Chameleons - An epic of melancholy

Manchester wasn't just the city that gave birth to the trio of wonders that influenced the entire made in Uk new wave scene in the early '80s – Ian Curtis's Joy Division, Mark E. Smith's Fall, and Morrissey's Smiths. Manchester was also the city near which, in Middleton to be precise, a band called Chameleons was born – a band kept from achieving the success that instead smiled on Cure, U2, and Echo & The Bunnymen – acts from the same era with a sound in some ways close to that of Mark Burgess's creature – by sheer bad luck alone. The year of birth is 1981, and the original lineup includes: Mark Burgess (ex-Clichés), one of the many young men raised on a diet of Beatles and Bowie, on vocals and bass, Dave Fielding on guitar and keyboards, and Reg Smithies on guitar (both former members of Years), plus Brian Schofield on drums, soon replaced by John Lever.

Their first shows date back to that same year. After their live debut in Bury, on the second date their guitars cross paths with those of U2, whom they support at the Lyceum in Sheffield.

Miraculously, one of their tapes ends up in the hands of the great DJ John Peel, who becomes their first fan and starts playing them frequently on his shows. The seeds of a small but devoted cult are already sprouting, and it's no coincidence that a certain Steve Lillywhite (U2 and Simple Minds) is immediately called in to produce their first single, "In Shreds". "Nostalgia" and the aforementioned "In Shreds" are still rough gems, but full of charm: the guitars are angry and rocking, in the vein of early U2, not yet adorned with the effects that will come to define the band's sound in the future.

Burgess & co. hastily sign to Cbs, who however want to steer the band toward a sound with a strong commercial slant, so the whole thing comes to nothing and the contract is terminated even before their debut album sees the light of day.

A bridge to the future

Thus in 1983, after a delay of roughly a year and two years of intense live activity and various radio sessions, Script Of The Bridge is released by Statik Records. It's produced by the band members themselves, together with Colin Richardson.

The album, in this writer's opinion, will remain their masterpiece and one of the high points of post-punk of that era; its only real flaw is having come out somewhat later than the respective debuts of Cure, Joy Division, U2, Echo & Bunnymen, and The Sound.

Despite sharing several traits with the aforementioned artists, Chameleons display a highly original sound, almost psychedelic in lineage, in which heavily effected guitars and keyboards weave together into a sonic vortex dominated by Burgess's voice, which also adds the decisive hypnotic touch of his bass. The band's proverbial modesty comes through even in the words with which they greet their earliest listeners: "Dear listener, thank you for lending us your ears".

Script Of The Bridge opens strong, straight into "Don't Fall", one of their signature tracks, which manages to blend drama and aggression into an emotional crescendo without equal. The minimal guitar of "Here Today" (a tribute to John Lennon) catapults us into a hypnotic atmosphere, with slightly more subdued tones. "Monkeyland" also opens with a syncopated riffs before exploding, with Mark finally unleashing the full range of his voice, only to settle back down into a rhythmic ebb and flow: an extremely intense track, and the peak of the entire album. The opening keyboard of "Second Skin" recalls early Sad Lovers And Giants; and no title was ever more fitting, as it really does feel like two songs in one: it starts with romantic, seductive tones before sliding into a hypnotic abyss of rare beauty, caught between the chill of the synths and the obsessive march of the drums.

This opening quartet leaves you breathless, but the rest of the tracklist stays just as coherent and consistent. "Up The Down Escalator", in particular, is an epic, pulsating track, the kind that warms your heart on first listen. "Less Than Human" is another dizzying spell cradled by soft guitar reverbs. The melodic openings of "Pleasure And Pain" echo darker, gothic-tinged suggestions. And then there's the splendid closer "View From A Hill", a sweet and romantic two-part ballad that would serve as a blueprint for future dream-pop, but also for the dreamier Cure of a few years later, the Cure of "A Thousand Hours" (from "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me"), for instance. Back at the time of Script Of The Bridge, however, Robert Smith's band had only just emerged from "Pornography", one of their darkest abysses, which made no concessions to sweetness of any kind.

Despite critical acclaim, the album fails to achieve major sales success. The band, however, isn't discouraged: they carry on with live activity and, two years later, give birth to What Does Anything Mean? Basically, again for Statik Records, with Colin Richardson serving as co-producer.

The synth intro of "Silence Sea And Sky" makes it immediately clear that the band is reaching for an even more atmospheric sound, a direction confirmed as the album unfolds, with the guitarists increasingly drawn to the sonic magma produced by delay and echo effects, giving rise to a genuine saturation of sound. The Chameleons had unwittingly anticipated dream-pop, later made famous by the Cocteau Twins. This same kind of sound would inspire, a few years later, Kitchens Of Distinction, a great gay band active between the late Eighties and early Nineties, who left behind four immensely precious albums.

"On The Beach" has an almost dance-like syncopated bassline, but the guitars still churn out that swirling magma that was by now becoming a trademark of Burgess's band. "One Flash" is another epic ride that suddenly breaks apart, turning abstract and subdued, the atmosphere growing rarefied as the guitar sound edges ever closer to that of the Cocteau Twins. "Singing Rule Britannia" is a poetic attack on Margaret Thatcher's government, while the vigorous "Return Of The Roughnecks" and the sixties-pop of "Looking Inwardly" are two more precious gems, paving the way for what had by now become the band's customary romantic, melancholy closing ballad ("P.S. Goodbye").

Basically is another bullseye, though a few flaws creep in: the sound suffers from an overly pompous production, and Mark's voice comes across as too mannered, even as it hits genuinely intense peaks of romanticism, as in the gorgeous "Perfume Garden" or the Bowie-esque "Nostalgia".

