Top Five songs by The Chameleons

well, they piss on Joy Division.

1- Second Skin 2- Monkeyland 3- Dont Fall 4- Indiana 5- Home is Where the Heart Is.

Script of the Bridge. Best album out of Manchester in the 80's.

of kourse, in no particular order...

soul in isolation swamp thing tears paradiso ever after...

A Person Isn't Safe Anywhere These Days

Paper Tigers

Second Skin

The Fan And The Belows

View From A Hill

Tears - full version Second skin Intrigue in tangiers Swamp thing Up the down escalator

Script of the Bridge. Best album out of Manchester in the 80's.

Great album - probably in top ten Manchester albums - but No1? Meat is murder/ Queen is Dead/ Stone Roses?

oh bugger......... no particular order 1 second skin 2 monkeyland 3 one flesh 4 caution 5 in shreds 6 dont fall oops, oh well could go on for days with this one....

Old Lead Foot wrote: oh bugger......... no particular order 1 second skin 2 monkeyland 3 one flesh 4 caution 5 in shreds 6 dont fall oops, oh well could go on for days with this one....

You can have a top fifty if you want.

Any good gig memories Paul?

saw them a few times - always entertaining. Last time out was at the Ritz in Manchester in Dec 2000 - good gig with Mark Burgess on good form. Crowd are very enthusiastic - s bit like a NO gig actually/.

The Sun and the Moon played here recently too- but missed that- The Speed of Life is a great track by them.

Confusion33 wrote:

Great album - probably in top ten Manchester albums - but No1? Meat is murder/ Queen is Dead/ Stone Roses?

The Queen is Dead is quite possibly the most overrated album in history. Taek the title track, There is a Light, and Bigmouth off it and there isnt great deal to it.

Meat is Murder is again overrated but a good album.

The Stone Roses has dated quite badly.

Harsh judgements Liam- what about I know its over? and the humour in Some Girls (prophetic about the rise of plastic surgery culture). I personally always preferred Meat is Murder - I don't think there's a bad track on it.

Interesting to see that you think the Roses has aged badly- I think its quite timeless and when I put it on in the car it reminds me of some fantastic times in the 80s and early 90s.

However - I agree with you about the Script of the Bridge - fantastic album. In fact all of the Chameleons albums are excellent - apart from the one they released in 2001 - why call it anything - this one tarnishes their excellent reputation.

Confusion33 wrote: Harsh judgements Liam- what about I know its over? and the humour in Some Girls (prophetic about the rise of plastic surgery culture). I personally always preferred Meat is Murder - I don't think there's a bad track on it.

Interesting to see that you think the Roses has aged badly- I think its quite timeless and when I put it on in the car it reminds me of some fantastic times in the 80s and early 90s.

However - I agree with you about the Script of the Bridge - fantastic album. In fact all of the Chameleons albums are excellent - apart from the one they released in 2001 - why call it anything - this one tarnishes their excellent reputation.

First half of why call it anything is great. Shades, Indiana, Lufthansa, Anyone Alive. Quality tracks.

I like shades but after that I hardly gave it a listen

I'd be hard pushed to choose 5..

But here goes

1. Swamp Thing
2. The Healer (Tony Fletcher EP)
3. Tears
4. Up The Down Escalator
5. Second Skin

Finally, a good thread by Liam. I need to think about my choices though. The Chameleons rock.

Most surreal moment seeing The Chameleons playing one night after they briefly reformed....playing in the vault of The Brunswick in Middleton!! Bloody great,well they've always gone drinking in there.Mark used to go watch City with a mate of mine Shorty,and I've had a pint with Dave and Reg. But this one night,they played in the vault on a "JAM NIGHT". About 10 songs I think,one of them SOUL IN ISOLATION,where Dave played his digeridoo.But his mike kept falling off. So I went on my knees (fnarr,fnarr) and held the mike to it. I thought "I've found my vocation in life....on my knees!"

Oh if you want a good laugh,watch the video of them at Manchester Academy "RESURRECTION",and watch it up to them playing SPLITTING IN TWO. Look at the knob-head at the front of the stage.

Uncle Liam wrote:

Old Lead Foot wrote: oh bugger......... no particular order 1 second skin 2 monkeyland 3 one flesh 4 caution 5 in shreds 6 dont fall oops, oh well could go on for days with this one....

You can have a top fifty if you want.

Any good gig memories Paul?

me and gary lavery(reegs) doing backing vocals on splitting in two at "play for moor" at middleton civic, reg on drums, john on bass, tony skinkis and yves altana on guitars, no dave for that one...

playing the end section of second skin at a gig in germany on tour with mark.

seeing them live

etc etc

One for the regret thread is I never got to see them live. When they reformed I didnt know Alex et al, and was away at Uni most of the time.

Alex and some of the others have some very wierd and entertaining stories of following them, usually around Germany. apparently they once did a gig in an abbatoir or something.

Bremen Schlachthof