UNDERRATED, IGNORED, CONSIDERED IRRELEVANT AND ALL THE REST OF IT
A CONVERSATION WITH MARK BURGESS OF THE CHAMELEONS
The Chameleons formed in Greater Manchester in 1981, and at the time, the line-up included Mark Burgess (vocals, bass), Reg Smithies (guitar), Dave Fielding (guitar), and John Lever (drums). The band was immediately noticed, given their distinct post-punk sound and the fact they were guitar-based at a time when synthesizers were becoming very popular with bands. They caught the attention of John Peel and following a session for Peel, they were signed by Epic Records in London and they released their single “In Shreds”. After one single with Epic, they felt they would be better served by a more independent label and the group signed to Statik Records. Following the release of two critically- acclaimed and successful albums for Statik (Script Of The Bridge in 1983 and 1985’s What Does Anything Mean? Basically?), the group was signed to Geffen Records.
Strange Times was their debut for Geffen Records and was originally released in 1986. As with their first two albums, the album was well received and featured two hits for the band, “Swamp Thing” and “Tears”. Now, the band has re-released the album with the original bonus mini album, and they are embarking on a North American tour in which they will be performing the entire album. The current line-up of the band includes Reg Smithies (guitar), Mark Burgess (bass, vocals, lyrics), Stephen Rice (guitar), Danny Ashberry (keyboards), and Todd Demma (drums).
“Our agent wanted us to do it, and he thought it would be a good idea. We told him that the remaster was coming out and we wanted to give the remaster a good shot in the arm. So, he said ‘Why don’t you perform it in the United States? We’ll set some dates up in the U.S. for you to perform it at the time of the release’. Which is how it all came together.”
This tour is somewhat different for Burgess and The Chameleons. It is not a typical show that he performs.
“I’m not a big fan of performance, album focus as a tour, usually. Performing an album in order and setlist are two very different dynamics. One is very intimate, and one is more of a celebration. But with Strange Times it is very different. I always thought, if you are going to do album performances, do them as one off things. But with Strange Times, it is such a challenging record to do. The instrumentation was very different, and it was a departure in that respect. It was a lot more mature, so I really enjoyed it and we performed it in Europe. We have never done it in America. It was popular here, so why not?”
Over the years The Chameleons have toured a great deal, but that does not mean that the band has performed the entire album over the years. In fact, there are several songs that Burgess and The Chameleons have never performed in concert.
“With Strange Times, there are songs on there we have never performed. “Time” we never did, “Childhood” we never did. And “Seriocity” we never did. That is part of the fun of it. You ask yourself ‘Why did we not do these songs back in the day?’. “Maybe we weren’t a good enough band back then, I don’t know,” laughed Burgess. “It just makes it more interesting. We get to perform “Tears” in the original form which is a bit of a challenge. I am really looking forward to it.
In preparing for the tour, Burgess had to revisit the album and the times in which the album was recorded. “Well, doing the songs we have never performed live gave it a whole new dimension. Like the song “Seriocity”, such a strange arrangement musically. And that is the fun of it. As for the other songs we have played a lot of those in our regular set, like “Caution” and “Mad Jack”. But now we have Danny (Ashberry) with us all the time now so that gives us more strings to our bow. These are songs that have been in and out of our set quite frequently over the course of things. I wouldn’t say there are any real big surprises, but it is fun to try to figure out how we’ll make “I’ll Remember” at the end. It is quite challenging, which is what is fun about it.”
“WHERE ARE YOU?” OUT MAY 24 VIA METROPOLIS RECORDS
With Strange Times, the band shifted from an independent label to a major label, in this case it was Geffen Records. “I don’t recall we found it challenging. It was exciting. Everyone knew who Geffen Records were. The guy who signed us to Geffen, Tom Zutat, is a legend in the business now. His flamboyant way of doing things, like flying us out to Air Studio in Montserrat for a meeting. We weren’t used to that in the middle of winter. ‘We’re going to the Caribbean guys! Great!’ It was wonderful. You definitely felt like you went up a league. It wasn’t a challenge, but it was an opportunity to work in some really good studios, really good producers, i.e. Dave Allen. It was an exciting time. Suddenly I am going from England to New York for meetings and mastering and all that and the next minute I am in Los Angeles. Everything went up a notch. It was an exciting time. Strange times,” laughed Burgess.
The Strange Times album has a bonus album which features two interesting choices for cover versions. One being The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows” and David Bowie’s “John, I’m Only Dancing”. “Well, “Tomorrow Never Knows” was the first thing that Dave [Fielding] and Reg [Smithies] jammed out together. Before drums arrived, we didn’t have drums, it was just the three of us to start with. We started with that, it was something we all loved, and it only had one chord in it. I actually added another chord,” Burgess proudly stated. “It was the first thing we ever did. You have this down time in the studio when you are making a record, we just goofed around and “Tomorrow Never Knows” is just one of those tracks and we just did it. It was a nod to our origin and our very beginning”.