The Chameleons' music takes on a strongly epic quality, lending the songs an extremely intense, almost suspended atmosphere, though at the cost of some of the expressive urgency and wholesome naivety that had made their debut so magical.

Strange times

We arrive at 1986, and the third record is once again the true test. Strange Times comes out on Geffen, marking yet another shift in direction, with the keyboards pushed to the margins and the drums hitting harder, but for the first time there's a track built around entirely acoustic guitar, the gorgeous ballad "Tears", which would later also be released in an electric version.

Produced by Dave Allen of Gang Of Four, who had already been behind the desk for Cure and Sisters Of Mercy, it's a bittersweet album, with suave, romantic tracks like the beautiful "Swamp Thing" and the aforementioned "Tears" keeping a thread to the past, alongside more aggressive, dark-tinged numbers like "Soul In Isolation". What really leaves its mark, though, are the tensions that had begun building within the band, fuelled by disappointing sales and an uncertain sense of which direction to take sonically: the record indeed comes across as patchy and torn between two souls, one romantic and deep, the other tense and aggressive.

Poor sales figures – despite a decent reputation built up on the underground circuit, especially in Spain and Germany – along with the untimely death of their manager and friend Tony Fletcher, would lead to the band's split after just three albums.

The Chameleons' epic, romantic sound, while never quite giving rise to a genuine scene of its own, found more than one point of contact with that of Adrian Borland's Sound, with Sad Lovers And Giants, with Comsat Angels and with Modern English (a kind of romantic wave movement was slowly taking shape). But the seeds of that sound would also flourish in other bands' work, from Lowlife to Kitchens Of Distinction, who in 1988 gave the world "Love Is Hell". Even in the US, bands openly inspired by Burgess's project would emerge, such as For Against and Springhouse.

In 1988, The Fan & The Bellow was released, gathering material dating back to the band's earliest singles, produced by Steve Lillywhite. Some versions of tracks already released on previous albums come across here as more rock-oriented, edging close to the territory favoured by early U2; producer Lillywhite's stamp on these recordings seems evident in that regard.

While the band members were busy with various solo projects, 1990 also saw the release, for Burgess & co., of the classic John Peel Sessions, as if to throw fresh wood on a flame that still burned intact in the hearts of countless fans, a fanbase that had kept growing over time, helped along by the early-90s shoegaze scene, with bands like Catherine Wheel making their Chameleons influence plain to hear.

Special mention should go to the album covers, which recall those of 70s progressive rock outfits, and thus stand quite apart from those of other new wave musicians of the period. One gets the impression that the band didn't want to sever all ties with the tradition of English music, managing, even musically, to embody the romantic side of Peter Hammill and of certain Genesis records; the Chameleons' sound, save for a handful of rare occasions, would never be entirely bleak, but always poised between romanticism and melancholy, traits found in many bands of the progressive era.

The resurrection

After the release of numerous live albums, a tragic event reignited the band members' never-quite-extinguished pride: the suicide of their friend Adrian Borland, frontman of Sound. Burgess's friendship with him ran so deep that he even went on to complete Borland's tour, which at the time was tied to his White Rose Transmission project.

The year is 2000, and it's time for Mark and his bandmates to step back out into the open. They would do so in the best possible way, with the semi-acoustic Strip. Self-financed by the band, the record offers fresh, unplugged gems drawn from their old songs, taken from the glorious albums of the past.

After fourteen years of silence, the band returns to recording, restarting a live activity that gives new fans the chance to see their performance on stage.

In 2001 comes a new studio album, Why Call It Anything, produced by Dave Allen and released on Artful, the label run by members of Fall and Durutti Column.

The fire of their early days is gone by now, but the record hands us a mature band: the songwriting is soft and refined, the sound acoustic, with the occasional splendid electric surge reminiscent of their glorious beginnings. "All Around", "Lufthansa" and "Music In The Womb" are new electro-acoustic ballads that show us Mark Burgess in an unprecedented singer-songwriter guise, stripping away the dark, decadent streak that marked the vocal performances on the old albums.

On "Miracles And Wanders" an improbable crossover takes shape with the rap of their percussionist Kwasi Asante, with Mark trading vocals with him; the rhythmic component becomes more pronounced, almost reggae, but the guitars, rather than playing off-beat, are the classic Chameleons kind, full of echo and delay. It's the highlight of the record. There are, however, some weak spots, like the closing "Are You Still There?", a cloying instrumental built around a synth line: the result is an oppressive, saccharine, forgettable dirge.

In 2002 comes This Never Ending Now, a splendid record of acoustic sessions from the Strip era. Old songs are once again revisited in a stripped-down, de-electrified form, with the addition of a cover of an old favourite, Bowie's "Moonage Daydream".

No sooner is the recording finished than the Chameleons head out on tour again to promote Why Call It Anything, taking in the US as well. During these dates, though, tensions resurface among the band members, and their private lives pull them apart, as they're now all living in different cities. So, just three years after the reunion, the band splits up once more.

Everyone goes back to their own personal projects, musical and otherwise, especially Mark Burgess with his various incarnations: Invincible (their "Venus" is gorgeous, close to early-70s glam), The Sun And The Moon, The Sons Of God.

Time, however, is a great leveller, and the success of so many present-day acts – the likes of Interpol, Editors, Film School, British Sea Power and others – who blatantly show the influence of the Chameleons proves just how important this underrated, unlucky band has been across the various scenes that have followed one another up to the present day, from dream-pop/shoegaze to today's revival of early-80s dark-wave.

Many years have passed since Script Of The Bridge, but the words written on that bridge crossed by so many bands of our time still bear the signature of these lads from Middleton.

Contributions by Gianfranco Marmoro ("Arctic Moon") 

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