The Pretenders

The Pretenders
The Pretenders live (2007)
General information
Genre (s)	skirt
founding	1978
Website	http://www.thepretenders.com/
Founding members
Vocals , rhythm guitar	Chrissie Hynde
guitar	James Honeyman-Scott († 1982)
bass	Pete Farndon (until 1982, † 1983)
Drums	Martin Chambers
Current occupation
Vocals, guitar	Chrissie Hynde
guitar	James Walbourne
Keyboard	Carwyn Ellis
bass	Nick Wilkinson
Drums, vocals	Martin Chambers
former members
guitar	Billy Bremner
guitar	Mick Green
guitar	Robbie McIntosh
guitar	Adam Seymour
bass	Tony Butler
bass	Malcolm Foster
bass	TM Stevens
bass	Andy Hobson

The Pretenders are a British rock band formed by Chrissie Hynde in 1978 .

history

The Pretenders (1981)

The initial cast consisted of Hynde, James Honeyman-Scott , Pete Farndon and Martin Chambers . The band was named after the song The Great Pretender by The Platters , with Hynde "having the version of Sam Cooke in her ear" when she gave the band the name.

The first single released, Stop Your Sobbing , was a cover version of a Kinks song. It was produced by Nick Lowe and, like the second single Kid , reached number 33 in the UK charts. The third single Brass in Pocket made it to number 1 in 1979. In late 1979 the Pretenders played at the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea .

In January 1980 the debut album Pretenders was released , which sold particularly well in the USA and was highly praised by the critics:

“It's a deep, rewarding album, the most important value of which is its pure energy. Pretenders is faster and harder than most rock records and contains a never-ending array of melodies, hooklines and infectious rhythms throughout the 12 songs. Few albums, let alone debuts, are so surprisingly addicting. "

- Stephen Thomas Erlewine in the All Music Guide

The nameless second album from 1981 and the singles Talk of the Town , Message of Love and I Go to Sleep had similar successes. On a US tour in the same year, Chambers injured one hand, in December the other, which is why many concerts had to be canceled.

On July 14, 1982, Farndon was fired from the band for being addicted to heroin, and two days later, Honeyman-Scott died of a cocaine overdose . This led to some line-up changes. As a replacement for Farndon first came Tony Butler, who left the band soon after to join Big Country . He was succeeded by Malcolm Foster. Instead of Honeyman-Scott, Billy Bremner from Rockpile came first , then Mick Green and finally Robbie McIntosh . Farndon died in April 1983.

In early 1983, the single Back on the Chain Gang , dedicated to Honeyman-Scott, made it to number 17 in the UK. At the end of the year 2000 Miles was released, which was featured on the LP Learning to Crawl (1984). This song was also written in honor of Honeyman-Scott and also made it into the top 20. Middle of the Road and Show Me were still released as singles. In 1985 the Pretenders took part in Live Aid .

The 1986 LP Get Close , produced by Jimmy Iovine , also featured Hynde and McIntosh TM Stevens (bass) and Blair Cunningham ( drums ). Don't Get Me Wrong , Hymn to Her and If There Was a Man (not from the album, but from the 1987 James Bond film The Touch of Death ) were released as singles .

In 1987 keyboardist Bernie Worell joined the band. In addition, the sampler The Singles was released .

In 1990 Packed! with guest stars like Johnny Marr ( The Smiths ), Tim Finn ( Crowded House ), Dominic Miller ( Sting ) and the singles Never Do That and Sense of Purpose .

It wasn't until 1994 that The Last of the Independents came on the market, on which Hynde, Chambers, McIntosh, Andy Hobson (bass) and Adam Seymour ( guitar ) played and from I'll Stand by You , Night in My Veins and 977 as singles were decoupled. In 1995 the live album The Isle of View was released.

The 1999 album Viva el Amor received excellent reviews. The LP Loose Screw (2002) and the single The Losing (2003) were also released. In 2005 the Pretenders were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame . Break Up the Concrete was released in October 2008 . The album was released again in 2009, supplemented by a "Best of" CD comprising 22 songs. Chrissie Hynde used the band name for "Break up the Concrete" only as a vehicle for a masked solo album and recorded it with a lot of musicians who were never Pretenders members.

Stevie Nicks accompanied the Pretenders on the 2016/17 tour .

The Pretenders (2018)

The album Alone was released on October 21, 2016. In March 2020, the pre- single The Buzz for the album Hate for Sale was released. The album was written by Chrissie Hynde and James Walbourne. The producer was Stephen Street , who also produces the band Blur .

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1979	Pretenders	-	-	-	UK1 gold (36 weeks)UK	US9 platinum (78 weeks)US	First published: December 1979
1981	Pretenders II	-	-	-	UK7th silver (26 weeks)UK	US10 gold (19 weeks)US	First published: August 1981
1983	Learning to crawl	DE38 (10 weeks) DE	-	CH30 (1 week) CH	UK11 gold (16 weeks)UK	US5 platinum (42 weeks)US	First published: December 1983
1986	Get Close	DE33 (22 weeks) DE	-	CH22 (3 weeks) CH	UK6th gold (28 weeks)UK	US25th gold (29 weeks)US	First published: November 1986
1990	Packed!	DE48 (9 weeks) DE	-	-	UK19th silver (5 weeks)UK	US48 (9 weeks) US	First published: May 1990
1994	Last of the Independents	DE42 (10 weeks) DE	AT36 (1 week) AT	CH26 (12 weeks) CH	UK8th gold (14 weeks)UK	US41 gold (22 weeks)US	First published: May 1994
1999	¡Viva el amor!	DE73 (3 weeks) DE	-	-	UK32 (2 weeks) UK	US158 (2 weeks) US	First published: May 1999
2002	Loose screw	-	-	-	UK55 (1 week) UK	US179 (1 week) US	First published: December 2002
2008	Break up the concrete	-	-	-	UK35 silver (2 weeks)UK	US32 (4 weeks) US	First release: October 2008 in UK as a double album including greatest hits
2016	Alone	-	-	-	UK40 (1 week) UK	US150 (1 week) US	First published: October 21, 2016
2020	Hate for sale	DE21 (... weeks) DE	-	CH11 (3 weeks) CH	UK29 (1 week) UK	-	First published: July 17, 2020

