‘We’re here to rock and roll’ isn’t the usual cry from 73-year-olds on a Saturday night in Bristol’s city centre but then rock icon Chrissie Hynde isn’t your average grandmother. It may be 45 years since The Pretenders scored their first number one single with Brass In Pocket (a song they no longer play live) but Hynde is showing no signs of mellowing with age and still has plenty of attitude.
And she’s very much control, too. Signs near the entrance of the Beacon auditorium pointed out that the band requested no photos or videos to be taken during the performance, with Beacon staff quickly stopping any fans who tried to grab any pictures on their phones.
Dressed in skin-tight jeans, knee-high black boots and black t-shirt, Hynde – the only remaining member of the original line-up – greeted the sell-out Beacon crowd with a grin and went on to say how good it was to be back in Bristol – ‘home of Idles, one of my favourite bands’. She went on to reference Idles a couple more times in the 100-minute set and said if any members of the band were in the crowd, they should head backstage after the gig.
In recent years, The Pretenders have enjoyed something of a rejuvenation. The 2020 album Hate For Sale and 2023’s Relentless were widely acclaimed, with many fans and critics agreeing the new material is some of the band’s best in years.
One reason for this is the arrival of ace guitarist James Walbourne. Londoner Walbourne previously worked with Ray Davies and The Pogues and there’s undeniable on-stage chemistry between him and Hynde.
Walbourne’s flamboyant guitar solos were more than matched by Hynde’s extraordinary vocals which sound stronger than ever – no mean feat for septuagenarian singers. Hynde still has one of the most distinctive voices in music, one that has a unique tremolo quality with an instantly recognisable wavering pitch.
This was as best displayed in stand-out new material such as Losing My Sense of Taste and Let The Sun Come In as old favourites like Kid and Talk of the Town.
Mid-way through the set, Hynde put her guitar down to perform two slower ballads – You Can’t Hurt a Fool and The Losing, an almost forgotten track on 2002’s Loose Screw album that’s up there with the band’s best songs.
But it was the hits Back on The Chain Gang and Don’t Get Me Wrong that had people out their seats dancing and in the aisles. Other highlights were a sprawling and atmospheric version of Private Life (a song written by Hynde but made more famous by Grace Jones) complete with a slow and throbbing reggae bass line and a blistering hillbilly version of Thumbelina.
The band then turned the clock back to the 1980s for an encore of I Go To Sleep, a song written by Kinks star Ray Davies, who Hynde dated at the time. It was a fitting end to a show that proved The Pretenders are still at the top of their game after five decades and Hynde remains one of rock’s greatest female icons.