![]() The band has had a number of hit songs including ‘Brass in Pocket’, ‘My Baby’, ‘I’ll Stand By You’ and many more. After both Honeyman-Scott and Farndon passed away due to drug related incidents the band was subject to a number of line-up changes and Hynde has remained the only consistent member of the band. The band line-up originally consisted of songwriter, lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Chrissie Hynde, lead guitarist, backing vocalist and keyboardist James Honeyman-Scott, bass guiatarist Pete Farndon and drummer and percussionist Martin Chambers. The Pretenders are famous for being an English-American band first formed in 1978, they have a rock sound. MORE INFO: /martinchambersofficial and Career What are they famous for? ![]() WHERE: Mayo Performing Arts Center, 100 South St., Morristown 97 or. That’s what people really want to hear and they would be fantastic shows.” If you go “I hope before we pack away our bags for good we can tour those albums in their entirety. “We’re very fit and in great shape but time’s not on our side,” Chambers says. He adds that he wants the Pretenders to honor their past by performing the band’s first two albums from start to finish onstage. “That’s where Jimmy and Pete used to be and that never changes, it never leaves you.” “I’m at the back of the stage and to the left is the guitar player and to the right is the bass player,” Chambers says. He says he thinks about them every time he plays a show. While he enjoys playing the Pretenders’ new material live and hopes to perform on their next album, Chambers says the band has never been the same for him since Honeyman-Scott’s and Farndon’s deaths. The band has since released albums about once every four years with a variety of lineups. They followed with the album “Learning to Crawl” (1984), which hit No. Hynde and Chambers carried on with a new Pretenders lineup and released the hit single “Back on the Chain Gang” (1983). The Pretenders upward trajectory came to a crashing halt when Honeyman-Scott died of drug abuse in June 1982, two days after the band fired Farndon for his substance abuse problems. The records included many of the band’s best-known songs, including “Brass in Pocket,” “Talk of the Town,” “Kid,” “Message of Love” and a cover of the Kinks’ “Stop Your Sobbing.” Both albums were Top 10 hits in America and the U.K., where the band’s debut hit No. The lineup was responsible for the band’s first two albums, “Pretenders” (1980) and “Pretenders II” (1981). ![]() The original Pretenders roster also included the guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and the bassist Pete Farndon. We put together a great band and it worked immediately.” “She knows how to sing, which is different form just having a good voice, and writes an incredible lyric. “She hadn’t performed much at the time the band formed, but the key is the songs and her range of material was fantastic,” he says. Hynde, an Ohio native, moved to England to pursue a music career in 1973.Ĭhambers says it was evident from the start that Hynde was a special talent. He was with the band from their formation in London in 1978 until the mid-1980s, and rejoined in 1994. “We’re still able to do it with a big smile on our faces because we’re still alive and producing good music and performing great shows.”Ĭhambers began playing professionally in 1967 and is in his second stint with the Pretenders. “We’re all about the music and the best results,” Chambers says. “That’s the cooperative that Chrissie and I work within. “I know my job is to play the supporting role for Chrissie, providing the platform on the drums so that she can sing that melody,” he says. “I remember watching the movie ‘Rocky,’ and hearing that music made me want to drink raw eggs and run up a flight of stairs.” “What I loved about music was that you could move people,” he said. ![]() Though he does not appear on the band’s latest effort, “Alone” (2016), Chambers is the group’s official drummer and plays with them live, as he will when the band performs at the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown on Monday.Īt the same time, he also wrote songs, influenced in part by such artists as Hank Williams (a favorite of his father), Merle Haggard, the Beatles, and Bruce Springsteen. I’m sure I’ve taken a toll on her as well.” But because I love her so much and the Pretenders so much, that’s OK. “I’ve taken it on the chin from her so often. “She’s very strong-minded and we clash,” Chambers, the Pretenders’ outspoken drummer, says of his 40-year relationship with Hynde, the band’s singer-guitarist. I couldn’t be bothered with all the aggro Chrissie gives me. “A couple of years ago, I told you don’t have to use me,” Chambers says. Martin Chambers did not perform on the Pretenders’ latest album, but he’s not upset about it.
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