Wow! Sometimes there are gigs where everything comes into place and you have an unforgettable evening. Well this was one such occasion. The Cluny is a tiny pub venue in Newcastle. It cannot hold more than a few hundred people. So when the Pretenders announced that they were playing some intimate gigs and one of them was the aforementioned Cluny I just had to go along. The tickets sold out in minutes, if not seconds. I was lucky enough to score one for myself and a companion, who turned out to be Elaine, and who also took some great photos. We arrived around 8:10 PM. The Pretenders were due on stage at 8:30 PM. So we were just in time to squeeze through the tiny door which gained us entry into the concept room at the back of the pub.
We came into the concert part and were faced with a jampacked room, filled with a sea of people. We couldn’t move and couldn’t see a thing. Now usually I don’t take advantage of being in a wheelchair. But this was one occasion I broke my rule and used my disability to my advantage. I slowly moved forward asking people to let me through to the front. Slowly but surely, everyone was so kind, and I reached a spot almost at the front of the crowd one person between me and the stage. I had a wonderful view of everything. Thank you so much Cluny crowd! Elaine followed nervously behind me. I asked her to go to the bar and get me a drink and a T-shirt. “I can’t possibly move at all” she explained “and if I do get to the bar there is no way I can get back!” And she was right. We were completely crammed in and could not move at all. The entire venue was completely full and there was no room to move anywhere. Wonderful. It felt just like the old days when I was used to being crammed down close to the front.
8:30 PM. The band come on stage. Chrissie is just in front of me and looks just great. This lady is 71 years old and looks just wonderful. She is the archetypal rock chick in thigh length black leather winklepicker boots, jeans and a black shiny leather jacket. She sounds great and the new band she has assembled are great musicians. The advertising for the show told us that there would be no hits. But as I said, sometimes magic Does happen and four songs in we get “Kid”. A meltdown moment. Tears in my eyes. And a mix of great rock ‘n’ roll and hits follows. But the evening gets better. Chrissie Hynde spots me and asks the people in front of me to move aside so I can see. “Are you okay? Can you see?” She says to me. I told you it was 1 of those evenings. Chrissie Hynde talking directly to me. I tried to mouth back “do you remember playing the Mayfair?” But she can’t hear me.
I recall seeing the Pretenders at the Mayfair around 1977 and that they were pelted with pints of beer by the traditional heavy rock crowd. So we get “Back on the chain gang”, “Talk of the town” and “Don’t get me wrong”. All played at full volume, with great raspy vocals from Chrissie. At one point she asks “did any of you see the New York Dolls?” A big cheer. “And Johnny Thunders. He’s dead now. But so is everyone these days.” Says Chrissie. “We can play arenas if we wanted to, but we want to come back and play little venues. We are losing a talking fortune!” Chrissie also talks about the Grammys: “what happened real music and great rock ‘n’ roll?” More rock ‘n’ roll follows. And then they are gone.
They play 3 encores. It is 9:50 PM. A member of the crew gives me a set list. Everyone is so kind. Thank you Chrissie for a wonderful evening. Special things happen every now and then. This was 1 of them. We wonder out of the venue not quite believing what we have just witnessed. Elaine loved it and so did I. Proper rock ‘n’ roll in a small venue. And so close to the band. And Chrissie spoke to me and looked after me! As I said magic does happen now and then.
Setlist: Losing Sense; A Love; Turf Accountant; Kid; Adulteress; Downtown; The Buzz; Domestic Silence; Don’t Get Me Wrong; Biker; Message of Love; Talk of The Town; Don’t Cut Your Hair; Time The Avenger; Chain Gang; Let The Sun Come In; Junkie Walking. Plus three encores!?
Chrissie Hynde is clearly, like many of us, a Bob Dylan fan. I had not realised it but she had the privilege of singing Dylan’s classic “Leopardskin Pillbox Hat” alongside the great man himself in Wembley Stadium, London on his 1984 tour which I caught at St James’s Park, Newcastle. She has recently, in May 2021, released an album Standing in the Doorway: Chrissie Hynde Sings Bob Dylan. This live concert took place on the evening of 26 December, Boxing Day, in the beautiful surroundings of the Royal Opera House, London and was live streamed via VEEPS, the very same streaming platform that hosted (and on which I watched) Bob Dylan’s Shadow Kingdom show last July.
Chrissie’s band for the evening consisted of Pretenders guitarist James Walbourne, with Carwyn Ellis on keyboards and Danny Williams on upright bass. Chrissie sat on a stool in the middle of the band, playing acoustic guitar. The band sat quite closely, almost intimately, together centre stage surrounded by beautiful Christmas lights, chandeliers and a Christmas tree. Lovely!
Walbourne and equally well performed keyboards and double bass. Chrissie was on fine form. Her voice sounded as strong as ever and she was clearly enjoying every second of the experience. Dressed casually in a T-shirt “Don’t Pet Me – I’m Performing”! and the usual jeans and knee-high leather boots, she looked every part the lady rockstar that she always has done, since I first saw her in Newcastle Mayfair at the start of The Pretenders life. At one point Hynde admonished a lady in the audience “Switch Off That Phone”; only to have to apologise at the end of the song, when she realised the phone flash she thought she had seen was in fact the Exit sign flashing across her eyes! You couldn’t make it up!
Having completed the Dylan set, Chrissie moved on to a couple of songs which she announced as being composed by another great writer Ray Davies (a former beau) rather than announce them as Pretenders songs: “I Go to Sleep” and (my favourite) “Stop Your Sobbing”, which took me right back to those early days when she was first starting out as a musician and artist. These were the highlights of the show for me.
, and were intertwined with a great version of the Hoagy Carmichael classic “I Get Along Without You Very Well” for which she put down her guitar, picked up the microphone and stood stage front. The single encore was a song, which was new to me, by French singer-songwriter Charles Trenet: “Que Rèste-T-Il De Nos Amours?”, reading the lyrics from a piece of paper, which she often needed to consult! It seemed a strange choice, but also quite fitting and marked the end of a lovely evening spent (virtually) with the musical legend, that is Chrissie Hynde.
Setlist: In the Summertime; You’re a Big Girl Now; Standing in the Doorway; Sweetheart Like You; Blind Willie McTell; Love Minus Zero/No Limit; Don’t Fall Apart on Me Tonight; Tomorrow Is a Long Time; Every Grain of Sand; I Go to Sleep; Stop Your Sobbing; Maybe Love Is in NYC; You Can’t Hurt a Fool; Crying in Public; I Get Along Without You Very Well; (You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am
“Don’t Get Me Wrong” was followed by “I’ll Stand by You” and then after a few more songs my mind was flashing back again to the first time I saw the band in the Mayfair with the Kinks classic “Stop Your Sobbing”. “Back on the Chain Gang” took us towards the end.
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