Pretenders Tickets

Chrissie Hynde moved from Ohio to London in 1973, just as Britain’s famed punk rock movement was about to take off. In 1978, having played in bands Masters of the Backside and the Moors Murderers, Hynde formed the Pretenders with guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, bassist Pete Farndon and Martin Chambers on drums. They released their self-titled debut album in 1980, which debuted at No.1 and staying there for a month. Including tracks ‘Tattooed Love Boys’, ‘Kid’ and ‘Brass in Pocket’, the LP introduced Pretenders’ radio friendly new wave punk, which could also be heard on their second studio album, Pretenders II.

After the untimely deaths of Honeyman-Scott and Farndon in 1982, Hynde and Chambers continued on with a rotating cast of band members. In 1984 as a new line-up they released their third LP, Learning to Crawl. Featuring the festive waltz ‘2000 Miles’ and bittersweet ‘Back on the Chain Gang’ it became Pretenders’ biggest US hit.

Get Close followed in 1986, after the band’s performance at Live Aid in the previous year, and with popular tracks such as ‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’, the album performed successfully.

Pretenders became predominantly Hynde’s project in the following years – it was her face only that appeared on 1990’s Packed!. But by 1994, Chambers had returned on drums, alongside new session musicians, to release Last of the Independents, which featured the band’s most famous power ballad ‘I’ll Stand By You’, and ¡Viva El Amor! five years later. The latter’s cover featured a photograph of Hynde taken by her late friend Linda McCartney – on the year of the album’s release, the band lead a memorial event for their late friend.

The turn of the millennium saw the band release their Greatest Hits, followed by albums, Loose Screw (2002) and Break Up the Concrete (2008), between which they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

After a brief hiatus, a Hynde-helmed Pretenders have continued to evolve, working with Dan Auerbach for 2016’s Alone, and co-writing with James Walbourne on 2020’s Hate For Sale.

In September 2023, Pretenders released their 12th studio album, Relentless, which included the BBC Radio 2 Record of the Week ‘Let The Sun Come In’, and the Jonny Greenwood collaboration ‘I Think About You Daily’. The band announced a string of club shows in London, Liverpool and Glasgow to promote Relentless.

When speaking of performing in these types of venues, Hynde said: “Well, everyone prefers being in them. I certainly would rather go to see a band in the club. So there’s that, because I’m still an audience member. And also it’s just more fun. It’s a small stage. And you can see everyone and they’re right in your face and it’s a laugh, that’s why you’re there. If I see some crazy in the audience, I can really feed off of that. You can’t see it when you're too far away.”

In November 2023, The Pretenders announced a headline theatre tour across the UK, beginning 24 February at Gateshead’s The Glasshouse, and closing on 6 March at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall. The tour will take in nine shows, featuring two performances at The London Palladium on 28 and 29 February. The tour arrives in the wake of the band's latest album, Relentless, their highest-charting record in 23 years, and 14th UK Top 40 release. The new songs have been met with high critical praise, described by MOJO as "persistently brilliant songwriting … surely how Chrissie Hynde always wanted The Pretenders to sound".