The Chameleons – 1981 photos found

One of my oldest friends, Martin Mackenzie, realised that he had a series of negatives from around that time, some of them taken at Gigs Live Music Club.

This was a great find, because it identified two bands I didn’t previously have a record of playing: Que Bono, and Wanda and the Dentists.

The Chameleons playing at Gigs Live Music Club, The Derby Hall, Bury. Photo courtesy of Martin R Mackenzie.

Martin is a better record-keeper than I am, but his meticulous nature must have taken a break when he filed these, because there’s no name against the band. However, I posted this on the Bury Olden Days Facebook group and fairly quickly half a dozen people identified the band as The Chameleons. The photo shows three of the four people in the 1981 line-up, which was Mark Burgess, Reg Smithies, Dave Fielding and John lever (the original drummer before John Lever).

The Chameleons are one of Manchester’s great bands. They played several times at Gigs Live Music Club in their early days – from 1981, when they were formed.

There are about 60 photos in these neg bags, of which about half a dozen are of The Chameleons, the rest being Medusa, Que Bono and Wanda and the Dentists.

I’ll get around to scanning them soon. I hadn’t really envisaged the book including photos (mainly to keep the cost down), but it’s looking more likely that I'll need to include some, or find an online home for them as some kind of companion piece.