Post-punk band The Chameleons are coming to Walter Studios

The Chameleons are coming to town for a rock show at Walter Studios on Tuesday, October 7.  They have a killer new release, “Arctic Moon,” and according to singer/bassist Mark “Vox” Burgess, they are more than ready to rock.

My own relationship with The Chameleons dates back to when they were known as The Chameleons UK in the late 1980s.

“There was, like, a lounge band called ‘The Chameleons’ at the time, so (the record label) just put UK after our name. We really didn’t care, you know. We weren’t bothered,” says Burgess over a Zoom call with a bit of a smile on his face.

For music fans, it’s often a romantic notion to say that you remember exactly when and where you first heard a song. It looks good on paper, and it tugs a bit on the heartstrings, but it often is the stuff of music writers and star-crossed lovers.

An impactful song is a wonderful thing, but at least for me, I can rarely pinpoint the exact place and moment in time when I first heard a song that could crack the linings of my heart in two. A really good song, though, can do just that and more. You find it, then play it over and over, and it carves its niche on your soul. Kudos to people who can write songs like that.

In the summer of 1988, my friend, Jay, loaned me a CD single of The Chameleons UK’s “Swamp Thing.” We had been talking about music, and he said something along the lines of “I think you’ll like this.”

I did.

I remember that I was house-sitting for my mom and her then-boyfriend (now my excellent stepdad), and they had a CD player. I didn’t have one yet, so I was pretty excited to get to fool around with it. It was just a Walkman hooked up to some tiny (at the time) Bose speakers, but it represented a new world of possibilities, too.

The first CD I popped in was that Chameleons disc (and yes, it did say ‘The Chameleons UK’ on the sleeve). The haunting guitar melody that starts “Swamp Thing” began, and if you know the song, it’s one of those that gets louder as you go, so of course, I turned up the Walkman. The house was mine for the weekend, and I wanted it loud.

That’s what 18-year-olds do. 

If you’ve stuck with me this far, you know what happened from there. I listened to that disc constantly until I grudgingly gave it back to Jay, and “Swamp Thing” has always had a place in my heart. It takes me right back to a summer day in the late ’80s, rockin’ out in the almost empty house where I would soon throw a party that I wasn’t supposed to throw.

During the last almost forty years, The Chameleons have come and gone, reunited and reconfigured, and Burgess has released a heap of fantastic solo and collaborative material in the interim. There is something about the band that keeps Burgess coming back for more. Most recently, it was reuniting with longtime collaborator Reg Smithies.

“When Reg came back (in 2021), it changed the whole (dynamic). By that time, I had had enough of it, really, because I wanted to do something fresh, but it was inevitable that Reg and I would start writing together. We had all the components there to move forward,” says Burgess.

Fast forward to 2025: Burgess and Smithies are joined by relative newcomers Todd Demma on drums, Stephen Rice on guitar, and Danny Ashberry on keyboards to bring yet another incarnation of the band to life, and they have a brand-new record.

Arctic Moon is the band’s first full-length album in over twenty years, but the sound is definitely true to the Chameleons’ previous discography.

“Everything just aligned naturally to get to the band we’ve got now. It is just the right combination of people to set the music forward,” says Burgess.

Opening track, “Where Are You?”, from “Arctic Moon” has the sound and feel of the band from the late ’80s and early ‘90s, but doesn’t sound like a band aping itself at all. There is a familiar groove that fans of the early years will connect to quickly, but there is also freshness, too.

“Our guitar player, Steve (Rice), was very into The Chameleons. He was a fan. That’s why he wanted to play in the band in the first place, but what he’s done is very much his own thing. I don’t think he’s copied the ‘Chameleon’ sound. It just happened, you know, because he has an understanding of (the band’s history). I don’t think he plays like (original member) Dave (Fielding) at all, but I understand comparisons in terms of atmosphere,” says Burgess.

Other standout songs on the seven-track “Arctic Moon” include “Feels Like The End Of The World” and the first single, “Saviours Are a Dangerous Thing,” but the whole record is just really solid. Even the slower-paced “Magnolia” and “David Bowie Takes My Hand” are magnetic and moving.  The latter is particularly poignant to Burgess.

“(David Bowie) was one of the influences Reg and I share. We both loved him. I was in a really dark place at the end of 2024, and I was listening to Bowie’s “Rock and Roll Suicide” (from Bowie’s 1972 classic, “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”), and it perfectly expressed how I was feeling at the moment. “David Bowie Takes My Hand” is not about Bowie, per se, but his song really resonated with me like never before at that moment. It was kind of like the song saying, ‘Give me your hand,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, take it. Take mine. Get me out of here,’” says Burgess.

The band also worked with a new producer on “Arctic Moon,” Christopher Bright, so it is even more remarkable that the record captures the earlier feel and tone so well while bringing something fresh and vibrant. Burgess is very pleased with the result after not having recorded anything new with The Chameleons for so long.

“We didn’t want to emulate anything we had already done. Reg and I agreed that in a way, we were kind of liberated. It freed us in a lot of ways because we weren’t tied to any particular sound. We wanted to move forward, and we can’t wait to get back into the studio and make another one. We’re really happy with (Arctic Moon). At the end of the day, we’ve done what we always do,” says Burgess.

I’m a little past throwing wild parties at mom’s house while she’s out of town, but I’m certainly not above rockin’ out to The Chameleons. You should do the same, but be kind to your mom.

The Chameleons play Walter Studios on Tuesday, October 7, 2025, at 8 p.m. (doors are at 7 p.m.). Tickets are available here for the 21+ show. There is no opening act.