The Chameleons’ ‘Strange Times’ turns 40 on 1 September
The Chameleons, the post-punk band from Middleton, Greater Manchester, released their third studio album “Strange Times” on 1 September 1986 through Geffen Records. The album turns 40 this year. David M. Allen produced it. North America received the record four weeks later, on 29 September 1986, with a bonus LP attached to initial vinyl copies.
Jacob’s Studio and the making of ‘Strange Times’
The sessions ran for five weeks at Jacob’s Studio, in Ridgeway House near Farnham, Surrey. Mark Saunders engineered, with Paul Crocket and Beki Field assisting and adding piano. Reg Smithies drew the cover, as he had for every Chameleons release since the band’s first single. The line-up was Mark Burgess on bass and vocals, Dave Fielding on lead guitar and ARP String Ensemble, Smithies on rhythm guitar and John Lever on drums and percussion. Ten tracks run 52:09: “Mad Jack,” “Caution,” “Tears” (original arrangement), “Soul in Isolation,” “Swamp Thing,” “Time/The End of Time,” “Seriocity,” “In Answer,” “Childhood” and “I’ll Remember.” The vinyl carried no B side. Both sides were credited instead as Side A and Side A+. Asked where the record sits among the band’s albums, Burgess gave a short answer in the sleeve notes on the band’s website: “Strange Times is my favourite.”
Two singles came out of the sessions. “Tears” arrived first, on 16 June 1986, in a version credited as the full arrangement, electric where the album take is acoustic and ends differently. “Swamp Thing” followed on release day itself, backed by a cover of David Bowie’s “John, I’m Only Dancing.” A promotional 12″ issued the same year paired “Mad Jack” with “Time/The End of Time” and a reading of the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows.” The bonus LP bundled with early North American pressings held six non-album tracks; the American cassette split those across both sides. No CD edition existed until 1993, when Geffen released a two-disc set in the UK and Germany and an American single disc that dropped “Ever After” to fit. Reissues have continued since: a Japanese CD on 25 February 2004, a Music on CD two-disc edition in Europe on 20 March 2020, a Moochin’ About double LP on coloured vinyl on 28 October 2022, and remastered 2CD and 3LP editions through Blue Apple Music on 3 May 2024. The Spotify edition carries 16 tracks, the album plus the bonus material.
About The Chameleons
The Chameleons formed in Middleton, Greater Manchester, in 1981, when Mark Burgess joined guitarists Reg Smithies and Dave Fielding. Burgess had played with the Cliches; Smithies and Fielding came from Years. They started as a trio without a drummer, took on fellow Middletonian Brian Schofield, and settled on John Lever of Dukinfield, previously of the Politicians. Martin Jackson, formerly of Magazine, covered the drum stool during 1982 and 1983 while Lever took a sabbatical. A 1981 session for John Peel led to a contract with Epic Records, which issued the debut single “In Shreds” in March 1982 with Steve Lillywhite producing, and dropped the band shortly after over disagreements about packaging and image.
Statik Records, a Virgin subsidiary, picked the group up and released the debut album “Script of the Bridge” in 1983, a record Side-Line covered in The Chameleons’ ‘Script of the Bridge’ turns 43 on 8 August. Statik’s ownership disqualified the album from the UK independent charts, and MCA cut four songs from the American edition, a decision the band objected to. The second album, “What Does Anything Mean? Basically,” followed on Statik in 1985. Constant touring and the work of manager Tony Fletcher brought the band to Geffen Records, and to “Strange Times.” Fletcher died of cardiac arrest in 1987, and with a rift already open between Burgess and Fielding, the group broke up. The EP “Tony Fletcher Walked on Water…. La La La La La-La La-La-La,” recorded in 1987 and named for him, appeared in 1990.
Burgess and Lever formed The Sun and the Moon, releasing one album on Geffen in 1988; Smithies and Fielding formed The Reegs, who put out two albums on Imaginary Records in 1991 and 1992. The Chameleons reconvened in January 2000 for a run of shows at The Witchwood in Ashton-under-Lyne, issued the acoustic album “Strip” that May, then “Why Call It Anything” in 2001 and a second unplugged record, “This Never Ending Now,” in 2002. Renewed tensions ended the reunion in early 2003. From 2009 Burgess and Lever played the catalogue as ChameleonsVox. Lever died on 13 March 2017, aged 55.
Burgess and Smithies reformed the band under its own name in May 2021 with guitarist Chris Oliver and drummer Stephen Rice, recording “Edge Sessions (Live from the Edge),” released on 25 April 2022 by Metropolis Records. The current line-up adds drummer Todd Demma and keyboardist Danny Ashberry. New material followed after a two-decade gap, covered here in The Chameleons release first new material in over 20 years: ‘Where Are You?’ and The Chameleons release ‘Tomorrow Remember Yesterday’ EP with re-recorded early tracks – Out now, ahead of the single reported in Chameleons release new single ‘Saviours Are A Dangerous Thing’ via Metropolis Records and the dates listed in Chameleons announce European ‘Arctic Moon’ Tour 2025. The fifth studio album, “Arctic Moon,” was released on 12 September 2025 through Metropolis Records. Forty years on, “Strange Times” remains the last album the original quartet finished together.
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!
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