Brass In Pocket :: The Pretenders
Moodi Foodi Music Video : Chicken Tikka Masala
"I know that the Pretenders have looked like a tribute band for the last 20 years. ... And we're paying tribute to James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon, without whom we wouldn't be here. And on the other hand, without us, they might have been here, but that's the way it works in rock 'n' roll."
Favorite English Food : Chicken Tikka Masala
Origin : Hereford, England, United Kingdom and Akron, Ohio, United States
Genres : Alternative rock, New Wave, punk rock
Years Active : 1978–present
Labels : Sire, Warner Bros.
The Pretenders are an English–American rock band formed in Hereford, England in March 1978. The original band comprised initiator and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), James Honeyman-Scott (lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards), Pete Farndon (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Martin Chambers (drums, backing vocals, percussion). The band has experienced drug-related deaths of the members, and numerous subsequent personnel changes have taken place over the years, with Hynde as the sole continual member. Hynde, originally from Akron, Ohio attended Kent State University at the time of the Kent State shootings in 1970. She moved to London in 1973, working at the weekly music paper NME and at Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's clothes store. She was involved with early versions of The Clash and The Damned and played in short-lived bands such as Masters of the Backside and The Moors Murderers. The Pretenders formed in 1978 after Dave Hill at Anchor Records heard some demos of Hynde's music. He arranged a rehearsal studio in Denmark Street, where a 3-piece band consisting of Hynde, Mal Hart on bass (he had played with Hynde and Steve Strange in The Moors Murderers), and Phil Taylor of Motörhead on drums played a selection of Hynde's original songs. Dave Hill was impressed and arranged a day at Studio 51 to record another demo. Although it was rough, he felt he had seen and heard enough "star potential" to suggest that Hynde form a more permanent band to record for his new label, Real Records. Hynde then formed a band composed of Pete Farndon (who was later associated romantically with Hynde) on bass, James Honeyman-Scott on guitar, and Gerry Mcilduff on drums. This band, then without a name, recorded five tracks at Regents Park Studio in July 1978, including "Stop Your Sobbing." Shortly thereafter, Gerry Mcilduff was replaced on drums by Martin Chambers, and Hynde named the band "Pretenders" after The Platters song "The Great Pretender."
The Pretenders’ : “Brass in Pocket”
The seventh video to ever air on MTV is an awkward yet strangely touching bit of storytelling. Lead singer Chrissie Hynde portrays a lonely waitress whose only customers—aside from someone passed out with his head on the table—are a trio of young guys, played by her bandmates. They order the special (campily pointing to it on the menu to coincide with the lyric “I’m special”), leer flirtatiously/menacingly at Hynde, then leave before so much as taking a sip of coffee once their bouncy girlfriends arrive. Hynde looks longingly out the window at them driving away, repeating, “I’m special. I gotta have some of your attention.”
Response to Music Video: The Pretenders’ : “Brass in Pocket”
"Excellent audio and its great that you have the original video. Its bittersweet to see the original band members knowing how Honeyman-Scott and Farndon ended up"
"Absolutely love this song, the lyrics remind me of walking into a club one night and seeing a guy across the room,it was magic! These words fit the rest of our evening and many years to come.....I used my imagination, my side step,my arms ,my legs ,my fingers....."
"I was just fresh out of school and never knew there was a vid for this song, wow how taken back I am and wondering where my life went, they were the days"
Smithsonian Magazine
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