The Pretenders
are a British rock band. The original band consisted of group founder and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), James Honeyman-Scott (lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards), Pete Farndon (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Martin Chambers (drums, backing vocals, percussion). The band was fractured by drug-related deaths and numerous subsequent personnel changes have taken place over the years, with Hynde as the sole constant member.
|
THE PRETENDERS TICKETS
EVENT | DATE | AVAILABILITY |
---|
The Pretenders Tickets 7/13 | Jul 13, 2024 Sat, 8:00 PM | | The Pretenders Tickets 7/14 | Jul 14, 2024 Sun, 8:30 PM | | The Pretenders Tickets 7/16 | Jul 16, 2024 Tue, 7:00 PM | | Foo Fighters, The Pretenders & Mammoth WVH Tickets 7/17 | Jul 17, 2024 Wed, 5:30 PM | | The Pretenders Tickets 7/19 | Jul 19, 2024 Fri, 8:30 PM | |
|
History
Early years
Hynde, originally from
Akron, Ohio,
United States, attended
Firestone High School and later
Kent State University at the time of the
Kent State shootings in 1970. Hynde moved to London in 1973, dated the English rock critic
Nick Kent, and from there began writing for the weekly music paper,
New Musical Express
. After several years of false starts, including the bands
Masters of the Backside and The
Moors Murderers, she moved definitively from writing to performing.
The Pretenders formed during the tail end of the original British
punk movement, in 1978. Hynde's eventual band comprised a set of acquaintances from
Hereford, near the
Welsh border — young players with a pop aesthetic who had missed out on the punk explosion of 1976, but were eager to catch up.
Farndon (who was romantically linked with Hynde) was the first to join Hynde's band, following a medium-noteworthy run with the
Bushwackers, an Australian folk-rock ensemble. Farndon then recruited guitarist Honeyman-Scott, at the time working in the guitar room at Buzz Music in Hereford. However, the Pretenders had no official drummer even as late as the recording session for their first single ("Stop Your Sobbing"), which featured drumming by session player Gerry Mackleduff. Finally, Honeyman-Scott recruited Chambers, who was at the time working as a driving instructor only a few blocks from where Hynde was living.
Original band (1978–1982)
Following their 1978 signing to Real Records on the basis of a demo of the song "The Phone Call", the band quickly rose to critical attention with the January 1979 single, "
Stop Your Sobbing", written in 1964 by
Ray Davies for
The Kinks and produced by
Nick Lowe. It was followed in quick succession that year by the popular singles "Kid" in June and "
Brass in Pocket" in November, which cracked the American market for the band (reaching #14 on the
Billboard Hot 100), and reached no.1 in the UK.
The debut album
Pretenders
was released in January 1980, and was a great success in both the United Kingdom and the United States, both critically and with chart-topping sales. (
Pretenders
was subsequently named one of the best albums of all time by
VH1 (#52) and
Rolling Stone
(#155).) The band played the entire album at the noted
Heatwave festival in August 1980 near Toronto.
That the Pretenders were led by a hard-rocking woman was no small factor in their early breakthrough. With her trademark dark
bangs, dark
eyeliner, and dark
jeans, Hynde appealed to both genders. And due to, as the 1983
Rolling Stone Record Guide
would say, "her sheer authenticity as a three-dimensional woman whose sexuality is completely in sync with a superb rock sensibility," she was able to escape many of the clichéd roles of women in rock music.
Hynde's
girl group-influenced vocals were also crucial to the band's success, although the early group was very much an ensemble, adept at playing interlocking musical parts, shifting mood and tempo on cue, and responding to subtle signals from one another. Their recordings were mostly performed live in the studio, with only lead guitar and vocal overdubs. Among the interesting features of the first two albums are casual shifts into odd time signatures, as in the alternating 7/8-4/4 time signature of "Tattooed Love Boys." Another major element of the band's early success was producer
Chris Thomas (famed, with engineer
Bill Price, for the sound achieved on the
Sex Pistols' album,
Never Mind the Bollocks
). Fans familiar with the band's U.S. chart singles are often unaware of how loud and aggressive the early Pretenders could be, and how loose and experimental some of their early recordings were.
In March 1981 the
EP Extended Play
was released, a holding action containing the UK and U.S. hits "Message of Love" and "Talk of the Town" and a live version of "Precious," recorded in
Central Park.
The second full-length album,
Pretenders II
, was released in August, 1981. Most critics at the time called it disappointing, although it is now generally considered a great album.
Pretenders II
is more spread-out than the debut, and included the
Extended Play
hit singles, the
MTV video hit, "Day After Day," and popular
album-radio tracks "The Adultress," "Birds of Paradise," and "The English Roses." According to Hynde from the Songwriters Circle, "Talk of the Town" is a song about a fan who just hung around during the sound checks and never said a word. Chrissie never initiated any conversation, but thought about him later in the tour.
