Hynde a whirlwind of activity
Frontwoman Chrissie Hynde of the British rock band The Pretenders performs with the band at the Bank of America Pavilion in Boston, August 12, 2009.
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MONTREAL —
“Yeah, it was a regular beauty contest,” Hynde says deadpan.
Next up, she hopes, are a batch of songs that can form the basis of another Pretenders album.
“I would like to think this will actually speed up my songwriting process,” Hynde says.
“Usually, I spend a lot of goof-off time. I call it my gestation time — but really, pot-smoking time is what it is. Creativity spawns creativity. It inspires it. We (Jones and Hynde) did this so quickly, and that’s always the best way to do a rock album.”
The perfect scenario for the 58-year-old Hynde would then see her call her bandmates by the end of the year to get going on what will be the group’s first release since Break Up the Concrete in 2008.
Fans of the 30-year-old band who can’t wait that long can satisfy themselves by heading to their favourite record store on Tuesday to buy Live in London — music and video from a riveting concert the Pretenders put on at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London last July.
The CD-DVD was put together by brothers Pierre and Francois Lamoureux, natives of Sudbury, Ont., who have produced other concert films.
Hynde and the rest of the band are at the top of their game in an incredibly tight concert. The native of Akron, Ohio, is in commanding form, her voice still wonderfully vibrant.
She can be seen captivating a crowd like few other female rockers, strutting her stuff in heels as black mascara drips down her cheeks to her throat.
Hynde says she was a bit nervous about looking at the footage of the show.
“We were all so hungover that morning,” she recalls. “I called my manager and begged not to go. I didn’t think I could watch myself.
“We were all shaking and horrified to watch ourselves.
“Once we started watching it, about three songs in, we all moved from behind the couch, where we were watching it like dogs that had been whipped. It sounded great. It looked good. It had this excitement of a live show, which is what it was.”
Pierre Lamoureux, who runs Fogolabs production house with his brother, originally called the Pretenders’ management a few years ago when they heard the band was getting back into the studio.
“Chrissie and London go way back,” Lamoureux said from New York City. “We just thought it would be kind of cool to do it in England. I believe it was the first time they’d played there in over 10 years.”
