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To whoever will receive this message:

We truly live in Strange Times...

Months of a quiet calm have passed on this lonely island, months without any sign of activity of our dearest band. Months in which the time has been slipping slowly but constantly from our hands, as if time was waiting for a sign. And the sign has come as a STORM. With all its gorgeous force and devastation, destroying whatever comes on its way. Just one second is able o kill years of dedication and a whole life ... The Chameleons ... are alive no more (again).

The hurricane has not passed yet, but in the eye of the storm we try to reconstruct all the pieces of this puzzle, we try to analyze the signs which appeared before the storm and we weren´t able to see on time.

The story is repeated, with different names, with different faces, but it´s always the same. So it´s life. Misunderstandings, distance, differences, feelings which are not expressed on time and they keep slept and little by little they begin to invade you from the inside, at first without any notice but they finally destroy the affectionate relationships. And the bad feelings replaces the magic, until you reach the point of no return and the only thing left to do is to close chapter and begin a new one without looking back.

The Big Chameleon has extincted .. twice, and now it seems it´s forever. Nothing lasts forever, but this quick and sharp end does not do justice to the greatest band from the Manchester of the 80´s, who was able to construct as nobody else melodies full of magic and intensity. A band that still hasn´t got the acknoledgement they deserve, a band which has been ignored by the music business from the very beginning.

Our only hope is that one day the waters come back to where they belong, but in this flood it seems the Big Chameleon is badly hurt and it will take a long time to hail its injuries; perhaps a whole life, or perhaps never. Will we have to wait for another 15 years? Perhaps this time is forever.

We have no alternative, we are imprisoned on this lonely island from the very begining (or perhaps it was yesterday?); we will keep on feeding the flame of this small fire, as a tribute to one of the most special bands of the world and hoping this little flame will lighten the path for those willing to hear an know what has been, what is and what always be the sound of The Chameleons.

Best regards to those who visit this lonely island.

Antonio

December/2003

On the official web site of Dead Guitars you can see the pics of the Mark Burgess show

(Thanks Martin)

Mark Burgess will play be playing as support for Dead Guitars (Ex- Twelve Drummers Drumming, Ex-The Convent) at Projekt24, Moenchengladbach (between Dusseldorf and Cologne) / Germany on 26 Dec. 2003 (20 h).

More information : www.projekt24.com

(Thanks Dirk)

John Lever, The Chameleons´drummer, will be playing with the band WILSON at The Withwood (Ashton) o December, the 16th. Entry fee: 5 £.

(Thanks Mik)

Dave Fielding has released a new CD called Dragonfly´s and Butterfly´s. The only way to get it is sending an english £10 note and a stamped addressed envelope which will be able to carry a cd to:

Dave & Becky
21 Nelthorpe Street
Lincoln
LN5 7UH
England

This release has been anounced by Dave on the official forum. This is the link where you can read the original message:

http://forums.wishville.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=6956&st=0&#entry120348

(Thanks Pedro)

September/2003

Mark Burgess will be playing some gigs in Scotland in October.These are the confirmed dates.More info as soon as we have it.

Thurs Oct 2: Aberdeen - The Moorings Bar
Sat Oct 4: Shetland - Weisdale Hall
Sun Oct 5: Shetland - Lerwick (venue to be confirmed)
Wed Oct 8: Ullapool Kayleigh Club
Thurs Oct 9: Inverness Market Bar
Fri Oct 10: to be confirmed
Sat Oct 11: to be confirmed

August/2003

Dave Fielding has published on Wishville, The Chameleons Official Forum, an open letter with all the info about his latest projects. Here is the literal transcription of the mentioned letter:

Yes, I have played 3 festivals recently, Eco-fest, Bardney and The Big Green Gathering. I am playing all new material as opposed to old Chameleons songs (they always sounded better when the 4 of us played them - how they were originally written). The two names I have used are The Toothbrush Brigade and Badly Burnt Toast, neither of which are serious names, obviously, for my future project.
I have written and recorded about 3/4 of my first LP and will probably be using the name DF118, which is a name of a drug I used to take in abundance. I cannot say when my first record will come out, but hopefully I will release something before the end of the year. I have not put a band together but have had many offers from musicians, wishing to form a band. Although I have been playing with a didjeridu player and African drummer on the festival circuit and the sound is incredible. For this I have been playing dulcimer and in the evenings we play the dance tents and I play electric guitar and E-bow. I am thinking of doing some gigs later in the year with this line up.

I am still in contact with Reg and John and will be sending them my new material shortly. I have been asked by a Manchester label Drum and Bass Recordings to play on an LP along with various musicians ie Black Grape, Level 42 etc... I still haven't decided if I want to get involved.
I am playing the 'Small World' festival this weekend and cannot wait to sample the local dope cake and xtc. Lovely.

