Manchester Post-Punk Heroes The Chameleons Announce New EP of Re-Recorded Archival Tracks

The Chameleons, often hailed as unsung heroes of the post-punk, gothic, rock, dream pop scenes, stand as one of Manchester’s most influential yet criminally underrated bands. Their brooding blend of ethereal riffs, emotive power, and haunting hooks shaped a sound that resonated far beyond their four studio albums. Inspiring a diverse array of acts—Verve, Interpol, Oasis, and Editors among them—their intense live shows and profound, poetic lyrics carved out a distinct legacy, marrying melancholic moods with fierce, fervent energy that still echoes in today’s indie landscape.

Now, Chameleons (Reg Smithies, Mark Burgess, Stephen Rice, Danny Ashberry, and Todd Demma) announce the release of a new five-song EP, Tomorrow Remember Yesterday, which will be released digitally by Metropolis Records on October 11.

“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.

Released in the liminal space between the Where Are You? EP—their first fresh studio work in over two decades—and the upcoming Arctic Moon album slated for 2025, this EP of archival gems, Tomorrow Remember Yesterday, gets a new lease on life. Dusted off, polished up, and re-recorded, it serves as a nostalgic bridge connecting their two latest releases.

The concept for this resurrection was born during the band’s annual Christmas Manchester gathering in 2023: “I had the idea of revisiting some of these very early songs but recording them in a way that reflects who the band is now, rather than who we were in 1981,” Burgess says. “We were so happy with the results.”

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,” Burgess 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 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.

Tomorrow Remember Yesterday can be pre-ordered here.

The vinyl edition of the EP will be available through the Berlin based label Aufnahme+Wiedergabe, with a limited number also available via Metropolis Records mail order.

2025 will be marked with the release of Arctic Moon, a brand-new album by Chameleons: their first studio full-length since 2001’s Why Call it Anything.

“It’s 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.”

Currently on the road in the UK, the band return Stateside. for a round of dates in the Midwest and the Southeast. Dates are below:

Tour dates:

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