A Day On The Green
Chrissie Hynde & The Pretenders
by Marty Jones

“Oh but it’s hard to live by the rules, I never could and still never do.” So sang Chrissie Hynde in Talk Of The Town way back in 1981. Her frank mission statement was announced then and there. And neither her candour nor her defiance has waned since the Pretenders sprang out of the UK punk movement in 1978.
I shouldn’t be surprised, then, to pick up the phone to the immediate and casual greeting, ‘hi, it’s Chrissie’. But I am. Most rock stars are presented to interviewers through carefully controlled record label filters. Phone interviews are almost always connected via a third party operator and set a strict time limit. Hynde, however, calls me direct. From a friend’s place, because she in the middle of moving house. Using a phone card that she bought from a girl in a café in Brazil.
Immediately it’s apparent that this is not going to be a structured exchange where interviewer runs down a list of questions and interviewee dutifully responds in bite-sized, quotable chunks. I happily abandon my carefully researched list of questions almost immediately, focusing on trying to read the nuances of Hynde’s tinder-dry responses over the phone. I doubt that being able to read her physical expressions in person would offer any further information – she’s the original ice queen. The untouchable rock goddess who’s seen and done it all. Keith Richards’ far more attractive and intelligent sister spirit.
But beyond the cool quips designed to shove you back on your heels, Hynde is warm and engaging and inspiring and generous and ethical. And funny. Though she only lapses into a breathy chuckle once or twice the entire interview, you can imagine those eyeliner-framed eyes sparkling with mischief as she drops another arid one-liner.
For example, Hynde is in between moving house and heading out on tour and she’s just had a hand in the re-release of The Pretenders’ first two albums as well as the exhaustive 4CD box set, Pirate Radio, and is touring Australia in February. I asked if Hynde could foresee a person or circumstance that would make her stop in her tracks and settle down, contented.
‘Cancer’, was her immediate response.
I pressed upon the ‘contented’ contingent of the question.
“I am contented,” Hynde replies. “Well I’m happy to be alive, yeah. I’m not really looking for anything, I’m just getting through my life. I don’t have any goals. I’m not trying to achieve anything, I’m just getting along like I always do. And, you know, obviously some touring comes up, I think, ‘oh that could be good’, and I’ve certainly considered stopping touring and stopping doing music because I guess it’s just a thing where you address certain things in your life and think, ‘well, maybe I should be thinking about other things’. But the point is you can think about other things and still be doing this... And it’s fun so why not do it?”
And that’s the reason Hynde and the current incarnation of The Pretenders will be returning to Australia to play a run of shows that will feature appearances at the next A Day On The Green series with The Church, Paul Kelly & The Boon Companions and Josh Pyke. As for the reason Warner are re-releasing expanded versions of Pretenders and Pretenders II as well as a 4CD plus DVD box set Pirate Radio?
“Well you know, I don’t know what I think about those album reissues,” Hynde responded. “That’s the sort of thing that happens with or without you - a record company just does it. I’m not trying to promote that, although I suppose that’s an excuse to go on tour. I’m never trying to promote anything, I know that people can get it free and you know, good luck. I’m not trying to sell anything, I never have tried to. And the reissues, there’s something kind of creepy about it I guess because, you know, it’s the past. Although I must say with the reissues there’s a lot of live material and stuff so in fact if you’re a Pretenders fan, especially the first band which was a great band if I do say so myself, there’s some really interesting B-sides and live tracks and stuff.”
Pretenders and Pretenders II are not only great albums, but historically significant documents. They represent a bridge between the English punk movement and a new age of MTV-infected commercialism. They are the two albums recorded by the band’s original line-up – guitarist James Honeyman Scott and bassist Peter Farndon both died of drug overdoses after the second album was released. They demonstrate a Pretenders that was far more hard-edged and experimental than the handful of hits that classic radio keeps churning out would suggest. And, finally, the reissues include a bunch of live recordings and studio outtakes that most fans have never heard before. Hynde herself has probably never heard them. Surely they must have drawn some strong emotions in her as she listened back to those archived recordings?
“No,” Hynde deadpans. “Sorry.”
But after only a moment’s pause comes the rewarding elaboration.
“It’s always great to see the original band again ’cause those guys died, you know, 20 years ago. And I’m always amazed to see how good the band was and I go, ‘so that’s what all the fuss was about’. And I love seeing Jimmie Scott, who was such a superb guitar player and he died when he was 25 and I suppose more than anything that’s my real motive for trying to… If I’m promoting anything or if I’m trying to encourage people to listen to the early albums, knowing Jimmy as well as I did, he did have a goal and that was to be one of the guitar greats and he was one of the guitar greats and if I have any pride at all in my career it was kind of discovering him.”
A Day On The Green takes place at Annie’s Lane Winery, Clare, on Sat Jan 20 with The Pretenders, Paul Kelly & The Boon Companions, The Church and Josh Pyke. Visit <adayonthegreen.com.au> for further details and booking information.