Atlanta Concert Reviews contributor Frank Carrington caught up with The Chameleons’ lead singer, Vox, pre-show in Atlanta, July 10th, 2025. Vox recounts the Manchester scene, finding his “person,” rubbing cake in John Lydon’s hair, album covers, the band’s upcoming release – Arctic Moon – and more.
ACR: Tell us about traveling on the road. Louisville, Nashville, Atlanta tonight – and tomorrow is New Orleans. Is that typical of how you guys travel?
We travel by road quite a lot. The only time we do planes is when we do festivals or a one-off or something. We go by road, which I prefer because, I mean, I’m not really a fan of the planes. I would always prefer roads when it’s right. And being able to sleep between destinations is a beautiful thing, eh?
ACR: How did you get paired up with The Psychedelic Furs?
Well, we’re not supposed to be on this tour. It was an accident. It was supposed to be the Mission UK supporting the Furs. Wayne (Hussey) had to go for some unexpected surgery which meant he had to clear his calendar for the rest of the year. And we talked with the Furs. We’ve become really good friends with the Mission, so their management was talking with the Furs management and then said, well, maybe Chameleons could step in and do it. So, they asked us, which is great for us, but we couldn’t go with them to the western part of the country because we have our own tour there later this year for our new album, Arctic Moon. They’re a great bunch of guys. It’s really comfortable.
I mean the opportunity for us is obvious. It gives us an opportunity to try to and reach people that probably wouldn’t know us and check us out live. I mean, we’ve been doing this long enough to be aware of what an opener band’s role is. And it’s very simple, our role is to get people excited. And that’s what we do. And, you know, it was always like that from the very beginning, but when you have an opportunity to open for a more popular band, that’s the best way of doing it is 30 minutes, 45 minutes, bang, and you get off. And that’s the way you have that the most impact for all the people who are not familiar with you. That seems to be working, getting everybody up for the band they’ve come to watch, and it’s working out really well.
ACR: What do you attribute that to?
I think, obviously, we’ve got a reputation of being a great live band, but anyway. I love the studio, too. It’s the left and the right hand of what you do. I love being in the studio. I love the whole process of writing and recording and stuff like that.
ACR: Well, you’re such a great lyricist, it’s just amazing. It drives your following. I’m sure.
Yeah. I think it is. It’s always been my number one thing I want to do.
ACR: Now you’re also getting at people that haven’t seen you before or maybe haven’t even listened to you before.
Well, they might have heard us but they didn’t necessarily get it. I think it’s, like you have a big song like everyone gets, like “Swamp Thing,” for example, they heard it but they don’t know it’s us. You know, they might have heard another track, but not really got it. And I think it’s when you see the band perform it, then you get it.
So, I think it’s more and more that, really. Our reputation starts to spread more and more. Then there’s more people willing to come and watch. Once they come watch the band and they experience it live, that’s when they get it.
ACR: I wouldn’t mind talking more about just what’s going on now and what’s going on in the future. It looks very fruitful as far as that goes.
Some of the opportunities we’re getting are really upper level.
We’re getting crowds and they’re just really crowds with mixtures a lot of younger people. Very young people being 15, 16, 17 are coming, or when they when they can actually get in at 21. Like we played Milton Keynes recently in a very solid, strong bill with people like The The and The Verve and Kraftwerk and people like that. We had we had a really great impact on that. And that’s going to have a consequential effect.
Those sort of things are happening, I think. And now that we’ve got a new record coming out.
ACR: It’s September till that comes out officially, right?
Yeah, September the 12th, but we’re being told they don’t want us to play it live until it’s out. Em, the very reason because they don’t want the people hearing it on YouTube before it’s come out because people are filming it live.
We’re playing “Saviours” live because it’s the new single out there now which kind of irritated me that they did that. We didn’t want to release a commercial single or a second one, because the album’s 42 minutes, which is the right length. But there’s only seven tracks on the album. We want to do like some kind of video for the album and put it out as a promotional tool to get people excited it.
ACR: But you’re playing “Where Are You?”
Yeah, because it’s already been out there (2024). I mean, I’m realistic enough to know how the landscape of this business has changed, so you have downloads and all that.
