The Pretenders

[0000]

Pretenders formed during 1978. Hynde formed a band composed of Pete Farndon on bass(Crissy had a relationship with him at one point), James Honeyman-Scott on guitar, and Gerry Mcilduff on drums. This band, without a name at this stage, recorded five tracks at Regents Park Studio in July 1978, including "Stop Your Sobbing"(Kinks cover). Gerry Mcilduff was replaced on drums by Martin Chambers, and Hynde named the band "Pretenders" after The Platters song "The Great Pretender"

*The debut album Pretenders was released during January 1980, and was a success in both the United Kingdom and the United States, both critically and commercially. (Pretenders was subsequently named one of the best albums of all time by VH1 (#52) and Rolling Stone (#155).) The band played at the noted Heatwave festival during August 1980 near Toronto.
During March 1981 the EP Extended Play was released, containing the UK and U.S. success "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 during August, 1981. Most critics at the time termed it disappointing, although it is now generally considered a great album*

Hynde fired Pete Farndon for drug problems. Two days later in 1982, Honeyman-Scott died of a cocaine overdose. Farndon was in the midst of forming a new band with former Clash drummer Topper Headon - who coincidently also was battling heroin abuse at the time. He also died. This left The Pretenders with only two of their original four members.

Obviously the band continued through these tragedies.... After recording the singles "Back on the Chain Gang" and "My City Was Gone," in 1982 the two remaining originals looked for members that would commit to the band and wrote songs. They put Robbie McIntosh on guitar and Malcolm Foster on bass. They released the album "Learning To Crawl" January 1984. In late 1985 Hynde once again restocked the band by firing the present drummer and hiring bassist T.M. Stevens, and ex-Haircut 100 drummer Blair Cunningham. Get Close was released in 1986. Not their best album due to an inconsisten lineup. The lineup for the Get Close tour was then expanded to include former P-Funk and Talking Heads keyboardist Bernie Worrell, but this version of the band had many difficulties.

There was a brief stop in Hynde's music career from 1987 to 1990 when "Packed!" was released, then "Last of the Independents" in 1994, and "Viva el Amor" in 1999. Not the best period of music for the Pretenders... not bad, not good, just floated by IMO...

They released "Loose Screw" in 2002 which brought back some of the energy they have in their original sound, and what is now one of my favorite albums "Break Up The Concrete" in 2008... brilliant album pulling multiple genres together while still keeping the core Hynde/Pretenders' original sound.

1978 - 1982 members -
* Chrissie Hynde - lead vocals, rhythm guitar
* James Honeyman-Scott - lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards
* Pete Farndon - bass guitar, backing vocals
* Martin Chambers - drums, backing vocals, percussion

82 - 85
* Chrissie Hynde - lead vocals, rhythm guitar
* Robbie McIntosh - lead guitar, backing vocals
* Malcolm Foster - bass guitar, backing vocals
* Martin Chambers - drums, backing vocals, percussion

1986-1987
* Chrissie Hynde - vocals, rhythm guitar
* Robbie McIntosh - lead guitar
* Malcolm Foster - bass guitar
* Blair Cunningham - drums
1993-2006
* Chrissie Hynde - lead vocals, rhythm guitar, harmonica
* Adam Seymour - lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards
* Andy Hobson - bass guitar
* Martin Chambers - drums, backing vocals, percussion
2006-2008
* Chrissie Hynde - lead vocals, rhythm guitar, harmonica
* Martin Chambers - drums, backing vocals, percussion
* Adam Seymour - lead guitar, backing vocals
* Nick Wilkinson - bass guitar
2008 - now
* Chrissie Hynde - lead vocals, rhythm guitar, harmonica
* James Walbourne - lead guitar, backing vocals
* Nick Wilkinson - bass guitar
* Martin Chambers - drums, backing vocals, percussion
* Eric Heywood - pedal steel

*copied from wikipedia*

Creep

Stop Your Sobbing

 

[Soot and Stars]

Whoo hoo! I can chime in with the obvious one:

I'll Stand By You

Gorgeous song!

By the way, you have definitely gotten your legs on these threads! Great writeup Eberg!

 

[0000]

Thanks Soot
I just pasted like the first page of searching "Pretenders" from youtube
and thank god for wiki and biographies... besides the indicated stuff and the member list its pretty much all my own write up lol, I've been really amped on them lately, and I just watched an HDNET concert from them, I didn't get to see which one it was, I deleted it from my DVR before looking, but it was pretty excellent, I love teh guitar tones

 

[Magic]

Chrissy Hynde is now 57 years old and can still rock.




She did a collaboration with Incubus, she sounds pretty good, too

 

[0000]

hmm.. I don't know if I like that song^^
I usually don't like Incubus, but sometimes they can hold my attention...their voices just really didn't sound that great together...I liked the chorus with Crissy's voice in the background, but it would sound great if she was singing it, or he was singing it, they just didn't work together I don't think....

and I honestly didn't think she was almost 60 when I watched the HNET concert, it was from 2008 and she had more energy than most bands from that time... her voice was pretty dead on, and she was moving and groovin'
and as many lineup changes as she has had, they have always had great chemistry, no matter who was in the band

 

[Flower]

Bad Boys Get Spanked

 

[runtfan]

I saw the Pretenders with Farndon and Honeyman-Scott in the summer of '81 ( my third concert). They were pretty good. I like their first two albums but kinda lost track after that, except for whatever I heard on the radio.

 

[Foxhound]

Eberg!

Good stuff! I've been waiting for someone to write up the Pretenders.



The Pretenders sound particularly good on a nice stereo. Chrissie is one of the few women who can play blues harp. "Back on the Chain Gang" remains my favourite track by the band.

 

[rtbuck]

The Pretenders are great & I've always felt Chrissie Hynde has beautiful sounding voice.
That first album is the best.

 

[0000]

Eberg!

Good stuff! I've been waiting for someone to write up the Pretenders.



The Pretenders sound particularly good on a nice stereo. Chrissie is one of the few women who can play blues harp. "Back on the Chain Gang" remains my favourite track by the band.

I'd been wanting to do them for a couple weeks, but I only knew a few songs, I had an album sitting right there, but never got the chance to listen to it until like last week

I got Pretenders II on vinyl, and I like it better than the first... Their latest album "Break up the Concrete" is really great too... it was released in 2008 and it sounds so much better than any of the production I've heard since some of the nineties alt/rock bands that had a really dry seventies sound
whoever was the producer/engineer is a genious

I think my favorite song might be "Kid", I'm not sure though.. I don't know if I could really pick