The Chameleons’ ‘Script of the Bridge’ turns 43 on 8 August
Statik Records released The Chameleons’ post-punk debut “Script of the Bridge” on 8 August 1983. The album turns 43 this year.
The Chameleons released their debut studio album, “Script of the Bridge,” through Statik Records on 8 August 1983. The English post-punk band from Middleton, Greater Manchester, recorded the album at Cargo Studios in Rochdale with engineer Colin Richardson. “Script of the Bridge” turns 43 this year.
The classic Chameleons line-up of Mark Burgess (bass, vocals), Dave Fielding (guitar, keyboards), Reg Smithies (guitar, cover artwork) and John Lever (drums) is credited as producer alongside Richardson. Statik issued the album on vinyl LP and cassette, opening with “Don’t Fall,” which samples dialogue from the 1946 film Two Sisters from Boston, and running twelve tracks through to closer “View from a Hill.” The record includes the singles “Up the Down Escalator,” “As High as You Can Go” and “A Person Isn’t Safe Anywhere These Days.” In the United States, MCA Records issued a truncated eight-track edition under the name Chameleons U.K, omitting “Here Today,” “Less Than Human,” “Paper Tigers” and “View from a Hill.” “Script of the Bridge” streams on Spotify in its full twelve-track, remastered form.
About The Chameleons
The Chameleons formed in Middleton, Greater Manchester, in 1981 when bassist and vocalist Mark Burgess, guitarist Reg Smithies and guitarist Dave Fielding began playing together without a drummer; Smithies and Fielding had previously performed together as Years, while Burgess came from the Cliches. Middleton drummer Brian Schofield joined briefly before John Lever, formerly of the Politicians, took over on drums, with former Magazine drummer Martin Jackson filling in during 1982-83 while Lever was on sabbatical. After a 1981 session for BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, the band signed to Epic Records and released the Steve Lillywhite-produced debut single “In Shreds” in March 1982, its sleeve painted by Smithies, who created the artwork for all the band’s releases. Epic dropped the group soon after, and the Chameleons signed to Statik Records, a Virgin Records subsidiary, on which they released “Script of the Bridge” on 8 August 1983. Statik’s status as a Virgin subsidiary kept the album off the UK independent charts, but a truncated MCA Records edition built the band a college-radio following in the United States.
The Chameleons followed with a second album, “What Does Anything Mean? Basically,” on Statik in 1985, then signed to Geffen Records for “Strange Times” in 1986. The death of manager Tony Fletcher in 1987 and internal tension between Burgess and Fielding led the band to split that year; Burgess and Lever went on to form the Sun and the Moon, while Smithies and Fielding formed the Reegs. The Chameleons reconvened in 2000 for shows at the Witchwood in Ashton-under-Lyne, released the acoustic album “Strip” the same year and the studio album “Why Call It Anything” in 2001, before splitting again in 2003. Burgess and Lever went on to perform the band’s catalogue as ChameleonsVox from 2009 until Lever’s death in 2017.
Burgess and Smithies reformed the Chameleons under the band’s original name in 2021 with guitarist Chris Oliver and drummer Stephen Rice, both previously of ChameleonsVox, releasing the live album “Edge Sessions (Live from the Edge)” on Metropolis Records in 2022, the label the band joined that February. The reformed lineup, rounded out by keyboardist Danny Ashberry, announced a December 2022 UK tour and toured with Au Pairs singer Lesley Woods in 2023. In May 2024 the band released the “Where Are You?” EP, their first new material in over two decades, followed that October by the “Tomorrow Remember Yesterday” EP of re-recorded early tracks. The Chameleons released the single “Saviours Are A Dangerous Thing” via Metropolis Records in May 2025 ahead of their fifth studio album, “Arctic Moon,” released that September, and announced a European “Arctic Moon” tour for the fall. More than four decades after Statik released “Script of the Bridge,” the guitar-driven, atmospheric sound the album established remains the foundation the Chameleons’ later work continues to build on.
Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!
Since you’re here …
… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Side-Line Magazine than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can - and we refuse to add annoying advertising. So you can see why we need to ask for your help.
Side-Line’s independent journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we want to push the artists we like and who are equally fighting to survive.
If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as 5 US$, you can support Side-Line Magazine – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.
The donations are safely powered by Paypal.