ACR: You have the two that songs are out here that you didn’t want to be out there. So, these other five songs. I know you’ve mentioned a song titled “Bowie” or similar.
“David Bowie Takes My hand,” it’s like one of the biggest songs on the record.
ACR: So how does that make you feel in terms of this particular album? How does it fit between the ones that you’ve put out there already and the ones you’re most proud of?
We’re really excited about it. I think it’s one of the best, if not the best, record I ever have been involved with.
ACR: Wow, that’s a strong statement because you’ve got some damn good ones behind you.
Yeah, but they were always, you know, I expect, when I did it, thought “Oh, actually, yeah, it’s good,” a solid record or a solid debut. And didn’t imagine that for years later, people would still be excited about it. Our second album, the production, I hate. I like the songs, there’s some great songs on that, but the Peel versions are better. I didn’t like the production on it at all. So, you know, I didn’t have that feeling of accomplishment when I did it.
I was just like, you know, I brought what I bring to it, did the best that I could do and everybody else did and I was proud of it. But I wasn’t thinking, you know, that it was any kind of career landmark or launch. Whereas on this one, because I’ve done so many, and not just working on this one with different people, you know, it gets a lot harder to try to kind of impress yourself because, you know, you’ve been involved in all these cool things.
And, you know, I didn’t really expect to have that feeling again, but I have about this record and I don’t really care if anyone shares that view. That’s the thing about it is that, you know, it doesn’t really bother me if some people don’t go for it, don’t like it. It won’t change my opinion of it. I think it’s a really great piece of work.
ACR: It sounds like you are prouder of this, of Arctic Moon, than even what you’ve done in the past.
Oh, I am.
ACR: Is there a little bit of that, “Wow, I can still get this done to this degree,” you know, 40 years in?
Of course, the melodies and the words and even a lot of the arrangement, I have a massive input. I might not have the initial idea that starts the song, although actually there are a few that I did. Like, for example, “Saviours,” which I absolutely love that track, started with Stephen. Stephen Rice, he’s one of the new guys (guitarist).
He brings this riff that’s like half the way there. And I hear it immediately and start working on the direction, so it really came from him, but it’s all going to depend on whether it inspires you to do your thing. I could do what I wanted to do with it. I mean I’m still not really sure how it’s going to turn out. I know I have an idea about what I want to do, but then that could change, and it could be bullocks. And then it was the very last piece that I did from the album. And I was like, wow, that works for me, you know, I’ I’m really proud of it.
So, to be with guys now that can inspire me to that level, I think with this record, personally, you know, I think that’s why I’m proud. I think I upped my game a bit. This isn’t just, you know, it’s not a thrown together post-punk album. It’s been really crafted, and a lot of our influences, which really came from the ’60s and the 70s, rather than the post-punk, have fueled our legacy. There’s that feeling that anything goes, and we’re not tied to a particular guitar sound anymore, we’re not tied to a particular style. We can do whatever the fuck we want. And that’s really liberating.
ACR: Well, do you attribute that to the new guys? I mean, you and Reg, obviously, everybody’s kind of looking, hey, these guys have done it before, and you’ve got three other people in the band that are bringing their own thing, like Stephen bringing these licks. Do you attribute that to just completely different mindsets kind of culminating?
Well, the common denominator is The Chameleons and the legacy of that. Everybody in the band has a love of that. So, me and Reg come together, and I knew he and I could write together. I didn’t know how long it was going to take. And then I have three guys I’ve never written with before.
ACR: And how did they come, how did you identify them?
Em, well, Stephen, I hired Stephen when I was doing ChameleonsVox, where he was playing drums for me. That kind of happened in an accidental way. And he was dropped right in the deep end, his first shows on drums were two nights at Manchester Christmas.
ACR: Ooh! And following in John’s (Lever) steps – because he was a bit of a drummer wasn’t he?
I mean, Stephen had a strong understanding of the music, because he loved Chameleons so much. You know, he had an understanding of the dynamic of it, which is essential for this band, as the legacy stuff is very dynamic. You have to have an understanding to be able to control that. But he came in as a drummer, and then I did some solo acoustic stuff, and I knew Stephen played guitar, and I brought him along to do some guitar with me on that. And I was just like, wow, you know, this is this guy should be a guitar player, when it comes to our new stuff.
