Chameleons : Classic or Dud

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Not sure if they'll ever do a full reunion, but I did see Mark, Reg and John do a run through of 'Splitting in Two' (with Tony Serkis on guitar) back in December at a benefit concert in Middleton. Probably the closest I'll get to the real thing (sniffs).

Peter Pedro Pierre (Peteski), Monday, 29 January 2007 08:37 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...
Got this via the Chams list today -- not sure why they're not youtube links but anyway:

http://rapidshare.com/files/20742974/uvs070312-004.MPG.html
Don't Fall, German TV, 1983


http://rapidshare.com/files/20753474/uvs070312-005.MPG.html
Second Skin, Portuguese TV, 1984

http://rapidshare.com/files/20812829/uvs070312-006.MPG.html
A Person Isn't Safe, Portuguese TV, 1984


http://rapidshare.com/files/20768431/uvs070313-002.MPG.html
As High As You Can Go, French TV, 1983


http://rapidshare.com/files/20821893/uvs070313-004.MPG.html
Up The Down Escalator, French TV, 1983

Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 15:33 (nineteen years ago)

argh fucking download limit

Thanks, Ned!

Curt1s Stephens, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 00:06 (nineteen years ago)

I thought they were OK. The bloke from the Chameleons was the first 'famous' person I remember posting on the internet, who posted a bit on a.m.a or r.m.m. years ago.

Keith, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 00:13 (nineteen years ago)

What an odd day for this thread to have been revived.

Ned will be pleased to know I am now really liking this band also, I have only just discovered them. Hurray. I have had "Swamp Thing" in my head all WEEK.

Blame Curt1s.

Trayce, Thursday, 15 March 2007 02:34 (nineteen years ago)

I was listening to "Here Today" the night before I visited NYC and I didn't realise I was listening to it until quarter-way. Then I was like, "oic".

King Boy Pato, Thursday, 15 March 2007 03:14 (nineteen years ago)

I'm seeing Mark Burgess in Austin tomorrow afternoon...and expecting to hear at least three Chameleons songs.

stephen, Thursday, 15 March 2007 04:17 (nineteen years ago)

Watching Second Skin, the drumming stood out to me. Largely because everything else was too muddy in the recording, but the brief mentioning of Lever's drumming at the top of this thread also made me listen more attentively. I can see how someone might feel it's lagging - to me it feels like it pushes the song instead of pulling it. The standard for drumming seems to be to establish a beat and have everyone rush after it. It seems like his hits are milliseconds late instead of early, which does create this impression of sitting. I find that's an appropriate technique for their delay-washed sound. In a way, the lag even accentuates the groove.

Faisal Shennib, Thursday, 15 March 2007 17:06 (nineteen years ago)

so I happened to see a great show from Mark Burgess et al. in Austin today...in short, we all got to hear "Looking Inwardly," "Perfume Garden," and "Second Skin" in addition to a bunch of new stuff, which was fantastic in its own way :)

stephen, Friday, 16 March 2007 04:58 (nineteen years ago)

IS IT ANY WONDER?

Bimble, Saturday, 24 March 2007 04:17 (nineteen years ago)

DIAMONDS AND PEARLS

Bimble, Saturday, 24 March 2007 04:29 (nineteen years ago)

two months pass...

I am having a Chameleons day today. "Script of the Bridge" is such a beautiful album. Perfect indoors winter music.

Trayce, Monday, 11 June 2007 06:16 (nineteen years ago)

And it has "Second Skin" and "Pleasure and Pain", two of my favourite songs.

Trayce, Monday, 11 June 2007 06:22 (nineteen years ago)

I always forget at first that June = winter where you are.

It works well for summer too, fwiw.

Johnny Fever, Monday, 11 June 2007 06:35 (nineteen years ago)

I need to get some more Chams, really, I'm totally loving them so much.

Trayce, Tuesday, 12 June 2007 00:05 (nineteen years ago)

Good, good...

Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 12 June 2007 00:18 (nineteen years ago)

Get the Peel Sessions and Radio One sessions for great alternative versions.

Mr. Odd, Tuesday, 12 June 2007 00:39 (nineteen years ago)

Somehow I knew Ned would be in the corner nodding approvingly =)

Trayce, Tuesday, 12 June 2007 01:15 (nineteen years ago)

YOU GUYS I FOUND SCRIPT OF THE BRIDGE ON VINYL IT'S THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING I'VE EVER BOUGHT

Curt1s Stephens, Tuesday, 12 June 2007 22:50 (nineteen years ago)

The full twelve song version, I hope.

Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 12 June 2007 22:50 (nineteen years ago)

Yes indeed! (WREK has the eight-song promo copy and I think it must have been played to death because the sound quality is terrible)

Curt1s Stephens, Tuesday, 12 June 2007 22:59 (nineteen years ago)

the only downside of this version is it doesn't have the spelling errors and subtitled "Up The Down Escalator"

Curt1s Stephens, Tuesday, 12 June 2007 23:01 (nineteen years ago)

80s vinyl is joy and love.

Trayce, Tuesday, 12 June 2007 23:08 (nineteen years ago)

btw the Bimble freakout upthread is OTM

Curt1s Stephens, Tuesday, 12 June 2007 23:22 (nineteen years ago)

Conveniently enough, dig this:

With the full consent of the band a 25th Anniversary release of the Chameleons' album 'Script of The Bridge' is being scheduled for release, probably during December of this year, a little early but just in time for Christmas. A deluxe edition will be available comprising the album itself and an additional disc of extras, alongside a standard one -disc release with less extras for those who might not want to splash out the extra few quid for the full package. Both formats feature an updated sleeve by Reg along with re-vamped inserts and the label is currently exploring various options for re-mastering the original tapes. The Deluxe edition will only be available through mail order via a web site that the label is establishing for the purpose. I'll announce the URL as soon as I have it. The standard one-disc version will be distributed through traditional channels

Mark also says his autobiography is about ready to be published.

Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 12 June 2007 23:40 (nineteen years ago)

Well, if there's one album that desperately needs remastering, Script is it. This'll be the 4th copy I'll buy, having bought the 8 track LP, then the 12 track, then the CD (and sold the LPs, maybe you bought my old one?).

Mr. Odd, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 03:52 (nineteen years ago)

Man, I still didn't pull this album out yet. It's very easy to do, though, at least I know where it is unlike a lot of my collection right now (you wouldn't believe all the CD's on my floor).

Congrats on folks with the LP. I'm afraid I graduated to CD long ago, to my own detriment.

Will Mark publish his autobiography in the same year as Mark E. Smith?

Bimble, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 04:05 (nineteen years ago)

In his autumn before the winter...

Bimble, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 04:08 (nineteen years ago)

Haha, just reading way back up the thread Curt1s sez:

"Soul in Isolation" is really fucking entertaining if you imagine Birdy is singing "I'm a lime in here, I'm a liiiiiime, turn on the light."

I know I have said this before, but I keep doing this with "Swamp Thing", by singing "Picking up the pieces/Half alive in a nine 'til five/bacon eyes."

And the minute my brain registers "bacon eyes" I crack up giggling. IT IS TERRIBLE OF ME.

Trayce, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 05:51 (nineteen years ago)

we were just talking about this at work today! our distributor has the strange times CD for $6.99 so all the music department employees own it now but script of the bridge is out of print so my colleague offered to burn it for me. them and the comsat angels are department favorites.

f. hazel, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 05:55 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah I'm having a real Chams/Comsats/For Against/Bell Hollow/Cure trip of late. Love those 80s moody bass riffs and sheerysqually guitars.

Trayce, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 06:06 (nineteen years ago)

that's because you're in some kind of magical winterland.

f. hazel, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 06:16 (nineteen years ago)

Its pretty sweet right now with the grey and the misty rain and miserable wet cold!

