The Chameleons

Middleton, 1981

The Chameleons formed in Middleton, Greater Manchester, in 1981 when Mark Burgess, Reg Smithies and Dave Fielding began as a trio with no drummer. Brian Schofield drummed first and was replaced by John Lever, formerly of the Politicians; Martin Jackson, ex-Magazine, filled in during 1982 and 1983. Smithies also painted the artwork for their releases. After a BBC Radio 1 John Peel session and a Virgin publishing deal that Burgess told The Quietus paid for gear, they signed to Epic and released "In Shreds" in March 1982, produced by Steve Lillywhite; Epic dropped them soon after. Fielding found the Roland Space Echo, which changed his sound, and Burgess's bass approach was rooted in dub, particularly Jah Wobble.

Script of the Bridge (1983) and What Does Anything Mean? Basically (1985) came out on Statik, a Virgin subsidiary. Strange Times (1986, Geffen) followed, with manager Tony Fletcher having helped secure the Geffen deal; Fletcher died in 1987 and the band disbanded after internal tension. PopMatters dates the split to 1986. Burgess and Lever formed The Sun and the Moon (a Geffen LP in 1988), Smithies and Fielding formed The Reegs, and Burgess released solo albums including Zima Junction (1993) and Paradyning (1995). The band reunited in January 2000 at the Witchwood in Ashton-under-Lyne and made Strip (2000, acoustic), Why Call It Anything (2001) and This Never Ending Now (2002) before splitting again in early 2003; Burgess said of the end, they left the band, I didn't leave the band.

Burgess and Lever played as ChameleonsVox from 2009, with the EP M+D=1(8) in November 2013. John Lever died on March 13, 2017, aged 55. Burgess and Smithies reformed the name in May 2021, with Edge Sessions (April 25, 2022, Metropolis), the Where Are You? EP (May 24, 2024), which includes "Endlessly Falling", which Burgess says was one of the first songs they ever wrote but never completed until now, and Arctic Moon, their fifth studio album, in September 2025. The current line-up is Burgess, Smithies, Stephen Rice, Danny Ashberry and Todd Demma. They toured Strange Times in full in 2024 and 2025. Noel Gallagher cited Strange Times as an early songwriting influence, Nick McCabe of the Verve named Script of the Bridge among his favorites, and Wikipedia reads the lyrics as responses to deindustrialization in Thatcher-era northern England.