Danny, the keyboard player, I worked with him, I started working with him on solo project called Invincible some years ago, and I always knew that I wanted to do something fresh with him. I love his approach, and he’s got a great sense of melody and, you know, if you can start jamming an idea with Danny, he’ll come up with something perfect like every time. It’s very, very lovely.
So, I always had Danny in mind when he was playing with Vox. He was playing occasionally because there wasn’t a lot of keyboards for him to do.
And then Todd (Demma), the drummer who is on the drum stool now, I worked with him first in 2019, when I was chasing a P1 Visa, and I needed work to support the petition. So, I put a band together with American musicians and two American guitar players and Todd, and he really impressed me.
But he really, really impressed me. So, when I moved Stephen up to guitar, I like, it’s an no brainer, you know. I knew that was the right call, and Reg and he played really well together and got on well.
ACR: So, is that a couple of years in the making to get to where you are now as you cobbled the band together?
I knew that I couldn’t write with the guy that was in the band before Stephen. I mean, he was you know, he was great emulating the legacy but I could not write with this person. So, you know, it was a question of reshuffling everything. I put trying to put together a combo that I feel would take the music forward for the first time. We felt we had everyone in place, Danny, Todd, Stephen, me and Reg.
ACR: Do you feel like that’s the best ensemble you’ve put together, going even back to the original days?
Yes, that’s why recording this album took as long as it did. There were circumstances that got in the way of it, but they were fortuitous even though they were not very pleasant for the world. COVID shut us down for a couple years. But by the time the dust had settled, we had the right people in the right roles,
including our management and our agencies and all that rest of that.
ACR: Would you have foreseen that all these years ahead?
Well, no, I don’t really look forward. I don’t plan anything, really. I think there may be a little bit of that the last two years where we’re thinking, okay, well, we need the right agent to work in the United States and we need to get people to give us better opportunities. But in terms of strategy and all, like, we were never like that really. We never look beyond the next record.
ACR: The new record is coming out, and I read that there’s not just keys, but strings, actual string arrangements on it. Was that a giant leap for you? Because that’s very different from what you’ve played in the past.
I’ve always been interested in strings because I’m a great fan of orchestral music. I bought soundtrack music with different composers, and I’ve seen bands perform with full orchestras. And there’s a Danish band that I really like called Efterklang that has performed a couple of times with orchestra. And I really love it. And I really love strings on records because I’m a huge fan of Tony Visconti and his string arrangements. And (David Bowie guitarist) Mick Ronson as well, he learned to score from Visconti, and he scored the strings for (Lou Reed’s) Transformer.
And then, suddenly we had material that was crying out for it, you know, something I brought to the table to record. It feels like “End of the World” was crying out for it and I knew what I needed to do. The same with “David Bowie,” I mean, I knew that I wanted that in and it just so happened that Chris knew a very good string arranger in Manchester who agreed to come in, and we had these consultations, and played the track and told him what I kind of wanted to hear. And he just delivered it and it’s just… fantastic.
ACR: Did it blow you away to hear it the first time, mixed in?
Oh, yeah. I mean, he came in and kind of did like “do you like this?” and “do you like that?” And goes away and calls again a second time and nailed it. So, it was just that fast. It’s just a mark of how great he is professionally and what he does. And I think, you know, we’re talking about actually doing a concert with him giving him some of the catalogue, selecting a number of songs, about an hour’s worth, and letting him score the whole thing.
ACR: Would you put that out on a recording?
Don’t know. Don’t know. It’s just something we’re talking about, just for a concert.
ACR: On the Arctic Moon tour when you are playing more from the record, will there be any strings?
No, there’s the expense of all that. Danny has all sort of tools with the, you know, technologies, so, you know, he’s confident. We’re going to start rehearsing for the Arctic Moon tour soon, and it’s going to require a bit more rehearsals to build in that production more than we would normally do.
ACR: We’re excited to hear your set tonight, but I’m also going to be disappointed not to hear the new stuff.
