THE PRETENDERS vs. The Dreaded Secind Album Syndrome...

Late one cloudless summer afternoon, Chrissie Hynde can be found in the historic English West Country town of Bath.

Another stop on another tour for the Pretenders, the groups first set of live dates since some ten months ago the curtain came down on the 120 or so shows the four-piece had played in support of Pretenders, a first LP that sold over two million copies worldwide and established the outfit as one of the most successful acts to arrive in the slipstream of punk.

Group songwriter and singer Chrissie is sitting on the bed in a modern automated hotel bedroom, the open window of which lets in a cooling light breeze and overlooks the slow flow of the River Avon and the white restored Regency buildings on its opposite bank.

Chrissie displays no great interest in the scenery, however. With drummer Martin Chambers gazing over her shoulder, her attention is focused on the costly appearance of the heavily posed, 60s-like front cover shot of Pretenders II, the art work for which has just been brought down from London by manager Dave Hill.

Chrissie Hynde is not overly pleased, particularly as the imminent LP release allows no time for alterations. Were show-room dummies, Im afraid," she says with a slight scowl. On the day we did the

session I had a big zit right in the middle of my chin. Theyve taken that out and all the pock-marks, and done a real Pat Benatar job on it. I look like Barbi Benton or someone."

The near-slapdash cover of the first LP, after all, was surprisingly striking. We chose that first cover," she remembers, by literally just holding a load of color transparencies up to the light. ˜Oh, okay: that one will do. It was not really a very good picture at all—I mean, we were hardly wearing the right sort of clothes, were we? Yet oddly enough that shot has become like a logo for the group. Because its so simple it stands out from everything else in a record shop. "

It was with the question of equalling that first sizable success that Chrissie, Martin, guitarist Jim Honeyman-Scott and bassist Pete Farndon have concerned themselves since they completed those final English live shows last year. In the midst of them last October, a dose to exhausted Chrissie Hynde expressed to me her apprehension about the groups being booked to enter the studio a week after they came off the road for the first time in over six months.

Fuckin ridiculous," she exclaimed in something close to irritability at the rock n roll treadmill onto which she seemed unwittingly to have stepped. Im supposed to have been writing this new album all the time weve been on tour. Im supposed to work on new songs after the gig.

After Ive got back from the gig, and Ive unwound and Ive done everything I have to do, and Ive got into bed and laid down and read a book for a while, then Im going to feel like picking up my guitar and writing a song?"

To think the Kinks were doing a song because we'd done It-orgasm after orgasm on that particular Issue. --Chrissie Hynde

The group, however, soon was sequestered away in the Pathe-Marconi studio in Paris. This recording location was chosen, claims Martin Chambers, because both he and producer Chris Thomas were hopeful about the studios possibilities of delivering a desired weighty drum sound they felt had been absent on the first album. Thomas, maintains Chrissie, is something akin to a fifth member of the Pretenders. Indeed, a major cause of the considerable gestation time required for Pretenders II was that in early spring Thon as was obliged to honor a booking to work on the latest Elton John

LP

When Hook at the charts I get the same kind of twinge I used to get in 1973 and 1974,.. which was little bit like El Stinko... ••Chrissie Hynde

This spell in Paris was for Chrissie Hynde something of a return in triumph to a former home. In late 1974, the then Londonbased girl from Cleveland already had tired of rock reporting for New Musical Express and working with apprentice music Svengali Malcolm McLaren in his Kings Road Sex clothes shop: Then this French guy Id met asked me to go over to Paris to front this group he was formingllthe Frenchies. Which seemed really interesting, because it was right at the height of the French obsession with Punk. So one day I went round the record companies, got forty quids worth of albums to sell, and split to Paris that evening. "

That time Chrissie ended up back in London cleaning apartments for spending money.

Last year, when she returned to London from Paris in time for Christmas it was with four recorded songs—The Adultress," Message Of Love," Birds Of Paradise," and Louie Louie."

Pathe Marconi was a good studio," she says in an American accent that often leaps with London vowel sounds, but the problem was that we were definitely pretty burned up. Being in a band with somebody isnt just like working in an office together. Its more like living with someone. And no matter how well you get on with them you start hating their guts after a while.

In fact, this band seems to get along with each other far better than most other bands I know. Well all call each other up, and go out with each other for a drink or whatever. Were still a fairly young band—weve only been together about three years, even though all the guys knew each other for ages beforehand weve done a lot very quickly, but weve still got a really good relationship.

