Special thanks to ThisDayinMusic.com.
Fans from the past 25 years or so can be forgiven for thinking that the Pretenders have always been a solo vehicle for Chrissie Hynde, because that really has been the case since the early ’80s. But there was a time when the Pretenders were a true band—and a great one at that. Two untimely deaths snuffed out the group before it could reach its full potential, but its musical legacy lives on.
The whole thing started in Akron, Ohio, of all places. The tire capital of the world gave birth to a little girl named Christine Ellen Hynde in 1951. Young Chrissie, though, wasn’t content to grow up to lead a typical buttoned-down life in Akron. She yearned to find greater glories in the world of rock and roll. After a three-year stint at Kent State (where she played in a band with Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh), Hynde finally took flight and did what she’d wanted to do her entire young life—seek her fortune in the rock and roll capital of the world: London, England.
In the meantime, a menagerie of top-class musicians had sprung up in the unlikely city of Hereford, a cathedral city near England’s Welsh border. Hereford wasn’t exactly Swinging London, but it did have an artsy side, with five colleges in the city. Mott the Hoople were the area’s crowning musical act in the early ’70s, but other musicians were afoot in projects like Cold River Lady. Three such musicians in CRL’s rotating cast were bassist Pete Farndon, drummer Martin Chambers and a talented young guitarist named James Honeyman-Scott.
A veteran of the Hereford scene, Farndon was inspired to return to bass after a few years away, after attending a Thin Lizzy concert in 1974. Farndon was a denim and leather rocker who helped toughen up CRL’s sound and that of his subsequent band, Australia’s The Bushwackers. Chambers followed his stint in CRL with a group called Cheeks. Cheeks were led by former Mott the Hoople keyboardist Verden Allen and featured a guitarist five years Chambers’ junior in Honeyman-Scott (also a CRL vet). Honeyman-Scott would prove to be one of the most influential guitarists of the (rather broad and undefined) New Wave genre, though his background was more traditional than one might expect from a player in a post-punk band; influenced heavily by Eric Clapton and Duane Allman, Honeyman-Scott had some serious chops.
Chrissie Hynde moved to London in 1973 and almost immediately immersed herself in the music scene. She wrote for the NME, worked at Malcolm McLaren’s infamous clothing store, SEX, and dated famous rock critic Nick Kent (followed by a series of musicians). She also dug in as a guitarist and played in a variety of bands, featuring future members of The Clash, The Damned, The Psychedelic Furs and other notables. But none of those projects ever took flight. Hynde had just about given up hope of getting a band together, when she managed to get a demo into the hands of Real Records owner Dave Hill in 1978. Hill saw Hynde’s potential and offered to manage the singer-songwriter, giving her enough financial backing to take the time to put together a proper group.
Farndon was the first to join Hynde’s band, followed in turn by Chambers and Honeyman-Scott…both on the recommendation of the bassist. Hynde named them the Pretenders, after The Platters’ song, “The Great Pretender.” The group practiced like the devil for nearly a year before placing an updated demo in the hands of Nick Lowe, who agreed to produce their first single, a cover of The Kinks’ “Stop Your Sobbing” (with the b-side, “The Wait”). The single went to #34 in the U.K. and effectively launched the band. From there, a chart-topping, self-titled debut album followed, featuring the #1 single, “Brass in Pocket.”
The group continued to grow in popularity on both sides of the Atlantic over the next three years, with the successful releases Extended Play (EP) and Pretenders II yielding further hits, including “Talk of the Town” and “Message of Love.” But success got the best of Farndon, whose hard-partying ways turned into a serious drug habit. In June 1982, the band convened in London to determine how to deal with Farndon’s slippage as a player and general surliness as a result of his drug use. He was fired on June 14. Ironically, his bandmate James Honeyman-Scott died of a drug overdose two days later. Honeyman-Scott was not an overt drug user, but his body’s intolerance to cocaine proved lethal. Suddenly, in the space of two days, one of the rock’s most promising young four-pieces was destroyed. A year later (on this date in 1983), Farndon joined Honeyman-Scott in death, overdosing on heroin and drowning in a bathtub.
Hynde, for her part, carried with on the band, mostly with Chambers playing behind her. Players have come and gone (some of them world-class, like guitarists Robbie McIntosh and Johnny Marr), and Hynde has become the rock headliner she always dreamed about in those Akron days. But one still pauses to think about what could have been if the Pretenders, the band, had lived on.
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