Yeah, I mean, we’ disappointed. We’re anxious to play it, but as I just said, it’s going to take a bit of producing. And the label wanted wraps on it until it comes out in September. And I understand that. I understand you don’t want all of the new material on YouTube before the album comes out. And that’s why we did just “Saviours” – and “Where Are You?” but the version on the album for that one is different. We had to get it done quickly, and we couldn’t all get together so Stephen played drums on the single. So, when that dust had settled, we got back to it for the album session for a much better version.
ACR: Well, the lyrics to that one are so interesting. Do you feel like you’ll ever get the answer as to where that somebody is?
There’s two sides to it, really. There’s like this conviction that I have that there’s this perfect someone for me out there. And even though I kind of deviated from that belief, I always ended up coming back to it. But there’s also the notion that you spend so much time out of their searching for the perfect partner and when there’s something great right in front of you, you missed it or squandered it. It’s the grass is always greener type thing. That ideal doesn’t really exist.
By the time I actually did it, I mean, I already found it, my person. So, now, you know, the song doesn’t reflect where I am. It more reflects where I was coming from when I wrote it.
ACR: You found your person. And was she always right there, somebody that you’d known over the years?
Yeah, I’ve just got engaged to my partner. She’s had a massive influence on this record and me personally. I’d met her at a show she was promoting along with her partner, an artist, and I didn’t actually recollect meeting her. And then she comes up to me again and we struck up a dialogue that, you know, led me to another rocky road really because I didn’t realize how much trauma I was carrying and how much baggage I was carrying. I couldn’t really get at it to really have a clear perspective on me, on myself and my relationships, why I’d always take sledgehammers to them.
So, it was really, it was it was my relationship that caused me to go to an Ayahuasca Retreat. I did it. I went on six days, and it transformed my life. It really changed me. Having dealt with that, it put me on the road to my own healing, and for her too.
ACR: That’s great to hear. Live, when play songs like “Swamp Thing” or “In Shreds” or whatever, as soon as the first note hits, the audience goes crazy. Are you getting a similar response when you play “Where Are You?”
Yeah, we were just talking about that this week how well the new songs are going down.
ACR: I’ve got to ask the question, and I know it’s Reg’s creation. The Arctic Moon cover has got so much going on. Is there in 10 words, is there a message that…
You’d have to ask Reg. I long ago ceased to figure it out.
ACR: All your album covers have so much going on.
I mean, there’s a lot going on in all of them. I understand the first one, Script of the Bridge, because they were all places that we went to. I understood the journey and didn’t need to ask about that. What Does Anything Mean? Basically is my favorite cover. That was, I kind of got that as well, you know, the records come out of the clouds… I kind of understand that. Strange Times, the original, we’ve redone it for the remaster, but the original, his girlfriend of the time – her silhouette is in the back, and he’s working on his own creation. I kind of get that. But with Arctic Moon, I mean, not really. You’d have to ask.
Arctic Moon, it’s interesting because when he did it we weren’t in the current climate that we’re in now. Things didn’t feel as tenuous as when he did that sleeve.
ACR: When I look, I see, oh, gosh, a little girl with an olive branch and a dove, but wait a minute, she’s got a gas mask on. And well, there’s a mushroom cloud behind her. There’s the Dalai Lama watching, and it looks like the ice she’s standing on is breaking away. It just, it’s like, wow, wow. What a mind to come up with that kind of connection.
Yeah, I think he comes at it rather instinctively.
ACR: A quick look back. After Chameleons broke up, the first time around, Tony Fletcher seems to just get the greatest accolades as your manager. What were his characteristics that made him successful because it sounded like there were fissures and he was keeping you together as the glue?
He was a positive presence, always there. It didn’t matter what time of day or night. And he was just extremely positive and he fell in love with us from the first time he worked with us. He was a troubleshooter in town. He worked for a big company called Kennedy Street Enterprises. He’d been working in the early 60s, worked with the Beatles and everybody else, a promotion agency. So, if they had a show at Wembley or a stadium show in Manchester, Tony would be the guy who put that all together. But for us he was just always constantly there, and a lot of the tensions that were between me and David, in particular, didn’t kind of matter when he was around. So, when he was suddenly gone, we couldn’t work together.
