View from a Hill is the biography of Mark Burgess, founder and lead singer of the legendary Manchester New Wave band The Chameleons. After a demo, personally handed over to John Peel of BBC Radio One, the group was invited to participate in the John Peel Sessions. Afterwards, it was only a matter of days before The Chameleons become the newest hype in London. It went fast, too fast. The band had no more than a handful of songs on its repertoire, the guitar playing was actually not so professional, and no one in the group had any idea of how things should be addressed practically: negotiating copyright, attracting a manager or closing a deal. And as often in the music industry, the money-grubbers were the first to offer their services and to ensure the most advantageous position for themselves. That little effort was made to recruit a good and reliable manager, was the biggest stumbling block: the deal with CBS Records was vague and without strict agreements, and as a consequence the intentions of both parties were far apart, while the next agreement with an independent record company, ended in legal discussions and the suspension of the contract.
Meanwhile, there was hardly any cohesion within the group. Excessive drug use had heavily affected the consensus between Mark Burgess and Dave Fielding, who were at odds with each other. The end of The Chameleons was in sight. The promising band, which acted as support for U2 and Killing Joke, and in the meantime had become a hit in college towns in the northeast of the USA, was falling apart in spite of the new contract deal with Geffen, that ultimately didn’t keep its promises, either. Mark Burgess decided to abandon the band and to leave for Israel for a while.
In View from a Hill Mark Burgess begins his story in Middleton, Manchester, in the home of his parents, where he grew up as an only child. To their chagrin, he left school at 16 and soon started working in the company where his father acted as foreman. In his spare time the 16-year-old visited concerts in and around Manchester with an occasional trip to a venue in a neighbouring town. Making music remained a dream for a long time, because his father forbade him to buy a guitar. Burgess sounds nostalgic in the first chapters of his biography. Apparently, it was a pleasant, albeit somewhat boring time, but in any case it was a period on which he looks back with melancholy. The part is richly furnished with anecdotes about drug experiments, concert visits and trips to Lake Loch Ness in Scotland, where the drugs would provoke very special experiences!
Burgess' intimate life remains much more obscured. Sure, there were women in his life, but none was able to compete with the music, his ultimate passion. In the second half of the book, a spacious anecdote is dedicated to his stay in Israel, where Burgess hoped to escape the tense atmosphere in London, due to the uncertain future of The Chameleons. But not all the anecdotes in the book are interesting. Especially the sometimes quite long drawn-out stories about drug experiences are boring after a while.
The strongest parts of the biography are the chapters related to The Chameleons and the music industry, as they offer music fans interesting insights into the business. In his comprehensive report, Mark Burgess cites big names and we can assume that he knew all these people or that he at least saw them from time to time. It is fine literature! The text is carefully written in a not too difficult English, and as a result the book is readable for anyone with no more than an average knowledge of the language of William Shakespeare. Those interested in the punk and new wave scene in Manchester in the first half of the 80s, will certainly appreciate this biography. Recommended!
VIEW FROM A HILL
Mark Burgess
Biography/Biografie
England, 2014
Mittens On - 480 pag.