The Pretenders

The Pretenders were founded by Crissie Hynde, born in Akron, USA, September 17, 1951, who moved to England in early 70-s. In 1978, she recorded several songs she had written herself and presented them to Dave Hill, one of Anchor Records managers launching his own label Real Records. Hynde enchanted Hill and he offered her to gather a band, the first one to sign a contract with the new studio. The young group was called The Pretenders. Crissie was joined by Martin Chambers, James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon. The debut single Stop Your Sobbing (1979) saw The Pretenders draw much attention from critics and journalists. The band gave a moderate tour around the local pubs while it was mentioned in many praising articles with the focus on the female singer with a guitar and sex concerned lyrics. It was no surprise that the fourth single of the band Brass In Pocket topped the British charts. The first album, Pretenders, released in 1980, hit the first position in Great Britain and was sold out in millions all over the world after the band’s American tour. In the States, Hynde set romantic links with Ray Davis from The Kinks, who used to be her youth idol. Album Pretenders II (1981) was also based on melodic postpunk with energy of new wave.

However, that success came with the first signs of the lineup collapse. In June 1982, Farndon was isolated from the other musicians due to uncontrolled drug consuming, and after another world tour, he was left out of the band. In two more days, guitarist Honeyman-Scott died in his bath of cocaine-heroine mixture OD. Crissy and Martin did not give up. Having changed several guitar players, the band recorded the third, long-expected, album, Learning To Crawl, released in October 1982. It gained more acclaim in the USA, rather than in Britain. In May 1984, Crissy Hynde married Simple Minds vocalist Jim Kerr. After that, she gave the last performance with the old members of The Pretenders at Live Aid, and then called brand new musicians. Single Don't Get Me Wrong, released in September 1986, brought the band back to the top ten in the British charts, for the first time in five years. The follow-up CD Get Close, produced in 1986, was much more successful that the preceding one. The Pretenders gave several nice concerts with U-2 and then released a collection of singles. After a chain of lineup substitutions Hynde was no more interested in the band’s activity. However, the 1990 album, called Packed!, was a very good seller.

Since 1993, Hynde started restoring the old lineup. Reinforced by the very talented musicians, the band could not make a bad record. Last Of Independents (1994) did not disappoint the fans. Crissy touched upon bitter political and social issues and revealed to the audience a lot of her sexual fantasies. One of the most prominent hits was the ballad I'll Stand By You. Isle Of View, a semi-acoustic collection, was released in a year and featured string instruments played by Duke String Quartet to add unique alive sound to the band’s best songs as Crissy proved her reputation of one of the strongest and incomparable female rock music vocalists. In 1999, her skills were fully demonstrated on the new album Viva El Amor. In March 2005, The Pretenders were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The band continued touring. The following album Break Up The Concrete is expected to be released in September 2008. In 2010 The Pretenders released their second live album Live In London.