At this early peak of the band's success and potential, Hynde kicked ex-lover Pete Farndon out of the group for ongoing drug problems. Two days later, 16 June 1982, Honeyman-Scott was dead of a cocaine overdose. While the band tried to regroup in the following year, Farndon overdosed on heroin and died on 14 April 1983. Honeyman-Scott is now regarded as an important rock guitarist, while Farndon is widely admired as a rock bassist.
Pretenders carry on (1983–1987)
Hynde subsequently decided to continue with the band. In July 1982, just weeks after Honeyman-Scott's death, a caretaker line-up of Hynde, Chambers,
Rockpile guitarist
Billy Bremner and
Big Country bassist
Tony Butler, was assembled to record a comeback single, the death-haunted "
Back on the Chain Gang." The song was released in October and marked a new level of musical sophistication for the band. The single's flip-side, "
My City Was Gone," in which Hynde expressed dismay at industrial pollution and rampant commercial development in her home state, was equally strong though; it's now perhaps best known as the theme music of
The Rush Limbaugh Show
.
Hynde then reformed The Pretenders, keeping Chambers and adding professional musicians
Robbie McIntosh on guitar and
Malcolm Foster on bass. The band's first album with this lineup,
Learning to Crawl
, was released to respectful critical acclaim in January 1984.
"
Middle of the Road" was this lineup's first single, released in December, 1983 and made the US Top 20 and received constant MTV play. Recapturing some of the group's earlier hard-edged sound, the song dealt with, among other things, Hynde's new motherhood (Hynde had a daughter with
Jim Kerr in January 1983), the pressures of stardom, and the indifference of wealthy nations to the plight of the world's poor. The flip-side, "2000 Miles", was a melancholy Christmas song that was especially popular in the UK. The rest of the album alternated between angry rockers ("Time the Avenger") and hopeful ballads ("Show Me" which hit the US Top 30) and included an effective cover of
The Persuaders' "Thin Line Between Love and Hate", which featured Paul Carrack on guest keyboards. The subsequent tour (with an added keyboard player) successfully showcased a tight band centered around Martin Chambers's forceful drumming. The 1985
Live Aid charity concert was the last gig for this lineup.
Shortly after recording sessions for the next album began and one track had been completed, Hynde declared that Chambers was no longer playing well and dismissed him — allegedly by booking new recording time without telling Chambers about it. Foster was also let go, and after an appropriate interval, the newly-revised Pretenders lineup was officially announced as Hynde, McIntosh, bassist T.M. Stevens, and ex-Haircut 100 drummer Blair Cunningham. In reality, though, the
Get Close
album was largely the work of Hynde, McIntosh, and a bevy of session musicians.
Get Close
was released in 1986; the disc included the Top 10 singles "Don't Get Me Wrong" (helped by a popular video homage to the television series
The Avengers
) and "Hymn to Her" (popularly interpreted as a hymn to the
Goddess), a #8 hit in the UK.
Two new songs, "If There Was a Man" & "
Where Has Everybody Gone?" were released on the soundtrack of the Bond film
The Living Daylights
, and were used instrumentally by
John Barry in several scenes.
The lineup for the
Get Close
tour was then expanded to include former P-Funk and Talking Heads keyboardist
Bernie Worrell, but this incarnation of the band went through many difficulties. Two players were fired, McIntosh eventually quit, and ex-
Smiths guitarist
Johnny Marr joined for a final brief period in 1987. By this time, it was evident that the Pretenders were a band in name only, the name merely serving as a vehicle for Chrissie Hynde.
The 1990s
There was a hiatus in musical activity for Hynde until 1990, when Hynde hired still more session players (including one-time Pretenders Billy Bremner and Blair Cunningham) and released
Packed!
to a generally dismal reception. Hynde was the only person pictured anywhere on the album, and was the only official member of the band. In Canada, the lead single "Never Do That" was a top 40 hit, peaking at #26. However "Never Do That" didn't do as well in other markets, peaking at #81 UK, and failing to crack the US
Hot 100 (although the track did make the US Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock charts, at #4 and #5 respectively.)
By 1993, Hynde had teamed up with ex-
Katydids guitarist
Adam Seymour to form a new version of the Pretenders. The team of Hynde and Seymour then went through a number of session musicians to record
Last of the Independents
that year, including ex-Smiths bassist
Andy Rourke. But by the end of the album sessions (and for the subsequent tour) the official band line-up was Hynde, Seymour, bassist Andy Hobson, and returning drummer
Martin Chambers. This line-up would endure (perhaps surprisingly) for well over a decade with no changes, although Hobson would often be replaced with session bassists on many of the band's studio recordings.
Several recordings with sessionmen as The Pretenders popped up in 1993, keeping the band in the public eye including a cover of the Jimi Hendrix classic "Bold As Love" for the popular Hendrix tribute album "Stone Free" and a cover of the 10cc classic "I'm Not In Love" for the $100 million hit film "Indecent Proposal".