Hope you are all well and happy.
DF118

New Section available on our web site: Cover Section. Here you will find all the info related to the bands which have performed The Chameleons covers.

There has been a change in the Dusiburg gig; the venue has moved now to Fifty-Fifty. The information has been updated in the dates and venues we gave the other day.

(Thanks Kubin)

Yvo, a fan from the official forum, has made a flyer for the German Tour with all the info about dates and cities. For a better visualization, click on the image

(Thanks Yvo)

Mark Burgess is performing some solo gigs in Germany next September. These are the confirmed dates and venues:

-Friday, 19th: ISERLOHN, U-Bahn ( http://www.u-bahn-iserlohn.de)
-Saturday, 20th: DUISBURG, Fifty-Fifty
-Sunday, 21st: BOCHUM, Zwischenfall ( http://www.zfall.de )
-Monday, 22nd: KÖLN, Underground ( http://www.underground-cologne.de )
-Tuesday, 23rd: MARBURG, Molly Malone ( http://www.mollymalone.de )
-Wednesday, 24th: BIELEFELD, Forum ( http://www.forum-bielefeld.com )
-Thursday, 25th: BERLIN, Knaack ( http://www.knaack-berlin.de )
-Friday, 26th: GÜSTROW, Gurruh ( gurruh@freenet.de )
-Saturday, 27th: BREMEN, Tower ( http://www.tower-bremen.de )

(Thanks Doc and Kubin)

For a very limited period of time it is available on Internet on mp3 format theAlive; Not Dead EP by The Sun and The Moon, which is nowadays out of stock. This EP was the last work of Mark and John as a band with Andy Whitaker and Andy Clegg; the group disappeared the same year of the releasse of this EP, on 1988. The EP is composed by 4 songs, one of them is a cover of an Alice Cooper song. More information of this work, on our Other Projects section.

http://www.aoov50.dsl.pipex.com/and.htm

(Thanks Mik)

Soon we will create a new section in which all the information related to the covers of chameleons songs different bands have been performing will appear. Also, we will include the different CDs in which the mentioned songs appear.

July/2003

Rian has published on his web site some photos taken by Nige in the Mark Burgess San Francisco Shows:

http://www.riandata.com/photos/San Fransisco/

(Thanks Rian y Nige)

On the Channel web site, the opener for The Troubadour Show, you can find a photo of Mark Burgess in stage with the mentioned band:

http://home.earthlink.net/~markrhodes/channel/cnews.htm

(Thanks Pedro)

June/ 2003

After some days in which our server has been down due to a hackers attack, we come back again. We hope this situation won´t be repeated.

May/ 2003

These are the confirmed dates for the Mark Burgess US Tour for this June/July:

(Thanks Weezer)

Stefan Burghardt, a German Chameleons Fan, has setup a Chameleons forum in:

http://www.boardy.de/forumdisplay.php3?forumid=92262

(Thanks Stefan)

On the following Chelseamonday has stored some photographs from the Gig Mark Burgess performed in Sheffield last May, the 13th:

http://www.chelseamonday.co.uk/casbah030513/

A new design of StrangE TimeS has been finished. This time we have chosen a less colourfull design, minimizing the trivial images and backgrounds to stress what is really important: that is, the words. It is based on a black-grey-white concept and you will find the same sections as before. Now, only the Photo and Other Musics Sections are deactivated. We hope they will be updated soon. We sincerelly hope you will like this change and any suggestion is welcome.

The acoustic concert of Mark Burgess at Barfly is cancelled and it will be performed at Toynbee Hall Arts Cafe, 28 Commercial Street in London the same day, that is on Friday the 9th of May.

(Thanks Cath Aubergine)

Thanks to Cath Aubergine we can enjoy a few photographs of the Mark Burgess show in Athens, on April the 12th. The track list has been provided by Penger:

Author: Cath Aubergine

(Thanks Cath Aubergine and Penger)

Mark Burgess will be in London and Sheffield performing two acoustic sets on May the 9th and the 13th:

Date: Friday, May 9
Venue: Barfly (London)
URL: www.barflyclub.com

Date: Tuesday, May 13
Venue: Cashbah (Sheffield)

Mark Burgess is collaboring in the music online magazine NewspaperTaxi. This magazine has the particularity that all of its collaborators belong to the music world. On The following link you will find the review Mark made of the gig of Justin Sullivan (leader of New Model Army) in Hamburg last March the 9th:

Mark Burgess Review

April/ 2003

Bad News. The Athens show for April, the 12th will not be performed by all the members of The Chameleons. It seems, due to internal problems, that not all the members of the band will get to Athens. In change, Mark Burgess, with the percussionist Kwasi Asante and some technicians who used to be with the band will perform an Alternative Show. Of course, this will not be a Chameleons Show, but surely they will play some Chameleons acoustic versions , some songs from the other bands Mark have been in, and perhaps some covers.

