[kj] Chameleons Home is Where The Heart Is

Mon Feb 1 09:10:11 EST 2016

And for me also, a close run thing between KJ and Chameleons. KJ probably
win due to their vastly superior musical output.

Managed to see all the Chameleons reunion gigs at the Witchwood in Ashton
(circa 2000?), such an amazing experience.
The LP they made on their comeback (Why Call It Anything) was very very
poor in my opinion.

I've never taken The Chameleons Vox thing too seriously. It's just be great
to here classic songs in a live environment again.
Glad Nick pointed out about it being crap when they advertised that they
would be playing all of "What Does Anything Mean Basically". What about the
night after as "song picked by the fans" errrr really, I'm sure they played
Denims And Curls which I refuse to believe was up there in a fans best of.

As for Mark, well what a disgrace his recent attack on John Lever in
interviews. The less said about Mark the better.

I don't usually recommend best-of but The Chameleons - Return Of The
Roughnecks is excellent.
Also another hidden gem is the LP Mark did with Yves Altana under the name
Invincible called Venus.

Brian.

On 29 January 2016 at 21:29, Nick Scott <npscott at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

> I don't know who knows him on here, I went to the album launch party and
> talked to both Dave and John, Dave did give me a CDF CD of some demos....he
> never really took that project that seriously and just did some festivals
> with it, and to be honest it sounds like trance noodlings that would
> probably been alright in about 1992.
>
> Yves is a very talented multi instrumentalist, but to be honest his
> drumming in Vox is not a patch on John's.
>
> Interestingly Yves is a member of a new project he has formed with
> Kitchens Of Distinction's Patrick Fitzgerald called 'Oskar's Drum'.
>
> On 29 January 2016 at 21:13 "fatpotanga ." <fatpotanga at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> No, I missed that. Last project of his I heard of was Coconut Dog Fuck.
> Someone on here knows Dave or lived near him. Was it Janean? Anyway, Will
> check it out and thanks for the reminder. I recorded a demo at Martin
> Coogans studio once, long time Burgess cohort Yves Altana
> engineered/produced it. Both nice guys, esp the latter who I got on really
> well with. Crazy Corsican!
> On 29 Jan 2016 21:02, "Nick Scott" < npscott at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Dave Fielding, amazing guitarist.
>
> Don't know if you knew he did a project last summer with John, 'Red-Sided
> Garter Snakes' and the album 'Endless Sea'...I did post about it on here
> but may have slipped under the radar, had some interesting guest vocalists
> on it including Martin Coogan's (Mock Turtles/Steve Coogans brother)
> daughter Mary Joanna Coogan, and the rather brilliant ex-Puressence
> vocalist James Mudriczki. Check out [Feel Alive
> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-wBet8vA5w>] and [Crack In A Paper Cup
> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN_5880kxuY>].
>
> Sadly do not know the reasonings, but Dave has left the project as they
> were about to start recording the second album. No fallings out as far as I
> know, Dave has wished John well with his endeavours and going to be doing
> some solo stuff, but was hoping for some gigs.
>
> On 29 January 2016 at 20:48 "fatpotanga ." < fatpotanga at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Chameleons - neck and neck with killing joke for me and just as innovative
> both as genre setting and from a unique guitar stance. Brilliant! Swamp
> Thing, up there with the greatest guitar riffs of all time, except nobody's
> heard it :)
> On 29 Jan 2016 20:37, "Carlos Fandango" < stronkle at hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Haven't chameleon box packed it in also? I think they recently did a
> "final" tour. Was watching some old episode of Luther the other week and
> was surprised & pleased to see they used chameleons tune for end titles.
>
> Sent from my Windows Phone
> ------------------------------
> From: Nick Scott <npscott at blueyonder.co.uk>
> Sent: ‎1/‎29/‎2016 3:17 PM
> To: A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!)
> <gathering at misera.net>
> Subject: Re: [kj] Chameleons Home is Where The Heart Is
>
> One of my favourite bands and were very intense live. Chameleons Vox
> playing the stuff live has all gone sour though and Mark Burgess is a self
> indulgent twat, but definitely check out their albums...to me they had the
> intensity of KJ and are like a bastard child mix up of The Cure/Killing
> Joke/Echo And The Bunnymen.
>
> Criminally overlooked, the record label they originally signed to made
> them ineligible if I remember right for the indie charts and besides some
> help by John Peel sessions were stuck in no mans land. The death of their
> manager when they were finally signed to Geffen and beginning to get some
> successes was the last straw.
>
> Despite reforming in 2000 and a final album coming in 2001, they split
> again in 2002 and in 2009 saw the birth of Chameleons Vox between Mark
> Burgess (vocalist) and John Lever (drummer) which then turned sour about 18
> months ago with Lever stating they conspired to 'oust' him out and Burgess
> calling it lies. Splitting fans, myself on the side of John after reading
> about Burgess's questionable personality and antics. Chameleons Vox whilst
> still worth checking out are themselves a shadow of their former self.
> Former Wonky Alice guitarist and well known producer in the Manchester area
> Yves Altana who has played with Mark in various outside Chameleons projects
> has put his hands to the drums, and whilst competent enough is no match for
> Lever's drumming.
>
> Check out particularly the first three Chameleons albums, Script Of The
> Bridge, What Does Anything Mean Basically, Strange Times...all brilliant.
>
> On 29 January 2016 at 19:43 " adrianwason at btinternet.com" <
> adrianwason at btinternet.com> wrote:
>
> I've just been played this never having heard the Chameleons before-sounds
> like something off BTATS-very
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