Right here, Right Now: The Chameleons Push Forward

“Is there anyone there
Who understands me?
Anyone at all?” — Monkeyland

The impact of a band can have a far greater weight than a mere moment in time. That holds true for The Chameleons, who have morphed and transformed since 1981 only to come out on the other end resilient.

And now, the vibrancy of the band is felt like a renaissance of timeless moments re-sparked in their dimensional element (be it fully charged, re-imagined or stripped down to thoughtful acoustic versions), along with a glowing persistence of new music.

In 2024, the group resurfaced from a 20-year hiatus with the album Where Are You?, followed up by a five-song EP, Tomorrow Remember Yesterday. Originally, the EP was to remain as a niche vinyl issue from Philips in Berlin. Through some delay, Metropolis picked up the digital version and released it, giving the group a sense of momentum and a way of bringing life into some older material.

“The cool thing about the EP for me is that we dug back to even before the Peel Sessions and found songs that we either didn’t finish, or we weren’t quite satisfied with,” said Burgess.

“Eden. There’s no Eden anyway.” — Up the Down Escalator

One of the most revered releases amongst fans is their Peel Session release. The album takes them back to the beginning and shines a spotlight not only on their career at their most unrestricted but also a testament to the post punk stylings that erupted of the time and served as inspiration.

“It was such a great buzz doing it,” said Burgess. “You are working with the best engineers.”

To be in that room at the Maida Vale studio in 1981 was a vibrant moment for the band. There was an unwritten pulse to your level of talent during the recording sessions. If you were there after 1 a.m., they liked you. If they didn’t like you, the band would pack up by midnight. History is a testament to how well The Chameleons were well received at the BBC and an endearing interest John Peel had in the group.

“My biggest buzz for me doing the Peel Session was bumping into Doctor Who on the stairs. I said, ‘Oh my God, Patrick (Troughton)! You’re my favorite Doctor Who!’ He came upstairs while I was going down. He just rolled his eyes, but I didn’t care. I came face to face with my hero.”

Released November 1990, the recordings came from sessions in 1981, 1983, and 1984, and featured quintessential recordings of “The Fan and the Bellows,” “Things I Wish I’d Said,” “Don’t Fall,” and “Second Skin.” This is, of course, a baseline to a deeper exploration of The Chameleon’s music as they are known for crafting their songs through different lenses. Some of their best work is stripped down and reconstructed as acoustic pieces.

“Those are my favorite,” said Smithies. “That’s the test of a good song. If you take a good song and strip it down and it still maintains its greatness, then you know you’ve got a song that will stand the test of time even if it’s different now.”

An album like Strip, released in 2000—a favorite of the band—is a field guide to a more mature group, an exploration into the soul of a collection of extraordinary lyrical compositions. Written by the band, Burgess, Smithies and Dave Fielding were the ones who deconstructed each song and resurrected them using minimal tools.

When we listen to a song like “Tears” or “Here Today” from Script of the Bridge in any fashion, it strikes a response from the listener in ways that many artists dream of accomplishing. It’s why for fans; Script of the Bridge is the group’s masterpiece. It caters to the memories of the past and invokes reaction into today’s world as a younger generation continues to discover a now iconic album that has gone through a proper remastering.

“The lyrics, they’re all different kinds of things that are still more relevant now than they were when I did them,” said Burgess. “I didn’t think about it when I did it; it was very instinctive.

“For me, I can’t really relate to that album the way the audience does. Not how I can relate to something like T. Rex’s Electric Warrior. I can’t listen to (Script of the Bridge) because at the time, I haven’t found my voice. I’m kind of shouting the lyrics and wailing them rather than singing them. I am over critical. I wish somebody had said to me, sing! But at the time we were throwing the kitchen sink at it. It’s good and everything, but it didn’t need it. It was the ‘80s, and it had that big drum sounds, lots of reverb, and a massive production.”

There was a moment when Steve Lillywhite was given a choice, produce Script of the Bridge or U2’s War. We all know what direction he took. This led to a series of job interviews by various producers, finally landing on Colin Richardson. His resume goes from working with The Chameleons to producing albums by bands like Napalm Death, Carcass, and other extreme metal bands. This led to a whirlwind of contemplation over the production standards of the album. If they could go back and choose, it would be down to John Porter, the one who shaped the sound of Roxy Music or Muff Winwood of the Spencer Davis Group. As a new producer, Richardson puts his angsty touches on the album.

For Burgess, of the three pivotal releases, Strange Times is the album he can still listen to.

“I think we play them better now because we’re better players,” he said.

“There’s more energy in it, and there’s more confidence in what we do,” added Smithies.

“My whole life flashed, before my eyes.” — Second Skin

By 1987 and three albums later, the band had burned white hot and disbanded with each of the members moving on and finding their own unique talents until 2000 when they reformed to release Why Call It Anything? Unfortunately, this reunion was short-lived stopped by the tragic death of drummer John Lever and departure of Fielding.

After a series of tours by Mark and a re-imagined ChameleonsVox, it was not until 2021 when Mark and Reg reformed The Chameleons in its current state.

“I thought it’d be nice to just go for an encore, you know,” said Smithies.

“We didn’t tell anybody the first time he did the encore,” added Burgess. “We deliberately kept it quiet. He told us that he would do a few songs, and we ended up doing about five together. When he walked out, everybody went ballistic. It was incredible.”

This performance was also the first time Smithies’s daughter and son ever saw him perform. “She was crying in the dressing room,” Burgess continued. It was one thing to see YouTube videos; it was another for his children to see a crowd of delighted fans react to this moment.”

After that night, the band went from a moment to a rekindled spark thanks to Stephen Rice, Todd Dema, and Danny Ashberry rounding up the lineup.

“I can’t shake this feeling
Something’s going to happen” — Paper Tigers

From the stage to the camaraderie they share together as a musical family, there is a rejuvenated aura from the band and a refreshed demeanor to Burgess’s attitude towards music.

“It took us a while to get used to each other, but when we did, it was enjoyable to play. I think the band’s really tight.”

The most recent member of the band, Dema had the biggest uphill climb to a state of acceptance. “I’m sitting in a very sacred seat with somebody who can’t come back. . . who’s obviously left the house. Fans were skeptical, and I didn’t know which way it was gonna go, but I have gotten a lot of good feedback. Both Mark and Reg have entrusted me to be back there.”

The band shows off musical virility that pushes their creative limits further, looking to the core of what their purpose is at this point of their life.

“It was fortunate in a way because by the time we had all of these components put back together and we’ve got everybody we needed to take the music forward, we were all in a place to move past our core. We know that we’re gonna polarize the audience because we don’t sound like we did 20 years ago. . . 30 years ago. . . 40 years ago. But we don’t want to. I want it to sound like who we are now because, as we always succeeded in doing, we are apart from anything else. We now have the latitude to bring something to the table as a collective.”

“Honestly, I think in the studio, we’re really supportive of each other’s input and ideas,” said Ashberry. “We’re all on the same page, which is quite bizarre how easy the music melds together.”

Look for an upcoming album, Arctic Moon, sometime this year and a continued tour within the states beginning in April 2025.