There are a handful of bands that I regret never catching live; Pretenders are high on that list. For anyone in the same boat, here’s your next-best-thing solution—pick up Live In London, a 2010 CD/DVD package with a 19-track setlist providing a broad overview of the first 30 years of this battle-scarred yet legendary band.
The band’s 2009 lineup featured founding members Chrissie Hynde (vocals/guitar) and Martin Chambers (drums) along with a trio of players who’ve frequently supported Hynde since 2008: James Walbourne (guitar), Nick Wilkinson (bass) and Eric Heywood (steel guitar). In particular, the at-the-time-new Walbourne has been a constant for the past 17 years, co-writing a substantial portion of latter-day Pretenders material.
Typically for the group’s iconic and iconoclastic frontwoman and chief songwriter Chrissie Hynde, the setlist is all over the place, mixing a solid representation of the requisite hits with scatterings of then-recent tunes and deep cuts. Most of the time this works, though there are moments when it feels like the audience begins to grow restless for something more familiar.
Opener “Boots Of Chinese Plastic” launches like a rocket, a newer tune at the time whose visceral energy nonetheless serves as a reminder that the Pretenders emerged out of the late-’70s London punk scene. The also-new “Don’t Cut Your Hair” follows, another high-energy number that doesn’t seem to capture the audience’s fancy (or mine) quite as much. Early-days single “Talk Of The Town” has all of the requisite jangle and chime, a wonderfully melodic number that brings out the tender side of the often-fierce Hynde. Another great example follows in “Kid,” a sweet and affectionate tune.
The show’s energy flags on “The Nothing Makers,” a bit of a dirge; maybe they’re conserving it for “Don’t Lose Faith In Me,” a blues ballad that Hynde sings the hell out of, even if it is also rather slow. “Back On The Chain Gang” is lovely and poignant as ever, always a highlight in the catalog, and then “Love’s A Mystery” goes big on the steel guitar for a taste of Americana. Up next, middle-period single “Don’t Get Me Wrong” is… fine. It’s lively enough, but not my favorite of theirs, and then the slow lament “Tequila” dips the energy level again.
The turnaround comes quickly in the form of the group’s cover of The Kinks’ “Stop Your Sobbing,” a note-perfect highlight still, starting with just Hynde’s voice followed by a burst of jangly melody. “Day After Day” is a relatively unfamiliar deep cut that’s nonetheless stamped with that characteristic Pretenders sound: riffy, urgent, and dominated by Hynde’s charismatic voice.
From there the set moves from highlight to highlight. First they tear through a raucous, triumphant “Cuban Slide”; then Chambers teases the crowd for a moment before plunging headlong into the drum opening to “Middle Of The Road,” the perfect set closer. The encores begin with “The Wait,” one of my personal Top Five Pretenders songs. This rendition is different enough that you can tell some years have passed and there are new players in the band, but it’s a powerful version of a classic tune. Then they positively rip through “Tattooed Love Boys” with all the frenetic fervor of the original and a remarkably faithful recreation of James Honeyman-Scott's fiery guitar work. Finally, they close with “Precious,” steely and explosive as ever. Thirty years on, the first song on their first album still hits like a howitzer.
For all the enjoyment I got out of this set, there were some odd decisions made. It’s understandable that the CD and DVD tracklists don’t match up perfectly; DVDs can hold a lot more data—and therefore content—than CDs. But after trimming several tracks for the CD version—including one of my favorites, “Message Of Love”—they then add two “bonus tracks” onto the end of the CD. “I’ll Stand By You” substitutes steel guitar for the piano featured in the original, to intriguing effect. And “Brass In Pocket” absolutely belongs here, another first-album classic that’s as melodic and charming as ever.
But the CD bonus tracks don’t appear on the DVD, and the CD is missing five tracks that do appear on the DVD, and the bonus tracks are shunted to the end of the CD rather than being presented in the order they appeared at the show—and it’s not at all obvious why any of these decisions were made. Plus, the way the tracks are listed and called out on the album packaging’s back cover turns the task of figuring out which songs are on which disc into a task for a code-breaker.
As far as the DVD itself, it’s everything you might hope for: visceral, intense and captivating. The camera angles are simple and direct, with no dollies or other intrusive filming techniques used, so the band’s connection with the audience is ever-present and central to the experience.
Watching and/or listening to Live In London isn’t the same thing as having the Pretenders performing right in front of you, of course, but for those of us in a position of settling for the next best thing, it’s one of the better substitutes available.