“With “John, I’m Only Dancing”, I don’t know how that came about. John [Lever] is playing his drum cases, he’s not even on a drum kit. We are in this little back room, and he is doing this skiffle thing on his drum cases. We were just messing around and Dave Allen happened to hit the record button and recorded it. It was suggested to us ‘Why don’t you use these two covers as extra tracks for the 12-in or whatever it was. We were having a lot of fun.”
When Strange Times was released in 1986, “Swamp Thing” took off as one of their biggest hit singles. “I don’t mean this in a conceited way, but I knew it was a great song when we did it. I knew it was special. As far as the U.K. was concerned, we couldn’t get arrested. We were underrated, ignored, considered irrelevant and all the rest of it, which has been the case for most of the band’s life, to be quite honest about it. We’ve given our entire lives to this business, and it treated us like lepers. But when the record came out, it wasn’t that apparent that it would be a hit. We had the big Geffen muscle behind us, and it made the Top 20. It was really with the passage of time, gradually, that you realise certain clubs and certain places are playing it and people are sending me videos of packed dance floors. If I go out in Barcelona or New York or wherever I may be, it inevitably gets played and packs the dance floor. Then you know it is a big song.”
The Chameleons also have a new single/EP, Where Are You?, which is a sneak peak of a new album scheduled to be released, Arctic Moon. The EP features the song “Endlessly Falling”. “Endlessly Falling” is one of the first songs The Chameleons ever wrote but never finished, and I dusted it off the mothballs, because I always liked it but it was never completed. I always wanted to do it for the first Peel sessions, but it got vetoed. So, it got discarded. There were a few songs that have been discarded. We played two nights at The Ritz in December and over the two nights, we decided to do a history, so we started at the very beginning to where the band ended up in 2002. We enjoyed it so much we recorded it.”
“I have a friend in Berlin who has an underground vinyl label and he asked if there was something he could maybe put out? And I said, ‘as it happened I just reworked legacy songs and we freshened them up, and brought them into the present’. And one that we had left, “Forever”, we are using as the B-side of the new single. The vinyl we are putting out on our own label. And they will be sold at our gigs. They didn’t want to do the vinyl, I don’t know why but they decided they didn’t, so we said we would do it.”
Burgess is still excited by the music that originally influenced him, music that made him want to pick up a guitar or bass and write his own brand of music. “What we did, back in the day, because it was very much a post-punk thing, is that we pushed our influences away from us. We tried to avoid being influenced by bands, as much as you can do. Whereas now, we are much more happy to explore our influences, which mainly come from the 60s and the 70s. By the time we got to the 80s, we didn’t want to sound like anybody else. Now, we are doing that, utilizing our influences. They are the kind of influences that everybody can relate to. Like the Beatles, The Doors, Bowie, T. Rex, all that stuff.”
As much as they have been influenced, The Chameleons have influenced a whole new generation of bands who have picked up guitars and are making their own mark in the music world now. “I see it as part of the process, we were influenced by all these bands and if we can be part of the process it makes us very happy. That thing will continue, as long as we can keep kids excited by our music. As much as I do like synths, it is guitars that excite me. If we can keep that alive by us and the people we influence, and they will influence people. It just keeps it going. Get kids interested in guitars, that’s great!”
Tour Dates
May 30 San Diego CA Music Box
May 31 Los Angeles CA The Belasco
Jun 4 Vancouver BC The Pearl
Jun 5 Seattle WA El Corazon
Jun 6 Portland OR Hawthorne Theater
Jun 7 Sacramento CA Harlow’s
Jun 8 San Francisco CA Great American Music Hall
Jun 9 San Francisco CA Great American Music Hall
Jun 11 Salt Lake City UT Urban Lounge
Jun 12 Denver CO Oriental Theater
Jun 13 Kansas City MO recordBar
Jun 14 Dallas TX Sundown at The Granada
Jun 15 Houston TX Dark Ceremony Festival
Jun 17 El Paso TX Lowbrow Palace
Jun 18 Albuquerque NM Launchpad
Jun 19 Tucson AZ 191 Toole
Jun 20 Phoenix AZ Last Exit Live
Aug 8 Philadelphia PA Underground Arts
Aug 9 New Haven CT Space Ballroom
Aug 10 Boston MA The Sinclair
Aug 12 Montreal QC Theatre Fairmount
Aug 13 Toronto ON Opera House
Aug 14 Buffalo NY Town Ballroom
Aug 15 Pittsburgh PA Spirit Hall
Aug 16 New York NY Webster Hall
Aug 17 Washington DC Black Cat
Artist Links
Photo Credits: Mick Peek
