Monday, September 13, 2010

Pretenders & Violent Femmes

James Honeyman Scott of the Pretenders discovered Violent Femmes when they were playing outside the venue that Pretenders were going to play that night - Chrissie Hynde invited them to do a short opening set that night. Then Scott died in 1982 at age 25 of a drug overdose.



I got to see Pretenders live in Philadelphia in 1982 with their original line-up, which also included Martin Chambers and Pete Farndon - Farndon died in 1983 at 30, also of a drug overdose. Unfortunately I can find very little video footage of their live concerts from that time, and none of them performing Mystery Achievement - this TV show performance of their cover of Hynde's one-time boyfriend Ray Davies' "Stop Your Sobbing" will have to do.