The Great Pretender

They formed in March 1978 and from the very start pretty much defined the sound and look of new wave. Forty-five years later, The Pretenders remain true to their original spirit, despite the tragic early loss of two founder members, and Chrissie Hynde is still conjuring classic pop songs and embodying the essential sass and strut of rock'n'roll. Pete Paphides interviews her about survival and songwriting, the Sex Pistols and narrowly avoiding jail on the road

- By Pete Paphides

"You’re a record guy, right?” says Chrissie Hynde as she leads Record Collector into the lounge of the Little Venice garden flat she shares with her dog Nico. These five words communicate a lot. They tell you that not everyone who comes here wants to break bread around the turntable that sits beside her favourite armchair. But if they do, then this interview will almost certainly run way beyond the time allotted to it. And in uttering those five words – “You’re a record guy, right?” – one more thing is communicated. Take it as confirmation that the things that got Chrissie Hynde excited back in 1973 – when she moved from Akron, Ohio to be closer to the music that set her own destiny – are still the things that get her excited now.

She grabs the record on top of the pile, Spooky Two – the Jimmy Miller-produced 1969 album by soulful Anglo-American rockers Spooky Tooth and asks me if I know it. I confess that I don’t, but that merely compounds her excitement. Because the best bit of being into records is turning someone onto something they’ve never heard before. “What guys sing like that anymore?” Hynde exclaims, as Mike Harrison’s voice takes flight on Feelin’ Bad. “I mean, really. Who’s around now who can do that?”

Then she pulls out three more albums: Aldous Harding’s most recent release, Warm Chris, Kim Fowley’s 1975 album Animal God Of The Streets (“a fucking flex of a record”) and the 1973 debut by Bostonian singer-songwriter Andy Pratt, an old favourite from her stoner days.