In most of the bands I know at least certain of the members have no contact whatsoever—theres even an active dislike of certain members. A lot of very big name bands are notorious for that—so-and-so never talks to someone else.

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In the 76 punk thing that seemed definitely to be used a bit. Malcolm McLaren put it about that if a band hated each other, then it gave you some sort of force to work off.

But if it gets to the point where you actually dread going into the studio because you know youre going to see that cunt in the group, or you dread going to do a gig because youre going to have a fight.. .Well, whats the point?!? I mean, Im not all Peace and Love, but all the same..."

Further such speculation is prevented by manager Dave Hill, a former ABC Records A&R man once featured in a Daily Mirror centerspread photo feature on Jcimes Dean lookalikes, who rushes excitedly into the room, insisting that the TV be switched on. If Chrissie and Martin never watch another television program, he declaims, they must see this one.

The show in question is a retrospective of the 60s. Oh, isnt she cute!" squeals Chrissie of Christine Keeler, the woman whose affair with a British Minister Of Defense brought down a Conservative government. Chrissie pour's out a cup of tea for everyone present, before beginning to nibble sporadically at a plate of vegetables —sheets a vegetarian of some 12 years standing.

Dave Hill departs the room as on the screen the Beatles appear, performing She Loves You."

Oh brilH" enthuses the Pretenders singer. You know, it mustve been so optimistic in the 60S.

I guess," she adds, that although Beatlemania came over to the States, I was always more keen on the Stones. The first Beatles album and the first Stones album were the first two albums I ever had. Obviously; Im American and Im 29.

You know," her thoughts jump, one of the reasons why this new album of ours got put back was because of that EP thing they put out in America.

The trouble is, everyone in England knows what an EP is, but they never had them in America. But, anyway, we put it out, and stupidly it was in a 12-inch format—-actually," all this 12-inch singles bollocks really gets on my tits... Any way, the material was all stuff that had already been out in England.

However, it looked like an album, and people bought it as such. So it went into the American LP charts. And so we felt really hard-pressed not to put all of those songs on this album. Essentially, it was a cock-up. A big cock-up.

All the same, we wanted ˜Message Of Love on the ~album, because thats what wed recorded it for."

You know," adds Martin Chambers, in the lazy accent of the nearby Hereford from which all three male Pretenders hail, "we demoed a couple of songs for the album, but didnt get around to recording them properly with Chris Thomas in Paris. But then we went into Wessex studio in London and demoed them again with different arrangments—Jealous Dogs, ˜Waste Not, Want Not, and ˜Day After Day. We did them again."

I remember," recalls Chrissie, that song ˜Jealous Dogs was just dropped like a hot potato when we first did it, because it was so bland. To everyone else it seemed to sound like a slow version of ˜Louie, Louie—although the way I originally wrote it was to deliberately keep it very plain and open to interpretation.

I just said, ˜Look, I think we can get a great atmosphere on this song. But even so, there was nothing really musically enticing about it for the rest of the band—it was just a three-chord song. Yet I was still hoping they would really turn it into something, but no one seemed too interested, it seemed.

After the EP thing came out, though, we worked on it again, and it happened.

˜Waste Not, Want Not was a real smelly song. Actually, it still isnt too great, but it was really bad the way we did it originally. I think that was largely because there wasnt anything about the song that grabbed Jims imagination. Usually hell pick up on a chord and come up with some sort of hook line, something that starts making the song sound like a Pretenders song.

Mind you," she adds, we werent exactly squeezing the blood out of the writing stone, as Ive heard suggested from some quarters. We actually have a good few songs we just havent completed yet, or that we havent totally arranged.

There was no question of scraping the barrel, and anyone who claims we were can go eat a big one!"

Not only did Chrissie Hynde need todeliver an album of new songs, but her head had to adjust to the strange madness and rewards of the previous, victorious twelve months. After years of living in squats and shoplifting for food, she finally had an apartment of her own and enough money m the bank certainly to buy the stereo shed never had since moving over to England in the summer of 73, when she brought with her two Lou Reed records and one by Iggy Pop.

Shes a long way on from the times when, as part of Malcolm McLarens Brian Epstein-like stable of punk bands, shed give Johnny Rotten guitar lessons or be part of short-lived groups like Big Girls Underwear with one Brady : When I found out his real name was Mick Jones, I said whatre you playing at? Mick Jones is a fantastic rock n rollname.. .1 remember when I first met him Mick had this song hed written called ˜Im So Bored With You—all the stuff he was writing then was rather dippy love songs. But when the Clash started it became changed to im So Bored With The USA, which I thought was rather a smart move.

