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The Chameleons | Albert Hall, Manchester | 21s<\/b>t<\/b> November 2025
Reviewed by Peter Wild<\/b><\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a bumpy road for The Chameleons. They started out all the way back in 1983, released a clutch of anthemic, Goth-leaning albums in the vein of early U2 (see\u00a0<\/span>Script of the Bridge, What Does Anything Mean? Basically<\/span><\/i>\u00a0and major label debut\u00a0<\/span>Strange Times<\/span><\/i>) before splitting acrimoniously four years later (each half of the band forming another short-lived band in turn \u2013 frontman Mark Burgess and drummer John Lever The Son and the Moon, guitarists Reg Smithies and Dave Fielding The Reegs). Fast forward a dozen or so years (during which time Burgess released a brace of solo and collaborative albums \u2013 of which 1995\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Paradyning<\/span><\/i>\u00a0remains a high point) to 2000 and they all decided to give it another go (releasing their fourth album,\u00a0<\/span>Why Call It Anything<\/span><\/i>,<\/b>\u00a0and a couple of curios) before \u2013 doh! \u2013 splitting acrimoniously again following the fatal cardiac arrest of guitarist Dave Fielding.<\/span><\/p>\n Although frontman Mark Burgess and drummer Mark Lever continued to ply the Chameleons trade (as Chameleons Vox) for several years (and Lever and Smithies went on to record an album as the Red-Sided Garter Snakes too), it wasn\u2019t until 2021 (some years after Lever\u2019s death at the age of 55) that Burgess and Smithies, the only surviving Chameleons by this point, reformed under the original moniker to see if some of the critical glory they\u2019d accrued over the years could be translated into either lucre or hard-earned (low level) fame.<\/span><\/p>\n Appearing on stage with three new members, these days it\u2019s hard to spot any of the old acrimony between Burgess and Smithies. Whilst admittedly there isn\u2019t much in the way of bonhomie either (we don\u2019t see any of the arms around each other that even Liam and Noel managed earlier in the summer), the focus is very much on pulling out all the stops to deliver a great show for the fans in the room \u2013 and the warmth with which they are greeted by a crowded Albert Hall is palpable throughout. This is a band, and a clutch of songs, that people in Manchester love, even after all these years.<\/span><\/p>\n As a live experience, recent outings from The Chameleons have tended to plough the old \u201chere\u2019s one (or two) of our classic albums\u201d bookended by The Chameleons equivalent of \u2018the hits\u2019. The faithful would gather and much pleasure was had hearing\u00a0<\/span>Script of the Bridge<\/span><\/i>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/span>Strange Times\u00a0<\/span><\/i>in full. They were solid, they were reliable, they gave a lot of people who may never had the chance to hear \u2018Swamp Thing\u2019 or \u2018Don\u2019t Fall\u2019 or \u2018Up the Down Escalator\u2019 the chance to hear them performed by a band with some serious guitar chops. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This year though, The Chameleons live is a different experience because, for the first time in over two decades, they are touring a new album,\u00a0<\/span>Arctic Tears<\/span><\/i>. Now, whilst\u00a0<\/span>Arctic Tears<\/span><\/i>\u00a0is unlikely to trouble the old hit parade or even unseat the classic Chameleons\u2019 albums from their place in the heart of their fans, what it does mean is that, for the first time in a long while, The Chameleons play a set the way any common or garden band would play a set \u2013 mixing up the new songs alongside the old songs.<\/span><\/p>\n And so we get tracks from the new album like \u2018Where Are You?\u2019, \u2018Lady Strange\u2019 and most recent single (not a phrase any Chameleons\u2019 fan expected to hear in 2025), \u2018Saviours Are A Dangerous Thing\u2019, interspersed with the likes of \u2018Perfume Garden\u2019, \u2018Soul in Isolation\u2019 and \u2018Paradiso\u2019 \u2013 and if the test of the new material asks if it stands out amongst the older material,\u00a0 here the answer is no (although the cheers that greet the classics are understandable, all the same).<\/span><\/p>\n Burgess took a moment before \u2018View from the Hill\u2019 to commemorate the death of Stone Roses\u2019 bassist Gary “Mani” Mounfield the previous day, nodding to the passing of Chameleons\u2019 drummer, Lever, by commenting if Mani fancied creating a band up in Heaven, he knew a good drummer. (We did wonder if The Chameleons were going to try their hand at a cover of one of the Roses\u2019 early goth singles \u2013 surely \u2018Tell Me\u2019 has been crying out for the Chameleons\u2019 treatment? \u2013 but sadly not.)<\/span><\/p>\n You might think that a new album would inform a new lease of life but \u201cthis might be the last time you see us for a while,\u201d Burgess says. They don\u2019t let the pall cast by this news call a halt, though, blasting through a furious encore (playing the mighty \u2018In Shreds\u2019, their debut single from all the way back in March 1982 and every bit as blistering now as it was then, plus \u2018Monkeyland\u2019, \u2018Second Skin\u2019 and \u2018Don\u2019t Fall\u2019 from their debut album\u00a0<\/span>Script of the Bridge<\/span><\/i>) that ensures the cheering punters are halfway home before they start to wonder what Mark meant and what are they going to do if they are not entertaining us as The Chameleons?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Reviewed by Peter Wild\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Chameleons | Albert Hall, Manchester | 21st November 2025 Reviewed by Peter Wild It\u2019s been a bumpy road for The Chameleons. They started out all the way back in 1983, released a clutch of anthemic, Goth-leaning albums in the vein of early U2 (see\u00a0Script of the Bridge, What Does Anything Mean? Basically\u00a0and major label […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[15,283],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n