Tell us about your first Chameleons experience

Share with the other members your first experience of The Chameleons, was it a gig you went to? or what song did you hear first that made you a fan?

oh oh oh! Me first! haha..I've told you this story, and I think I've told Mark this story like 5 million times, but anyway..

One day, I was in my apartment listening to pandora.com while cleaning, which I had built a station on it around Bauhaus. So it was busy playing similar bands..then Don't fall came on, and I liked it but it was just sort of background music, until the part at the end came. And then, I looked up and I was like "whoah wtf is this?!" I went over, found out, seeded the station with the band and then looked some up on youtube. The rest is history, I suppose...LOL

It's a bit vague, a lot of time has elasped but I do remember;

The first Christmas present I bought for Jock was Strange Times from Manchester Arndale Centre.

Another memory I have is every Friday strollling home from the pub, both of us merry, (obligatory cartwheels in the park) we'd always sing "Tears" as Jock lived with his sister and we always had to be really quiet, so we would "sneak in through the back door." Then make peanut butter and jam on toast, really quietly and take it to bed to eat whilst reading comics!

I don't have a really vivid first experience. I can't really remember what life was like pre-chams.
I know the first time I heard it was when Mark (my Mark) played script of the bridge to me.
I have vague, blurry, drunken, drug-fuelled memories of listening to the chams very loud in various bedsits at anti-social times of night.

Didn't get to see them live till 2000, upstairs at the Barfly in Camden. It was totally rammed and everyone was jumping up and down. I thought the floor was going to collapse and hugged the wall all night.

Small word moment - I was in a band with the guy that got up and sang at a Sun and the Moon gig, when Mark lost his voice.

It would have been '83 or '84 ( can't remember) and I heard Looking Inwardly on the John Peel show and was utterly blown away. I headed to London the following Saturday and bought Script, which was their only album release at the time.
Strangely, I was the only one in my circle of friends who was into the Chams at the time. This meant I never got to see them until the reformation. Of course, they all finally got it once the band had split!

First song I heard was In shreds, and I loved it, I remember going to the Banshee in Manchester and asking the DJ to play In Threads (yeah Ive always been abit dumb) he very kindly corrected me!

First gig was Mark doing an acoustic set at The Witchwood aprox 93/94 amazing night!

I'm super jealous that any of you actually got to see them..curse me for being born in 86

My wife (Sammy) brought home a bag of 7" singles she'd selected when a DJ offered her free pick of promos at radio one where she'd visited with her dad. Still there? IN SHREDS was in the bag!!! Blew me away. Bought Script the week it came out (from Vibes in Bury). First gig Tuesday 1st March 1983 Middleton Civic (RIP) - blew me away too, AWESOME! Never looked back, thanks very much the wife! Much love xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx x (26 kisses, 26 years).

Yeah but lydia you can get a private performance anytime you like

Now now, let's not get excited or anything....lmao

Shhh...we have to stay on topic remember!

I guess my first time that I listened to The Chameleons was back in the very early 80's
I was scoring a bit of hash from a dealer,and on my 3 mile walk home I called into a mates house.
We had a wee smoke then as I was about to go as we were at his grannies house? Who would be in soon,and the house was stinking of grass lol Anyway he noticed that I had my walkman with me,so he gave me a tape of the Band.
I had already heard a couple of tracks from the Peel show,but this was the complete SOTB ,cheers I said and then I was on my way!
I never got far ? I sat down on the steps of a school(It was evening) and rolled another,then turned up the walkman,flicked the bass boost button,It was bliss and so refreshing listening to a band that grabbed your attention straight away?
And it was one of those tapes,Albums,CD's that you could'nt pick your favourite straight away,it was like story unfolding,"Its like ...Is this the stuff that dreams are made of....I realise a miracle is due...I dedicate this melody to you? And at the time it was the boost that I needed....And it feels like I'm everywhere... And when you sleep......where do you go.....
"Carry me home,well can you tell how will it be.......
Will the ghosts just stop following me.....From the window of my room ......if you could look into my eyes now...what would you see? CLASS
Its now been 27 years later and lots of Chameleons cd's DVD's the sons of God CD's,SATM CD's etc etc
Its just a little bit sad that Ive never seen them live but I guess being in the Army for the last 21 years,and going to all the nice places in the world does not help lol But atleast I can still take my tunes with me?

Well… a-hem…unlike most of you, who where either on your own or with a group of sweaty blokes, my “first time” actually involved a member of the opposite sex…

It was 1986, and she was a girl called Cathy who was living in Canada. We’d become pen-pals (yes, real writing on real paper with real pens & real stamps – remember them?!), and she mentioned the Chameleons as her favourite band. She also liked Japan & Bowie, so had a high pedigree in good taste. It was around the same time ‘Tears’ was released, and I spotted the 7” double pack (remember them?!) in the local record shop (remember them?!), so bought it to send to her. I played it once, and wasn’t that blown away. But it stuck in my head sufficiently to draw me back to the record player (remember th… oh, you get the idea!) for another go. 3 plays in, and I was hooked! Paradiso, Inside Out and Swamp Thing soon followed it, and a hasty dash back to said record shop to pick up “Script”.