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 45

But when suddenly everyone I knew who Id been playing with had got a record deal or even a record out...Boy, was I down.

However, in this last year the Pretenders has become such a big deal in my life.

You know, people—secretaries or whatever—like to go to a pub and talk to their friends and have a few drinks and forget about their problems. But if youve had a rough time in the studio, and you go into a bar, what happens is you get people shouting out at you, ˜Hey, howd the tour go? Whens the album coming out?

So," she shrugs, running her fingers though the fine hair on the top of her head in a frequently repeated nervous gesture, I just didnt go out for a year. Which was really contrary to my former lifestyle.

Also, anywhere that you do go, people keep looking at you* wanting you to change. Yet, in fact, its the people around you that change. And certainly if youre as long in the tooth as we all were, you can see that happening. Wed been thrown out on our ears from hundreds of bars around the world, and beaten up, and told to fuck off, and generally given a hard time everywhere.

I remember I was always sneaking into gi^s without paying, and promoters would throw me out. But now its ˜Hey, Chrissie: come on in!

Youre not Chrissie Hynde, the ex-failure or cocktail waitress anymore—youre Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders. So its okay." She smiles cynically, a flash of anguish momentarily passing across her eyes.

An isolation from the current British music scene came as a part of the deal when Chrissie Hynde hid herself away from London social life: Ive stayed out of touch, mainly because Im not that interested in what there is around.

When I look at the charts I get the same kind of twinge I used to get in 1973 and 1974in England, which was little bit like... El Stinko.. .It just seems like theres a lot of bad stuff around.

And by no means am I attempting to come on with any false modesty, but I think thats one of the reasons why we were so successful with our first album: the standards are low and theres not much interesting stuff around—were not competing with Dionne Warwicke, so people therefore can say Im a good singer.

It is a good band, but wheres the competition? Tom Pettys at number one in America—that doesnt exactly shake the ass off me. It just leaves me cold. Whats that SRO Speedwagon, or something like that? Its all very tepid, MOR stuff.

Yet I accept the fact that, particularly in America, were accepted very much by the MQR audience, though because were still a bit rough, they might think were a bit New Wave-ish.

I know that weve got A Sound and a certain good points, but its not enough to fool yourself and think, ˜Oh, we really did well with our first record, because if you look at what else is around..."

Martin Chambers interjects that so far all the singles by the Pretenders have played it very safe.

It often seems," agrees Chrissie, that the band has played it pretty safe altogether. But whats really happened is that the management and the record company have played it safe with us: just from the fact that Im a bit rough-looking and play guitar. And then again, the time was right. So there were a few angles there. It was pretty marketable.

Yet weve never played on that. The only reason Im the one that does most of the interviews is because its by popular demand—Im the singer, and I write the lyrics. Its not just because Im the girl that Im doing the interviews.

And, you know, wed like to do a single thats pretty wild. Whatever gets put out off of this new album, though, we wont be in England and I wont have to hear it all day long like I did that bastard ˜Brass In Pocket! Which I nevef liked at all, actually.

J hated it! It was a phenomenon that evades me completely. I was honestly very disappointed it was such a big hit—I was embarrassed by it.

Yet ˜Message Of Love only got to number 11—which seems fine by me, incidentally—yet I liked it, and I was happy with it. I felt Id won my dignity back. I felt the same about ˜Talk Of The Town.

Yet," she recalls, I remember what an odd reaction was given to our very first single, ˜Stop Your Sobbing.

AH my friends, who were from that 1977 school, were a bit horrified that I who had been out there teenage rebelling it around town for years was going to do something that seemed to them to be so safe: (a) it was a 60s song, which was really uncool at the time, (b) it shouldve been an original— everyone asked whatever happened to the more hard-assed stuff Id been writing...

But I told them, ˜Listen, my songs arent as good as this. This is a great song. Plus, no one had ever heard of it, which shocked me, because it was on the first Kinks album, /knew it when I was fourteen.

Anyway, I just thought, lOh screw you: like it or lump it! We did it because it was better than any of my songs. And we did the right thing.

In fact," she continues, ˜Stop Your Sobbing was so obscure that when the Kinks re-recorded it, they used part of our arrangement! Which was just the thrill of my life. To think the Kinks were doing a song because wed done it—orgasm after orgasm on that particular issue.

You know," she concludes as she disappears into the bathroom to freshen up for the evenings show, theres nothing wrong with being commercial. Whats wrong is to change your sound to try to be commercial. But if you have a commercial sound, dont be ashamed of it." ^