Song · The Chameleons
“Up the Down Escalator” by The Chameleons
From the album Script of the Bridge (1983)
“Up the Down Escalator” by The Chameleons appears on 4 radio countdowns from 3 stations between 1999 and 2003. It was first released in 1983 on the album Script of the Bridge. Its best result is #456 on the Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #3,730 alternative song of all time.
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Mark Burgess, Dave Fielding, John Lever and Reg Smithies wrote "Up the Down Escalator", and it was one of three singles lifted from Script of the Bridge, the Chameleons' debut album, which Statik released on 8 August 1983. The band produced it with Colin Richardson, who also engineered.
The record has been filed under gothic rock, a tag Burgess, the band's frontman, waves away: goth didn't exist yet, he said, and they were post-punk, plain and simple. Andrew Welsh of the Daily Record heard subtly psychedelic, Cure-like guitars and martial, Joy Division-style drumming across the album, though the band's own tastes ran wider than that, with guitarist Fielding a Joni Mitchell and Mike Oldfield fan and drummer Lever partial to Peter Gabriel and Genesis.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 876 | CFNY 102.1 The Edge | CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (November 1999) | 1002 |
| 2001 | 932 | WFPK | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2000 |
| 2002 | 456 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
| 2003 | 1203 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) | 2044 |
Also listed as: Up The Down Escalator.
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