the Pretenders

the Pretenders, English-American post-punk rock group known for its songwriting, its raw, often stripped-down instrumentation rooted in 1970s and ’80s new wave, and its perseverance through early tragedy. The Pretenders was formed in 1978 by vocalist and guitarist Chrissie Hynde (b. September 7, 1951, Akron, Ohio, U.S.), bassist Pete Farndon (b. June 12, 1952, Hereford, Herefordshire, England—d. April 14, 1983, London), guitarist James Honeyman-Scott (b. November 4, 1956, Hereford—d. June 16, 1982, London), and drummer Martin Chambers (b. September 4, 1951, Hereford). Later members included guitarists Robbie McIntosh (b. October 25, 1957, Sutton, Surrey, England), Adam Seymour, and James Walbourne and bassists Malcolm Foster (b. January 13, 1956, Gosport, Hampshire, England) and Nick Wilkinson (b. 1971, Suffolk, England).

Formation and early years

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Raised on 1960s rock and roll radio in Akron, Hynde longed for a more interesting life than what the American Midwest could offer. She possessed a disenchantment with the standards of commercially packaged beauty, which coloured her attitude and style as she sought to be taken seriously as a songwriter on par with the period’s male-dominated rock acts. After studying art at Kent State University, where she witnessed the shooting there, and experiencing lackluster success in Cleveland’s music scene, she moved to London in 1973. Hynde enjoyed brief stints in early incarnations of the Damned and the Clash in the mid-1970s before she, on the advice of Real Records founder Dave Hill, recruited musicians to make recordings of her own. A demo tape led to the release of several singles featuring Hynde, Farndon, Honeyman-Scott, and Chambers. The songs—a remake of the Kinks’ single “Stop Your Sobbing,” released in 1979, and Pretenders’ originals “Kid” and “Brass in Pocket,” released the next year—were included in Pretenders, the group’s debut record album. Pretenders became the top-selling album on the U.K. charts in 1980, and “Brass in Pocket” topped the singles charts in the U.K., Sweden, Ireland, Spain, and South Africa and reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. This success rested largely on the band’s unique sound, which was characterized by Hynde’s keen use of alternating lilting vibrato with semi-spoken words and Honeyman-Scott’s unique blend of shimmering and raw, throaty guitar textures.

The album Pretenders II (which featured the singles “Message of Love,” “I Go to Sleep,” and “Talk of the Town”) and the EP Extended Play were released in 1981. The excesses of touring and drug addiction, however, resulted in Farndon being expelled from the band on June 14, 1982, just two days before Honeyman-Scott died of a cocaine overdose on June 16. Some 10 months later, Farndon drowned after overdosing on heroin.

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Later work

Although Hynde and Chambers were heartbroken at the sudden loss of their bandmates, they were determined to not let their original music die. They added McIntosh and Foster to the band and began work on Learning to Crawl in 1983. Released in 1984, the album became their most commercially successful; it included the hits “Back on the Chain Gang,” “Thin Line Between Love and Hate,” “Middle of the Road,” and “2000 Miles,” which were released as singles, with “Middle of the Road,” featuring what would become one of the most iconic drum introductions in rock music.

The Pretenders overcame several lineup changes to release eight albums between 1986 and 2020; however, none reached the level of commercial success of their earlier work. One of the casualties of this period was Chambers; his quality of play had declined since Learning to Crawl, and he departed the band in 1986. Get Close was released in 1986 to moderate success, and it included the singles “My Baby” and “Don’t Get Me Wrong,” two songs that topped Billboard’s mainstream rock chart in the United States. Chambers returned to the group during the recording sessions for Last of the Independents, which was released in 1994 and featured the hit single “I’ll Stand by You.” Although the Pretenders’ subsequent albums—¡Viva el amor! (1999), Loose Screw (2002), Break Up the Concrete (2008), Alone (2016), and Hate for Sale (2020)—were less successful, the band still retains a large following and remains one of the most enduring acts of the rock era. The Pretenders were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.