The Chameleons-What Does anything Mean basically

THE CHAMELEONS - WHAT DOES ANYTHING MEAN BASICALLY? (1985) Forgive my discussions having a 80’s feel, with the Chameleons I look at the 80s scene and you see bands like Simple Minds and U2 being at their creative peak between 1980-1983, with the Chameleons at this time they were finding their feet. If the Edge was the master of alternative guitar tunings, then the Chameleons were the masters of songs of rich textural guitar awash with keyboards. The Chameleons main purpose was to record a peel session that was their main inspiration if you like, this happened quite early on. Due to the exposure Peel gave them they were signed to Epic records and released ‘In Shreds’. In the 80s record companies would get behind bands or drop them, with Epic records they were a bit unsure of where to go with the Chameleons. So they left the contract and joined Statik records which was a subsiduary of Virgin. In early 1983 'As high as you can go ’ was released and was followed up by the excellent 'Script of the Bridge’. They toured constantly but in late 1984 they recorded for me what is the pinnacle of the Career, the excellent 'What does anything mean Basically?’ . It starts with the Phillip Glass like 'Silence, Sea and Sky’. Other tracks like 'Singing Rule Britannia’ and 'On the beach ’ just add to what is a complete album in the truest sense of the word. In hindsight the music press claim it was over produced, I think the follow up 'Strange Times ’ lacked the power of this album. With the Chameleons they broke up in late 1986/87 due to the death of their Manager Tony Fletcher. As a result it would take them many years to get back together. They did resurface with ’ Why call it anything’ around 2000, Mark Burgess continues to tour with Chameleons Vox. The comparisons to other manchester acts was unfair, where as Joy Division was about the power and starkness of the music and of course the lyrical content, singing about Passover and means to an end. With The Chameleons it could be as moody as that but there was also an optimism with the songs like 'Pleasure and Pain’ with lyrics like 'baby bouncing on your Knee, Hope for you and hope for me’. There was always an uplifting part to the Chameleons music that many other acts could not match. posted on 14.2.2014