAN HUMAN
UP THE DOWN ESCALATOR
NOSTALGIA
TEARS
PERFUMED GARDEN
SERIOCITY
IN ANSWER
SINGING RULE BRITTANIA
SECOND SKIN

encore

SWAMP THING
DON'T FALL
IN SHREDS

As you can guess, bagged a setlist !

Oh, that is fantastic MBV! I am genuinely envious as hell because both the review and your post bring alive the energy and passion that undoubtedly came across last night. Plus such a blinding classic set; Second Skin, Swamp Thing and In Shreds - oh!

Dead chuffed you had such an ace time; meeting Mark, stage hopping and that. BTW doesn't Robb's review almost namecheck you, sort of?

Yer right MrsW - Postmen DO love them !

While I was stood on the lip of the stage, me and Mark 'had a moment', I showed him my little Man City lapel badge and he gave me the thumbs up, while a 20 man snake/moshpit was going on around us, during Singing Rule Brittania, I'd die to have that pic/would die if I ever saw that pic !

Saw John Robb as we were having a booze outside, after - he can go on my mancrush list, such chiselled cheek bones !

Another wonderful review....it was filmed aswell last night, for a future DVD (GULP).

http://www.raindropsolutions.com/index.php/2011/02/review-chameleons-vox-band-on-the-wall/