The Pretenders 1978 to 1990 On Track: Every Album, Every Song

by Richard Butterworth

ISBN: 9781789523584

Published: 2025-05-30

Dinner with David Bowie, kissing with Jackie Wilson, close encounters with Iggy Pop, Rod Stewart and Ron Wood. Not even 20, still less a rock goddess, but Chrissie Hynde wasn't hanging around. The talented, charismatic writer-singer escaped Ohio for Britain in 1973, hoping to form a rock'n'roll band. She befriended journalist Nick Kent, designer Vivienne Westwood, hustler Malcolm McLaren and famous musicians from Nick Lowe to Lemmy. She wrote for The NME and narrowly avoided becoming Mrs. Sid Vicious. Meeting Pete Farndon, James Honeyman-Scott and Martin Chambers, Chrissie finally realised her dream: The Pretenders, one of the world's most exciting, enduring and best-loved rock groups. The Pretenders proved revelatory, lashing hard rock to the sexy, sassy swagger of streetwise punk and catchy, chart-busting pop. 'Brass In Pocket' was a worldwide hit. America took to its heart the ex-pat from the Heartlands, as Chrissie became an international star and a reluctant flagbearer for...