View From a Hill: The Chameleons UK

I don't know what the one reviewer is talking about, this is a great book. I have been a fan of the Chameleons for 25 plus years and this book goes into great detail about Mark and all of his bands. Yes it has a lot about Mark and his life outside the Chameleons, he wrote the book about the band AND his life. What did people expect?? If it were only about the band it would be about 50 pages. I find the book very interesting and if you are a true fan of Mark's music you will find this book highly entertaining. A must buy for any true fan of the Chameleons music. If you are a casual fan then yeah maybe it will seem long. But since the Chameleons were never huge I can't see anyone reading this review or the book for that matter who is not a huge fan. You would have to know about the band to even think to look for this book. Fantastic book, now I want a book by the other members of the band to have their take on the story of the Chameleons.!! Are you reading this Dave???

Would have benefited from an editor. There are myriad tangents from the main narrative and Burgess does seem to feel he's above his band mates and many others, though I suppose that's expected with a cult rock star ego. Aspects of his personal life are a bit discomfiting, along the same lines. The part that truly needed editing is the very long section which is exclusively musings on metaphysics. Still, a worthwhile read for fans of the music.

Beautifully written and a unique insight into the history of the band

Mark Burgess was right... The Chameleons wrote three songs, sent them to John Peel, hardly gigged at all, then got a major record deal with CBS...They didn't really have a story.... Mark Burgess pretty much met everyone in the Biz growing up, and was immersed in the scenes in Manchester, and Middleton, etc. He veritably met everyone... So was it a coincidence that success was inevitable...??? This book was long winded about unimportant and irrelevant experiences, that made me wonder about the importance of the band itself outside of the fact they did write great music...I was waiting for the tension, the adversity, the situations, the problems, the stumbling blocks, and what I got was just a normal corporate band who had normal dealings, and a somewhat easy going time. When I listened to their music, I though this is what I was going to get, now I question how much truth, or reality actually transpired to create the songs they wrote.

The ramblings of a mad genius as put forth by an unreliable narrator. Which is to say that I absolutely loved it.

Disagreeing with the previous reviewer, I'm one third of the way through the book and find it an interesting read all around. The writing style is easy and natural, and I for one find the small "insignificant details" to be the jewels in the narrative. Mark has an amazing memory for these details (either that or he was a good note taker through the years). After some reflections on his "present" life, he begins telling stories of his childhood educational path through adolescence and into adulthood, along with the music scene he witnessed and was involved in from the mid-1970s through 1981 and the formation of The Chameleons. I'm looking forward to slowly making my way through the rest of the story.

I have been a fan of The Chameleons since 1986 having seen them live from around that time and not missed any of Mark Burgess' shows solo or with the reformed Chameleons. I have to agree with the first reviewer that the book is a little one sided and can run off on tangents. Mark is truly a gifted musician and songwriter who made a huge impact on my life and that of many others. However, he does present an uneven view on things as the first reviewer stated: "Dave Fielding is the fiery red-haired monster; Reg Smithies the bashful, insignificant geek; and John Lever a pot-headed mamma's boy with no point in living" Mark seems to consider himself above the fray but it takes 2 to tango and this case 4. He seems to blame most of the problems on Dave Fielding which is a little unfair and I too am hoping that Dave will be write a book so that we may have his view of the story as well, but that may just be wishful thinking. Mark seems to be able to drop projects, women, bandmates without a second thought and then expect them to respond to his requests immediately as he did with Yves Altana who went on to marry Mark's ex-wife Sally. He drops out of The Sun and The Moon to start hanging out with the buskers and street performers, when the rest of the band was willing to continue on I read somewhere else on-line that the remaining members stated that he wanted to take an acoustic direction which was not what (Andy Clegg and Andy Whitaker)wanted to do as they were a rock band, something that makes sense to me considering the direction that Mark took when they disbanded. Invincible, same thing, Son's of God same thing. So you begin to see a pattern of non commitment on his part. Then he ups and starts romancing another woman while his wife is trying to set up home for the both of them. He even states that he feels a pang of jealousy when he sees his wife and dog connecting with Yves, not looking at what drove them into that corner, his indiscretions.Now I am not saying that Mark is 100% at fault here, I am sure that Dave Fielding had as much to do with it as he did, but that is not the picture provided. John Lever and Reg Smithies are the casualties left after the feud and in my opinion forced to choose sides with Reg siding with his childhood friend Dave and John sort of caught up in the middle.A great read for any Chameleons fan but can be plodding when he starts off on his tangents, that is my humble opinion.

A really interesting book which I recommend to all fans of Mark Burgess and The Chameleons.