Trayce, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 06:39 (nineteen years ago)

sigh. sitting here in texas in june that sounds like a dream.

f. hazel, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 10:10 (nineteen years ago)

"Bacon Eyes", "I'm a Lime" Hahaaha, you guys are too much! And here I was feeling bad that I posted "Diamonds & Pearls" as the lyric upthread when it's "Denims & Curls" isn't it?

I've never heard of Bell Hollow before.

Bimble, Friday, 15 June 2007 04:29 (nineteen years ago)

BIMBLE I WILL EMAIL U ABT THEM.

Trayce, Friday, 15 June 2007 06:02 (nineteen years ago)

four months pass...

ned, someone, for fuxx sake, do something about this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chameleons

seriously, it's horrid.

"The Chameleons' unique sound is quite often compared to U2's The Edge."

what the hell kind of sentence is that?

"The Chameleons released their first full-length studio LP, the critically-acclaimed Script of the Bridge, on the Statik label in 1983. The album features a blend of rhythmic electric guitar textures, all of which provide a moody and intense backdrop for Mark Burgess' haunting vocals. After their third release, Strange Times, in 1987 they abruptly disbanded following the sudden death of band manager Tony Fletcher."

something missing? basically.

the history part is so short and sad. let's go, obsessives! i am no expert, so i can't do it. just a mere fan of 24 or 25 year's standing.

scott seward, Thursday, 25 October 2007 00:29 (eighteen years ago)

I challenge the person doing the new entry to use the words "way better than shit like U2".

PhilK, Thursday, 25 October 2007 19:04 (eighteen years ago)

four weeks pass...

Whoa, I missed this. Um, will look into it.

Anyway -- I recommend the A Long Way From Home album by Black Swan Lane to all Chams fans. It's a new project that Mark is involved in, as one of the two lead vocalists. More of a Sound style album than the Chams, and not quite as aggro as either, but it sounds quite lovely anyway:

http://www.myspace.com/blackswanlane

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 22 November 2007 04:37 (eighteen years ago)

Manchester UK / Atlanta, Georgia, United States

whoa

Curt1s Stephens, Thursday, 22 November 2007 06:23 (eighteen years ago)

finally got into these guys with "strange times", recently! sure had been missing out. . .

andi, Thursday, 22 November 2007 15:45 (eighteen years ago)

Yes you had!

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 22 November 2007 15:50 (eighteen years ago)

four months pass...

Misfortune 500 just surprised the shit out of me at my radio station's concert by playing "Paper Tigers" AND "Don't Fall"! (And I surprised the singer by singing along)

Curt1s Stephens, Sunday, 30 March 2008 05:18 (eighteen years ago)

one month passes...

HALF ALIVE IN A NINE TO FIVE VACANT EYES

blaring Chameleons from my stereo now. I really believe everyone should blare Chamelons from their stereo.

Swamp Thing in my ears.

I'm going to play this album over and over until I get tired of it.

Bimble, Sunday, 4 May 2008 07:13 (eighteen years ago)

STOP STARING AT THE GROUND

Bimble, Sunday, 4 May 2008 07:14 (eighteen years ago)

Not too many hours from this hour

Bimble, Sunday, 4 May 2008 07:15 (eighteen years ago)

Primal scream and the TV screen

Bimble, Sunday, 4 May 2008 07:15 (eighteen years ago)

"we were younger then and the days were long and slow
but were wiser then, I couldn't say I wouldn't know"

Bimble, Sunday, 4 May 2008 07:19 (eighteen years ago)

I wasn't worried at all
I had someone to run to

Bimble, Sunday, 4 May 2008 07:20 (eighteen years ago)

I'm going to play this album over and over until I get tired of it.

impossible

stephen, Sunday, 4 May 2008 23:20 (eighteen years ago)


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