ACR: After, you formed or were part of a band called The Sun of the Moon.
I didn’t start it. John Lever did. He left the Chameleons before I did, saying in no uncertain terms that he’d had enough. And then that made me question it, because it was just problems, problems. Then we had just signed with Geffen (Records), and they were like we want to get off Geffen, and I didn’t want to go off in another record tussle. I didn’t want to get bogged down in all that stuff. There’s a lot of these things kind of going on that made me push at it. And so about, three weeks after the John, I was sort of done, and I quit.
And then a period of beyond that, John phoned me and said he was putting this together and would I consider being part of it. So, he had two friends that played with the band. And it was very uncomplicated, and then Geffen came along and said if you want to write something, we’ll listen to it. And if it’s good, we’ll put it out. And that’s how it happened. I didn’t have anything to do with the formation.
ACR: Okay, and I was thinking you did.
Yeah, most people assume that because I’m a singer and all that and the frontman. I mean, I joined The Chameleons. I didn’t form them. These two guys wanted me in their band and I just joined.
So, John called up, and I went over to chat about it and I knew the guys. I knew I already knew who they were. So, yeah, you know, I’ll get to write and sing some songs. It sounded good to me and it’s very uncomplicated.
ACR: I love that recording. I hate the fact that its shelf life was a one album, you know.
Sometimes it’s like that, isn’t it? I mean, you know, having done that I’m like, okay, we’re going to do another one? And then we’re working on it. I’m like, oh, this sounds like the last record, but not as good. The ideas I was bringing didn’t fit, really, with what they wanted to do. And what they wanted to do was kind of dull for me because we’d just done it. There was no growth.
I was into more earthy stuff like the Waterboys, and they were still doing the jingly jangly thing. I was into, you know, traditional, heritage folk music. They just wanted to keep going with The House of Love thing and carry on with that.
ACR: “Peace in Our Time” is one of my favorite songs that you’ve ever written. There was some political anger in that one, no doubt about it. Did you take that famous quote and build around it or did the Chamberlain quote just sort of came in?
No, I don’t recall I started with the Chamberlain thing. I think it came from something we did in our fanzine back in the 80’s. Follow no one, lead yourself.” That became an inspiration for it.
ACR: I know you’re a Sex Pistols fan. What do you think about them out on the road without John Lydon? Do you feel like Frank Carter is going to be a good match?
I haven’t seen it to be honest. I mean, I’m kind of in between. I understand where John’s coming from. At the same time, you know, I get Steve, Glen and Paul as well. They’ve got a right to play that music.
I only met John the second time in my life about two weeks ago at this festival, I had to go say to him that the last time we were that close to each other, I was rubbing a cake in his hair. It’s in a documentary, called The Filth and the Fury. It’s in that. And he was playing on Christmas Day for a matinee for children of striking firemen. It was very difficult to see them because they were being cancelled everywhere, but I heard this show was definitely happening. And I turned up – I hitchhiked to be there to be there when all these kids were going in there. And during the performance, there was a cake there and we ran up and rubbed it in his hair.
ACR: What was his reaction?
At the time he was just laughing. When I told him a couple of weeks ago, he was just like beside himself. “You were one of those kids!”
He’s still got a beef about that (the Sex Pistols touring). I don’t even know what the beef is. Here’s the thing, right? It sounds a bit crazy for me because I’m doing Chameleons. We’re two Chameleons but one of them died, sadly. We lost John, right? We’re doing it, you know, we’re Chameleons. People get polarized. Okay, I get it. And that’s fair enough. But I think the one person you can’t replace, is very difficult to replace, it is the voice.
The only band I ever saw pull it off, to be quite honest with you, were The Undertones, strangely, considering how weird that Feargal’s voice is. I saw them play without Feargal, and I thought they were wonderful. That’s very rare for me. I think when you don’t have the voice as a band, it’s really difficult. But when you’re going out as a band and, you’ve got a different voice, I think it’s harder for people to take. I don’t know whether this guy’s pulling it off, but I imagine he is because they figure they’re carrying on and doing it.