When we have more information about the show, we will let you know.

This is the detailed information about the upcoming show The Chameleons are giving in Athens (Greece) on April the 12th:

X-BUG CLUB
Address: Elasidon str & Dekeleon 26 (Gazi). Athens
Capacity - 450 people

For tickets and any information, contact Dark Side Records: darkside@otenet.gr

According to Mark Burgess, Dark Side Records are planning a party on a different venue for Friday the 11th (Tribal Booze in Kolokotroni 57-Center, Atenas) and although it is possible not all the members of the band will appear, due to fact they arrive in Athens the same day, it is sure Mark Burgess will be there with his guitar.

This will be the very first time The Chameleons are playing in Greece.

European Tour in April of Interpol. This band from NYC has as main influence The Chameleons and Joy Division. Don´t miss them. For tour details, check their website.

March/ 2003

Mark Burgess has commented on the official forum, the possibility of performing some solo shows in the U.K. in May. Until now there is nothing confirmed but as soon as something is said, we will update you with the dates and venues.

Oliver Zens has sent us new Wallpapers for PCs related to The Chameleons. They are optimized for a 1024x768 resolution and they are available for download on our downloads section. Here is the preview of the mentioned wallpapers.

(Thanks Oliver)

It is available on the Fan Web Site Endlessly Falling a Chameleons UK Screensaver for PC. Please, read the instruction on that page for installing.

(Thanks Morn)

At last Mark Burgess has published a new open letter on the official forum. It will we publish soon on the official site. This time Mark tells us about the project of a DVD release, a new gig in Athens, the autobiograhic book and how things get going inside the band:

Here is the letter, as you can find it on the official site and on Wishville:

Mark Burgess - Open Letter March 16th - 2003

Hi folks,

I'm sorry that an news update has been so long in coming but the simple fact is there hasn't been anything new to tell you. We're all still scattered to the four winds with no clear idea of how to take the band forward but I can now tell you that at least there's something on the horizon in the form of a live appearance in Athens, Greece, on Saturday April 12th. The venue details are still being worked out I believe but I will post them at the head of this message hopefully early next week, but at least I've now been able to confirm the show.

Production on the live DVD continues. The main bulk of the content will be the concert we played last year at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. By way of extras there'll also be excerpts from the acoustic set performed in the same venue the previous night as well as excerpts from one or two of the following shows in southern California, along with some interview footage filmed at the time. The main concert footage has been completed and a recent update from the project's producer describes the footage, audio and video wise as "pretty awesome."

I'd like to update you on the activities of the others but I'm not able to with any real clarity. The main problem is the availability of Reg who, understandably, has to focus on his new baby son while his Mrs attends teacher training, leaving him no time to write, rehearse or tour, which limits my options somewhat (!). Hopefully in the near future this situation will improve but in the meantime we seem to be rather stuck. From what I can gather I'm the only member of the band actually writing songs at the moment, although given the current level of activity in general it remains to be seen whether these evolve into Chameleons songs or not.

With this in mind then I've more or less decided to take up an offer I've had to go to the US and play some solo acoustic shows some time this year. I'll hopefully be talking with Chris in Atlanta about this in more detail and we'll both be able to keep you updated on any developments.. It's my hope that I'll be able play alongside local bands along the way who will then back me on a few songs at the end of my main set. I've done this in the past and it's proved to be very interesting and enjoyable.

It's a very different thing to what I do with The Chameleons of course but if you're open to it I hope some of you will try and make it if and when we get it together.

A lot of people have been asking me how the book is going. Very well for the most part. I had to lay it aside late last year to organise the American tour and it's been difficult to regain the momentum but it proceeds steadily and I've just finished Chapter 18 and begun chapter 19, which involves the break-up of the band in 87, the death of Tony Fletcher and the birth of The Sun And The Moon. Ultimately of course I'm rather stuck for an ending but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

That's all I can think of to tell you right now. As I say I'll post the venue details of the Athens show just as soon as I get them from the organisers. I was disappointed when the show fell through last year and I'm looking forward to what will be the band's first ever gig in Greece.. In the meantime, as always, love and light to all of you...

Namaste

Mark Burgess

Wishville, the Official forum, has recently chaged its URL and its aspect. You can access it now on:

http://forums.wishville.co.uk/

January/ 2003

New photos from the concert The Chameleons gave in BIELEFELD last November, the 16th. The photos have been taken by Nico and they are hosted in the web of Rian.

http://www.riandata.com/photos/Nico/

(Thanks Rian and Nico)

It has been confirmed the presence of Mark Burgess as Special Guest in the concert The Concert will perform Güstrow, Guruh (Germany) on February the 1st. More information on the official web site of The Convent.

(Thanks Olaf)

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