#The pretenders chrissie hynde cracked
#The pretenders chrissie hynde series

In the end, our strange schedule actually strengthened the album.” “The writing was progressing and by the time they’d done the last tracks, the band had developed tremendously.

“They went away and they did gigs, then they’d write another song,” Thomas recalled in 2008. With Nick Lowe opting out, they engaged former Roxy Music/Sex Pistols producer Chris Thomas to helm the sessions at London’s Wessex Studios, but his prior commitments on Wings’ Back To The Egg and Pete Townshend’s Empty Glass albums meant that Pretenders recorded their debut album in short studio blasts across several months. Pretenders still had one crucial change to make, however, with Martin Chambers replacing original drummer Gerry Mackelduff behind the kit before the group set about recording their self-titled debut album.

#The pretenders chrissie hynde cracked

Starring Hynde’s sassy vocals and Honeyman-Scott’s shimmering guitars, it had an irresistible, radio-friendly allure and cracked the UK Top 40 early in 1979, taking the band onto Top Of The Pops in the process. It reminded me of Sandie Shaw.”Ĭaptured in a whistle-stop, three-hour session, Pretenders’ take on Stop Your Sobbing was a revelation. She had a tough, but vulnerable sound that was really unusual. “At that time, we were all a little in love with Chrissie, because she was so cool and didn’t take any shit from anybody,” Lowe recalled in the sleevenotes for Pretenders’ 2006 box set, Pirate Radio. Having released Stiff Records’ first single, So It Goes, and overseen The Damned’s debut album, Lowe was well-respected and he was already aware of Chrissie Hynde’s burgeoning songwriting talent. Said skinsman didn’t last but, before he left, he drafted in a new bassist from Hereford, Pete Farndon, who stuck around and brought fellow Hereford native, guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, into the fold.Ĭhristened Pretenders, the fledgling group’s initial demo – featuring several Hynde originals and a cover of The Kinks’ Stop Your Sobbing – scored them a deal with Real Records, for whom Pretenders re-recorded Stop Your Sobbing as their debut single, with Nick Lowe in the producer’s chair. Hynde was stockpiling self-written songs, but while she encouraged friends on the London scene who later ended up in influential outfits such as The Clash, The Slits and The Damned, the musical collaborators she required for her own outfit remained elusive until Motörhead frontman Lemmy recommended a drummer called Gas Wild.

#The pretenders chrissie hynde series

Hynde led a nomadic lifestyle over the next couple of years, cutting her teeth with a series of embryonic outfits during spells in Paris and back in the US, before she again pitched up in London when punk was germinating in 1976. Her true calling, however, was to form her own band. Inspired by the likes of The Rolling Stones, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, Hynde initially wrote for UK weekly NME and worked at Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s ever-evolving clothing emporium on London’s King’s Road (before it became known as Sex). Listen to Pretenders’ debut albumīorn in industrial Akron, Ohio, Hyde fell in love with the 60s British Invasion as a child, absorbed the minutiae of rock’n’roll history and was convinced music was all that really mattered when she emigrated to London in 1973. Indeed, Pretenders’ sparkling, self-titled debut album remains one of the post-punk era’s most mandatory titles, and it’s to Chrissie Hynde’s eternal credit that she hustled with such vigour to make it happen. Thanks to the scene’s liberating “Year Zero” approach, charismatic female artists such as Patti Smith, Siouxsie Sioux, Blondie’s Debbie Harry and Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde all stamped their authority on the late 70s and released records which still resonate today. Punk ultimately failed in its quest to turn the music industry on its head, but it did begin the process of balancing rock’n’roll’s gender-equality scales.