But, you know, Glenn and Paul and Steve, they’ve got a right to play Sex Pistols music with or with without John, and I understand when John says “there’s no Sex Pistols without me.” Yes, I would agree with that, but then I’m lucky enough to have seen the real deal.
ACR: Did you see them live?
I saw twice in the day. So, in the afternoon at this party, and in the evening, they played the show. It’s one of the best shows they did because they were all getting on with each other. There was no arguing or falling out. There was no baggage. They were so happy to be actually playing a gig. There were so happy to be playing and they were really tight. It’s fabulous, you know.
ACR: I’d think you might have seen him more than that.
Well, we don’t even don’t really get to hang out with a lot of famous people to be honest because it’s rare that we do festivals. I think we’ve only done a couple of any note, one was in Hudson Beach, which is a killer bill. But we didn’t really see anyone.
You know, people a lot of the time keep to themselves. I had friends there, like Kirk Brandon, who’s a very good friend of mine. So, I was talking to Kirk and then I turned around and there’s Danny Ashberry, and that was the first time we’d actually met. It happens like that. I met, you know, a couple from Berlin who were very kind and had a conversation with them. And then I met John (Lydon), you know, so it kind of happens like that. Really, I think John was the exception where I went up cold. I had to say hello.
Usually, you’re with somebody to introduce you. I wouldn’t feel comfortable going up to people cold and running, “Excuse me!” Although I don’t mind when people do that to me.
ACR: You had that hot bed Manchester scene that everybody talks about back in the 80’s, fertile, great music coming out. And a lot of those bands are playing now or, versions of them, and still with great reviews. Do you have scenes like that anymore in Manchester?
No.
ACR: Why do you think that is? The way music’s made and distributed, maybe?
That’s part of it. I mean, we had a thriving live scene where it was the only way you got to see a band. It was the only way. That’s how you’re going to discover them. and so you get scenes built around clubs. So, I used to, for example, to go to The Russell Club (aka The Factory) in Manchester, without even knowing who was going to be playing. I just went on Friday night knowing that’s live music. So that’s why I go there. I saw the Furs in 1978.
That’s where I saw the Bunnymen three years before they got a drummer when they were playing to a drum machine, at The Factory in Manchester. So, I was going there all the time and a scene develops that way, because there has to be places for these bands to play.
Obviously, you had Buzzcocks in ‘77 or Slaughter & the Dogs we had playing in Manchester and then we had the Caribbean community so we had Steel Pulse and all that stuff. But it really started in ‘78 with the post-punk period in Manchester, and we had two labels, Factory Records and Object Music.
And then you had The Fall who were financed by Buzzcocks initially, their first record, first couple of records, which Buzzcocks management paid for. So, you had these, you know, labels around ’77 or ’78, and all these little places like Cyprus 7 and The Rafters and The Osborn and The Factory. So, it kind of falls around that. That’s where you’re see bands. It’s where people go. And that’s how you get a scene.
And we’re more alienated now, you know. There’s not, to my knowledge, very many places that will have a club that people will just go to no matter who’s playing and hang out.
The closest thing I think I saw to it was in San Francisco around 2009, when I spent about three months there and I stumbled into this scene of bands there – Blasted Canyons, Grass Widow, the Osees, who were the only ones that actually broke out. They were the pinnacle of the whole scene. I’d go to places where there were like 50 people maybe, but every one of these people were buying records on the way out. You know, that impressed me, and I got to see and hear a lot of great stuff. And that reminded me a little bit of Manchester, but it didn’t coalesce into an actual scene.
ACR: Well, it sounds like you were living those days all over again in San Francisco, just as a music purveyor.
Streaming changed the nature of the business. I think that’s what the problem is, people are not really interesting in going out to a place, picking a place that is happening. You know, I mean, yeah, I just think it’s the more advent of computer-based consumer music.
ACR: You’re needed on stage. I know you’ve got other things to do. You’ve been more than gracious with your time. We really do appreciate it, and we’re looking forward to Arctic Moon!
One Response
I just want to say how terrific this interview was. I really appreciated the depth and research that the interviewer must have done prior to this interview. I’ve learned quite a bit about the chameleons and its lead singer. The historical context and perspective so much fun to read. Thanks!