Chrissie Hynde - Chickipedia

Daughter of a part-time secretary and a Yellow Pages Manager, Hynde graduated from Firestone High School in Akron, admitting "I was never too interested in high school. I mean, I never went to a dance, I never went out on a date, I never went steady. It became pretty awful for me. Except, of course, I could go see bands, and that was the kick. I used to go to Cleveland just to see any band. So I was in love a lot of the time, but mostly with guys in bands that I had never met. For me, knowing that Brian Jones was out there, and later that Iggy Pop was out there, made it kind of hard for me to get too interested in the guys that were around me. I had, uh, bigger things in mind."

Hynde experimented with hippie counterculture, psychotropic drugs, eastern mysticism, and vegetarianism. Hynde joined a band called Sat. Sun. Mat. (which included Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo) while attending Kent State University's Art School for three years. Hynde was on the campus during the infamous Kent State shootings.

Hynde also developed an interest in the magazine NME when she wasn't waitressing or working various other jobs to support herself, eventually saving enough money for the move from Ohio to London in 1973. With her art background, Hynde landed a job in an architectural firm but left after eight months. It was then that Hynde met rock journalist Nick Kent (with whom she became involved) and landed a writing position at NME. However, this proved not to last and Hynde later found herself working at Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's then-unknown clothing store, SEX, where Hynde was summarily fired for a fight with a customer in which Hynde was hit with a bell from the store. Hynde then made a fruitless attempt to start a band in France before her return to Cleveland in 1975.

Hynde resurfaced in France in 1976 for another (unsuccessful) stab at forming a band. She found her way back to London in the midst of the punk movement. During this period she became closely associated with the Sex Pistols (though not musically), and spent a good deal of time with Sid Vicious. She commented in an early 1990's interview that she "almost" became "Mrs. Vicious" in the late 1970's (prior to Vicious & Nancy Spungen's fatal decline into the drug world). Later, Hynde tried to start a group with Mick Jones from The Clash. After the band failed to take flight, Malcolm McLaren placed her as a guitarist in Masters of the Backside, but she was asked to leave the group just as the band became The Damned. After a brief spell in the Johnny Moped band, Mick Jones had invited Hynde to join his band on their initial tour of Britain. Hynde's recollection of that period: "It was great, but my heart was breaking. I wanted to be in a band so bad. And to go to all the gigs, to see it so close up, to be living in it and not to have a band was devastating to me. When I left, I said, 'Thanks a lot for lettin' me come along,' and I went back and went weeping on the underground throughout London. All the people I knew in town, they were all in bands. And there I was, like the real loser, you know? Really the loser." Hynde states these words in The Pretenders Greatest Hits DVD documentary extra titled No Turn Left Unstoned.

Chrissie also spent a short amount of time with The Moors Murderers in 1978. Named after two child-rapists, the band consisted of Steve Strange on vocals, Vince Ely on drums, and Mark Ryan (aka The Kid) and Chrissie on guitar. The band's name alone was enough to start controversy and Chrissie soon distanced herself from the group, as noted in the NME:

"I'm not in the group, I only rehearsed with them," she said, "Steve Strange and Sue Catwoman had the idea for the group, and asked me to help them out on guitar, which I did, even though I was getting my own group together and still am."

The Pretenders

Soon after an event occurred which was to change her life. A demo tape made by Hynde found its way to Dave Hill, owner of the label Real Records. Hill stepped in to manage her career, and began by paying off the back rent owed on her rehearsal room in Covent Garden, London. Hill also advised Hynde to take her time and get a band together. In the spring of 1978, Hynde met Pete Farndon (bass guitar / vocals) through a mutual friend at a bar in Portobello Road. The meeting led to her rehearsal room (described by Farndon as "the scummiest basement I'd ever been in in my life") where they started playing "Groove Me", by King Floyd, followed by two of Hynde's tunes: "Tequila" and "The Phone Call". Hynde and Farndon then hooked up with James Honeyman-Scott (guitar / vocals / keyboards), and Martin Chambers (drums / vocals / percussion), put the name The Pretenders on the group, -- inspired by the song "The Great Pretender" by The Platters-- recorded a demo tape (including "Precious", "The Wait" and a Kinks' cover, "Stop Your Sobbing"), handed it to Hynde's friend Nick Lowe, produced a single ("Stop Your Sobbing/The Wait") and performed their first gigs ever in a club in Paris. The single was released in January 1979 and quickly hit the Top Thirty in UK.

The band's early success was followed by their first gigs in Britain where they earned wide critical acclaim. Later that spring (1979), The Pretenders recorded their eponymous first album and hit the charts in UK and US with the song "Brass in Pocket". The band traded on the huge success of this first album (for Sire records) for some time, as it wasn't released around the world until well into 1979 (some charts consider it the best album of 1980, for example). The band released an EP album in early 1981 while contractual issues were resolved, then Pretenders II later in the summer. These albums were not well received by critics (though hits such as Talk of the Town and Message of Love were on both). By the summer of 1982, drug use within the band was creating serious problems for Hynde. The Pretenders lineup would change repeatedly over the next decade as a result of drug related deaths and internal conflict (Honeyman-Scott died of heart failure in June 1982, just days after Farndon had been fired from the band over his own behaviour/drug use. Farndon would die (a drug related death) less than a year later. Martin Chambers left the band in the mid 1980's). Amidst the ever changing lineup, the controversial Hynde endured as the sole original Pretender until Chambers return in the mid 1990's.

Chrissie Hynde appeared at Wembley Stadium on the July 7, 1984 providing back up vocals on the encores of Bob Dylan's sell out concert. Also appearing in the encores of that show were Eric Clapton, Van Morrison and Carlos Santana.

As the rare, successful female bandleader and style-setter in the early days of punk and new wave, Hynde's impact was pervasive and substantial. Her edginess, punk sensibilities (she gave Sid Vicious his trademark lock necklace), musical vision, lyrical candor, and truthfulness in interviews earned the respect of fans, musicians and critics alike, inspiring multitudes of young women to follow. Among many collaborations, Hynde's recordings with UB40 (a cover version of "I Got You Babe") and Cheap Trick ("Walk Away") have also registered popular success. Her guitar of choice is a Fender Telecaster.

Throughout the mid 1980's and early 1990's, Hynde employed a string of session and professional musicians within the band, always keeping the name Pretenders. With many of the albums through this period, the only constant presence is her own, and the album art often reflects this (using her picture alone in some cases).

A new album has just been recorded with James Walbourne stepping in as guitarist in place of Adam Seymour. A sample song from the album, "Boots of Chinese Plastic", is available for listening on Chrissie Hynde's Myspace page. The band will perform several songs, old and new at the Koko Club in London on the 30th of July for an Itunes special, with tickets only able to be won and even then only by U.K. residents.