4. The ChameleonsScript Of The Bridge
Here’s a band that’s influenced anyone who’s ever heard them – including me! They were the teenage band that pulled you out of the muck of post-puberty. It made sense in a J. D. Salinger kind of way. Confronting the world, kicking against the pricks, all those sort of motifs that you get with teenage years. The Chameleons were the band that organised your attack through the crap that was going on around you.
Here’s a story: when we first came over in ’89, I thought The Chameleons were so massive. So I thought I’d ask people, "Hey, when are The Chameleons playing Wembley? We’re here, I want to see them!" And they’d say, "Never heard of them mate." So I’d be like, "No, no, no, The Chameleons, y’know, Script Of The Bridge?" I’d just keep asking what enormo-dome they would be playing. And I could not believe how small a cult following they had – I was stunned to hear that this band didn’t have such a wide following. In my view this band was bigger than Pink Floyd. I’m now friends with Mark Burgess and have been for 30 years. I’m always marveled by the stories that he tells me from the twists and turns of the band to how they could’ve been big but weren’t. Script Of The Bridge is one of those lingering drones in music that’s always been in the background.