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

Live albums and compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1987	The Singles	-	-	-	UK6th × 3 Triple platinum (37 weeks)UK	US69 gold (15 weeks)US	First published: November 1987
1995	The Isle of View	-	-	-	UK23 silver (5 weeks)UK	US100 (5 weeks) US	First published: October 1995
2000	Greatest hits	-	-	-	UK21st gold (13 weeks)UK	-	First published: September 2000

More live albums

• 2010: Live in London

EPs

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1981	Extended play	-	-	-	-	US27 (29 weeks) US	First published: March 1981

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1979	Stop Your Sobbing Pretenders	-	-	-	UK34 (9 weeks) UK	US65 (5 weeks) US	First published: January 1979
	Kid Pretenders	-	-	-	UK33 (8 weeks) UK	-	First published: July 1979
	Brass in Pocket Pretenders	-	-	-	UK1 gold (17 weeks)UK	US14 (22 weeks) US	First published: November 1979
1980	Talk of the Town Pretenders II	-	-	-	UK8 (8 weeks) UK	-	First published: March 1980
1981	Message of Love Pretenders II	-	-	-	UK11 (7 weeks) UK	-	First published: February 1981
	Day After Day Pretenders II	-	-	-	UK45 (4 weeks) UK	-	First published: August 1981
	I Go to Sleep Pretenders II	-	-	-	UK7 (10 weeks) UK	-	First published: November 1981
1982	Back on the Chain Gang Learning to Crawl	-	-	-	UK17 (9 weeks) UK	US5 (24 weeks) US	First published: September 1982
1983	2000 Miles Learning to Crawl	-	-	-	UK15th silver (21 weeks)UK	-	First published: November 1983
	Middle of the Road Learning to Crawl	-	-	-	UK81 (2 weeks) UK	US19 (14 weeks) US	First published: December 1983
1984	Show Me Learning to Crawl	-	-	-	-	US28 (13 weeks) US	First published: March 1984
	Thin Line Between Love and Hate Learning to Crawl	-	-	-	UK49 (4 weeks) UK	US83 (5 weeks) US	First published: May 1984
1986	Don't Get Me Wrong Get Close	DE45 (8 weeks) DE	-	-	UK10 (11 weeks) UK	US10 (18 weeks) US	First published: August 1986
	Hymn to Her Get Close	-	-	-	UK8 (13 weeks) UK	-	First published: December 1986
1987	My Baby Get Close	-	-	-	UK84 (3 weeks) UK	US64 (7 weeks) US	First published: January 1987
	If There Was a Man The Living Daylights (OST)	-	-	-	UK49 (6 weeks) UK	-	First published: August 1987
1990	Never Do That Packed!	-	-	-	UK81 (2 weeks) UK	-	First published: May 1990
1994	I'll Stand by You Last of the Independents	DE58 (10 weeks) DE	-	-	UK10 (10 weeks) UK	US16 (30 weeks) US	First published: April 1994
	Night in My Veins Last of the Independents	-	-	-	UK25 (5 weeks) UK	US71 (8 weeks) US	First published: May 1994
	977 Last of the Independents	-	-	-	UK66 (3 weeks) UK	-	First published: October 1994
1999	Human ¡Viva el amor!	DE90 (4 weeks) DE	-	-	UK33 (3 weeks) UK	-	First published: May 1999
	Pop star ¡Viva el amor!	-	-	-	UK97 (1 week) UK	-	First published: August 1999
2003	You Know Who Your Friends Are Loose Screw	-	-	-	UK84 (1 week) UK	-	First published: May 2003

Awards for music sales

Golden record  Belgium 2007: for the album Greatest Hits  Netherlands 1980: for the album Pretenders

Platinum record  Spain 1999: for the album Get Close 1999: for the album The Singles

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	silver	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Belgium (BEA)	-	gold1	-	25,000	ultratop.be
Netherlands (NVPI)	-	gold1	-	50,000	nvpi.nl
Spain (Promusicae)	-	-	2 × platinum2	200,000	Sólo éxitos: año año, 1959-2002
United States (RIAA)	-	4 × gold4th	2 × platinum2	4,000,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	5 × silver5	6 × gold6th	3 × platinum3	2,100,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	5 × silver5	12 × gold12	7 × platinum7th

Individual evidence

1. ^ Pretenders Archives: Band History. July 2, 2019, accessed March 19, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Alex Gernandt: "I don't lead a celebrity life, I take the bus". October 18, 2019, accessed October 18, 2019 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} UK Top 40 Hit Database
4. ↑ UK Top 40 Hit Database
5. ↑ https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000387388
6. ↑ ^{a b c} SWR 3 - Daily Pop: June 16, 1982 - James Honeyman-Scott of the Pretenders dies
7. ↑ The Pretenders: new record in May. Retrieved March 18, 2020 . 
8. ↑ ^{a b c d} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US

Web links

• The Pretenders at laut.de
• The Pretenders at Discogs (English)