I remember hearing Don’t Fall for the very first time & thinking, ‘Christ, this is rough!’, having got used to the Strange Times sound. But the less hardcore tracks like 2nd Skin, Monkeyland (which sounded like a Wire song!) & Pleasure and Pain helped lubricate my passage in... And once in I never wanted to leave! I was in a garage band, and immediately indoctriated the other members.

Strange Times came out a couple of weeks later, and that just sealed it – a fan for life.

A couple of years later me & a mate from that band were at a Record Fair in Preston, and spotted bootlegged tapes of The Fan And The Bellows for £5. His response - £5 being just about our only cash for the month at that time – was “we’re not going to pay a fiver for a fucking tape, are we?’. My response : “OF COURSE we fucking are!!”

Oh – and Cathy? She moved over to the UK & broke my heart...

1984 Rock im Park Germany.

- The Cure
- Talk Talk
- THE CHAMELEONS
- The Cult
- The Name

Was there to see the Cure. But i found the music of my life ! No need to say who.
Cure was really shit btw.

1984 where are the days ???

Jorg

jorg wrote:

1984 Rock im Park Germany.

-
Cure was really shit btw

Jorg

Jorg funny you should say that, Lydia and I were talking about the Cure on Saturday night, and I said exactly the same thing, was 1992 when I saw them and we ended upleaving early as they were so poor!

jorg wrote:

1984 Rock im Park Germany.

- The Cure
- Talk Talk
- THE CHAMELEONS
- The Cult
- The Name

Was there to see the Cure. But i found the music of my life ! No need to say who.
Cure was really shit btw.

1984 where are the days ???

Jorg

Welcome, Jorg! Hail, King of all Rarities! Do you still collect? is there anything left you don't have?

The Cure live were summed up for me at Glastonbury 1986. A beautiful weekend, until the moment they came onstage, when the heavens opened and it rained like the world was ending. Complete mudbath. Upon the very last chord of their encore it cleared up, and it didn't rain again for the next 3 weeks!

My first experience was hearing Script when it was new. My friends sister bought the album in London, because of the fine artwork. I was hooked directly.

I couldn't find any other albums in Sweden back then, but a couple of years later I heard Swamp Thing on the radio here. I decided to look a bit harder for more albums, and finally bought WDAMB and ST. This was when ST was brand new.

Then it took me years to find more stuff. Thanx to Internet, I could buy all albums etc. And friends via WV sent me bootlegs etc. I now have almost everything that they recorded, inkluding gigs etc.

Anus wrote:

The Cure live were summed up for me at Glastonbury 1986. A beautiful weekend, until the moment they came onstage, when the heavens opened and it rained like the world was ending. Complete mudbath. Upon the very last chord of their encore it cleared up, and it didn't rain again for the next 3 weeks!

I was at Glastonbury 1986! I'll never forget it. Best I ever saw the Cure perform. I remember it seemed like hours, while we waited for them to come on stage. They were playing that Glove track.
And the rain..... oooh the rain. People with umbrellas were getting stuff thrown at them for blocking the view.

TheWuzz wrote:

Anus wrote:

The Cure live were summed up for me at Glastonbury 1986. A beautiful weekend, until the moment they came onstage, when the heavens opened and it rained like the world was ending. Complete mudbath. Upon the very last chord of their encore it cleared up, and it didn't rain again for the next 3 weeks!

I was at Glastonbury 1986! I'll never forget it. Best I ever saw the Cure perform. I remember it seemed like hours, while we waited for them to come on stage. They were playing that Glove track.
And the rain..... oooh the rain. People with umbrellas were getting stuff thrown at them for blocking the view.

Oh, yeah! Billy Bragg was on at the same time in a huge covered marquee, and everyone except the Cure fans stampeded it to escape the deluge – was probably the biggest audience he ever played to! I felt sorry for the people who had turned up without a tent, and spent that night in a sleeping bag half-submerged in the mud.. It was a job trying not to step on them! For me that was the best Glastonbury of that generation. I’ve still got the T-Shirt! The Cure, The Psychedelic Furs, The Waterboys, The Pogues, The Housemartins... the last day was shit, but then they usually are. 1989 was the last year I went.

And, Jesus, the “toilets”!! It was just a big hole dug in the ground with a tent around it and a long plank to hang your arse over. On the first day there was a bit of a pause before you heard the soft thud… By the last day you weren’t sure whether the shit up your arse was yours or someone elses! Happy days…

Gross about the toilets lol! You'd think they would have had actual port-o-potties at least. I'd have hated the cold and the rain!