Pretenders (band)

Pretenders
The Pretenders perform in Dubai, February 2007
Background information
Origin	Hereford, England
Genres	Rock, punk rock, new wave
Years active	1978–1987, 1990–2012, 2016–present
Labels	Sire, Warner Bros.
Associated acts	The Smiths
Members	Chrissie Hynde Martin Chambers Nick Wilkinson James Walbourne Eric Heywood
Past members	James Honeyman-Scott Pete Farndon Robbie McIntosh Malcolm Foster Blair Cunningham T.M. Stevens Johnny Marr Adam Seymour Andy Rourke Andy Hobson

The Pretenders are an English-American rock band formed in Hereford, England, in March 1978. The original band consisted of initiator and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), James Honeyman-Scott (lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards), Pete Farndon (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Martin Chambers (drums, backing vocals, percussion). Following the drug-related deaths of Honeyman-Scott and Farndon, the band has experienced numerous subsequent personnel changes, with Hynde as the only consistent member, and Chambers returning after an absence of several years.

Hynde launched a solo career in 2014, and the Pretenders were dormant as a band between 2012 and 2016. However, The Pretenders are once again active, having issued an album and toured in 2016.

Hynde, originally from Akron, Ohio, moved to London in 1973, working at the weekly music paper NME and at Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's clothes store. She was involved with early versions of the Clash and the Damned and played in short-lived bands such as Masters of the Backside (1976) and the Moors Murderers (1978 lineup). The Pretenders formed in 1978 after Dave Hill at Anchor Records heard some demos of Hynde's music. He arranged a rehearsal studio in Denmark Street, where a 3-piece band consisting of Hynde, Mal Hart on bass (he had played with Hynde and Steve Strange in the Moors Murderers), and Phil Taylor of Motörhead on drums played a selection of Hynde's original songs. Dave Hill was impressed and arranged a day at Studio 51 to record another demo. Although it was rough, he felt he had seen and heard enough "star potential" to suggest that Hynde form a more permanent band to record for his new label, Real Records. Hynde then formed a band composed of Pete Farndon on bass, James Honeyman-Scott on guitar, and Gerry Mcilduff replacing Jon Adkin on drums. This band, then without a name, recorded five tracks at Regents Park Studio in July 1978, including "Stop Your Sobbing". Shortly thereafter Gerry Mcilduff was replaced on drums by Martin Chambers and Hynde named the band "The Pretenders" after the Platters song "The Great Pretender" which was the favourite song of one of her former boyfriends.