When
Last of the Independents
was released in 1994, it met with reasonable overall commercial success going gold in the US. Lead single "Night In My Veins" was a minor hit in the US, a mid-chart hit in the UK, and a top 10 hit in Canada. The second single was the album's centrepiece ballad "
I'll Stand by You"; this track received substantial airplay, and was a top 10 hit in the US and UK, and top 20 in Canada. Hynde (perhaps seeking hit material) wrote a good portion of the album with the hitmaking team of
Billy Steinberg and
Tom Kelly. These songwriting partnerships resulted in a minor controversy, as Hynde typically had not collaborated with "hit-makers" in the past. She succinctly pointed out that they were all good songwriters, writing good songs, end of story.
Subsequently, the band toured in small venues around the U.S., sometimes including a
string quartet, with Hynde wistfully noting that a certain violin part "was a fine transcription of James Honeyman-Scott's guitar solo." Some of these arrangements are preserved on the 1995
The Isle of View
live album and DVD, made at London's
Jacob Street Studios, which sometimes revealed an approach perhaps more sophisticated and subtle than was shown by the original albums. Damon Alburn of Blur played piano on the recording which also featured the Duke String Quartet.
Over time, Hynde had become increasingly focused on political activism, vocally supporting the
environmental movement and
vegetarianism, and her social and political views were woven into more than one of the band's successful releases.
In June 1989 at a
Greenpeace Rainbow Warriors conference in
London, when asked what she had done to save the environment, Hynde replied, "I firebombed
McDonald's." The next day, a McDonald's restaurant in
Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, was actually firebombed. Though no one was hurt in the attack, McDonald's threatened legal action against Hynde, who subsequently agreed in writing not to make inflammatory statements in public against the hamburger chain.
Later performances at the 1999 edition of
Lilith Fair were high-energy and inspiring, featuring clashes between the resolutely un-
PC Hynde and festival organizers. While sometimes strident, Hynde has also delighted in confounding others' expectations, once flippantly saying she is no feminist icon and in fact "is just like any chick who likes to talk about makeup in the girls' room."
Viva el Amor
was released in 1999, as was their collaboration with
Tom Jones on the album
Reload
.
The 2000s
The Pretenders joined with
Emmylou Harris on
Return of the Grievous Angel: A Tribute to Gram Parsons
, performing the song "She." A
Greatest Hits
compilation followed in 2000. In 2002
Loose Screw
came out on Artemis Records to only modest commercial success. It was the first Pretenders record to be released by a company other than WEA.
Rolling Stone
noted its "refinement, stylish melodies and vocal fireworks," while
Blender
called it "slick, snarky pop with flashes of brilliance."
In March 2005, the Pretenders were inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Only Hynde and Chambers attended the ceremony. In her acceptance speech, Hynde named and thanked all the replacement members of the group, then said:
"I know that the Pretenders have looked like a tribute band for the last 20 years. ... And we’re paying tribute to James Honeyman Scott and Pete Farndon, without whom we wouldn’t be here. And on the other hand, without us, they might have been here, but that’s the way it works in rock 'n' roll." [1]
After their Hall of Fame induction, The Pretenders continued touring as a four-piece unit (Hynde, Seymour, Hobson and Chambers). In 2006, bassist Hobson was replaced by Nick Wilkinson, marking the band's first line-up change in 13 years. Not long after, guitarist Seymour left and was replaced by James Walbourne. That same year, Rhino records released the four disc/ one DVD boxset "Pirate Radio 1979-2005" which spanned the group's entire career. 2 disc remastered versions of the first two albums also came out that year loaded with bonus tracks. In 2007, Rhino remastered both "Learning To Crawl" and "Get Close" once again with bonus tracks, but only as single discs. The current Pretenders lineup in 2008 now consists of Hynde, Chambers, Wilkinson and Walbourne.
The Pretenders' album
Break up the Concrete
was released through
Shangri-La Music on 7 October 2008. It was the band's first Top 40 album in the States in 22 years. It is described as having a
rockabilly influence. Tracks include
Boots of Chinese Plastic
,
Don't Cut Your Hair
,
Love's a Mystery
,
The Last Ride
, and
Almost Perfect
.
[2] With Hynde is guitarist James Walbourne, pedal steel player Eric Heywood, bassist Nick Wilkinson and legendary drummer Jim Keltner (on the album only). Martin Chambers and Chrissie Hynde both explain the change as "being loyal to the music" and go on to say that Keltner and Chambers are good friends and have mutual respect. Chambers returns to the skins on tour with the band. Several one-off shows were performed in the closing months of 2008, including a couple of Christmas charity shows. The "Break Up The Concrete Tour" began in mid-January and covers most of the United States, with shows until the end of March.
Discography
Studio albums
- 1980 – Pretenders
- 1981 – Pretenders II
- 1984 – Learning to Crawl
- 1986 – Get Close
- 1990 – Packed!
- 1994 – Last of the Independents
- 1999 – Viva el Amor
- 2002 – Loose Screw
- 2008 – Break Up the Concrete
Band members
Notes
# The 1987 "If There Was a Man" UK Release is accredited to
The Pretenders for 007
# The Pretenders also appear on the Official UK Singles Charts for their appearance on the 1997
Fever Pitch EP
for which their song "Going Back" is listed. The EP charted at number 65 for one week on 10 May 1997.