Riding on a crest of rejuvenated momentum following the release of their Where Are You? EP (their first studio release of new music in over 20 years was released in May 2024) and tours that have seen the band play to some of their biggest crowds, Manchester’s legendary THE CHAMELEONS have returned with a brand new EP, this time archival songs that they have refreshed and re-recorded. The five-song release TOMORROW REMEMBER YESTERDAY is released today October 11th digitally by Metropolis Records here and a vinyl edition is available through the Berlin based label Aufnahme+Wiedergabe with a limited number also available via Metropolis Records mail order.
“These songs were amongst the very earliest songs we got together pre-Peel session in 1981, but were discarded at the time due to them feeling unfinished,” says vocalist/bassist Mark Burgess. Conceived at the annual Christmas Manchester gathering in 2023 where the band played two nights at the city’s famed venue The Ritz, Tomorrow Remember Yesterday arrives one week ahead of a round of U.S. dates that kick off on October 18th at Chicago’s Bottom Lounge, including a a special pre-Halloween show in New Orleans on Oct. 30th at House of Blues and wraps up on November 6th at Indianapolis’ Black Circle.
Tour dates are:
Oct 18 Chicago, IL Bottom Lounge
Oct 19 Detroit, MI Smalls
Oct 20 Columbus, OH Skully’s Music Diner
Oct 22 Nashville, TN Eastside Bowl
Oct 23 Birmingham, AL Saturn
Oct 24 Greenville, SC Radio Room
Oct 25 Winston-Salem, NC The Ramkat
Oct 26 Athens, GA 40 Watt Club
Oct 27 Tampa, FL The Orpheum
Oct 28 W. Palm Beach, FL Respectable St.
Oct 30 New Orleans, LA House of Blues
Nov 4 Kansas City, MO recordBar
Nov 6 Indianapolis, IN Black Circle
The archival EP’s first track “The Fan & the Bellows” highlights the band’s penchant for creating epic soundscapes with searing guitar textures. “Most of them have been released over time in their original form on various retrospectives and such like but were never really intended to be,” he explains. “‘The Fan & The Bellows’ was originally the choice of CBS/EPIC as the debut single, but the band wasn’t happy with the results and rejected that in favour of the newest song at the time, ‘In Shreds’.”
“Nostalgia”, whose chorus “tomorrow remember yesterday” is the origin of the EP’s title, was also resurrected. Recorded during the same sessions as “The Fan and the Bellows” with Steve Lillywhite (Talking Heads, Psychedelic Furs, U2), both songs originally appeared on a retrospective release by Statik Records which released the band’s earliest records.
Serving as a musical bridge to the highly-anticipated release in 2025 of Arctic Moon, a brand-new album which will be their first studio full-length since 2001’s Why Call it Anything, Tomorrow Remember Yesterday is a way for the band to revisit their past with a new modern lens. “Arctic Moon is quite different from anything Chameleons has done before, and I know this will probably polarise the legacy audience, but we’re quite excited about how it’s developing,” Burgess says. “I think the songwriting is much more mature in a lot of ways, which is to be expected, I suppose, given our age, but I, for one, really believe we’re taking the band forward, and I’m quite excited about it.”
Long cited as a hugely influential act, having inspired the likes of Verve, Oasis, White Lies, The Slow Readers Club, Interpol, The Killers and Editors, among countless others and known for their transformative musical catalog and intense and emotionally charged live performances, The Chameleons have created a legacy that extends beyond their four studio albums. Following their debut single “In Shreds” in 1982, the band released three seminal albums: the widely acclaimed Script of the Bridge (1983), cited by many sources as a masterpiece way ahead of its time, its follow-up What Does Anything Mean? Basically!‘ (1984), Strange Times (1986), and Why Call It Anything? (2001).
Their unique sound quickly captivated the public through their mix of melancholic yet energetic and powerful tunes, hypnotic, ethereal riffs, and the potent, timeless lyrical style. The Chameleons are considered one of the most influential guitar bands of the 80s and 90s, contributing substantially to the post-punk, shoegaze and indie scenes. They are often regarded as one of the most underrated bands ever to emerge from Manchester, England.
The Chameleons are Reg Smithies (guitar), Mark Burgess (bass, vocals, lyrics), Stephen Rice (guitar), Danny Ashberry (keyboards), and Todd Demma (drums). Tomorrow Remember Yesterday is released today, October 11, 2024 via Metropolis Record and is available digitally via Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music and Bandcamp.