the pretenders tour 2023 manchester

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The Pretenders: O2 Ritz, Manchester – Live Review

Chrissie Hynde and some new Pretenders play an intimate gig full of Rock n’ Roll classics, both old and new, to a devotional sold-out house in Manchester writes MK Bennett

I have seen the low sun, spotted with mystic horrors, Lighting up, with soft violet clots, Resembling actors of very ancient dramas, The waves rolling far off their quivering of shutters! – The Drunken Boat, Arthur Rimbaud.

Chrissie Hynde is an intellectual rock n’ roller, in every sense of the word. A scholar in the studied/studded nonchalance and offhand brilliance of the early days of Sun Records and Loretta Lynn, of the razor blade dangers of Cochran and Vincent, the exact angle of Keith’s cigarette, of Hillbilly Elvis of Brando, Miles, & Hendrix. It was this deep knowledge of everything good that preached the word, that led her to somehow transcend that fandom and become that thing she idolized. You can see this fairytale in every smile she gives the crowd, every deliberately struck pose, guitar high in the air, leg slightly bent at the knee, head back. She absolutely lives this thing, and adores it.

One brilliant song after another, Domestic Silence, Biker, then we hit the first of the classics, Don’t Get Me Wrong is a warm day when you were much younger than now, sat in your parent’s kitchen with the radio on, condensation and Marrowfat peas, a comfort blanket of discomfiting nostalgia. Next up is Kid, a song so perfect, so well written, with so much lost beauty in both what it says and what it means, that half the room forget to breathe until the second verse, while the other half scream, rightly, like happy children. In a better world Kid would be ranked with Honky Tonk Woman, Heartbreaker or any of Morrisons shorter numbers as one of the great rock n roll numbers. To be clear, it was outrageously good, as note-perfect as possible, impossibly perfect.

There may have been something about one of the more outspoken members of The Smiths, but impossible to say whether that was a mass fever dream or not. If not it is possible that Chrissie got everybody to sing Happy Birthday to Johnny Marr, whose Birthday is next week, before coaxing the band into a hastily assembled version of Everyday Is Like Sunday, a song that reminds me that before we had MTV in the UK, you could buy the equivalent of Smash Hits on VHS, then tape over it when you were bored. Proper immersive technology.

A word on the last song of the set, Junkie Walk, winner of the years most onomatopoeic song title, as it lurches, bumps, and staggers its fabulous arse all around the stage.

What may turn out to be the fastest three-song encore in history comes after a minute’s breather, Ray Davies’s magnificent Stop Your Sobbing, a song called Cuban Slide that could only have been called Cuban Slide, and a Mystery Achievement, which sadly only unlocked the house lights and The Velvet Underground. This is a different level of both expertise and finesse, to have this practised elasticity, this loose joy, this wide-eyed but knowing wonder, to swing perfectly, to rock and to roll.

Please note: Use of these images in any form without permission is illegal. If you wish to contact the photographer please email: [email protected]

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All words by MK Bennett, you can find his author’s archive here plus his Twitter and Instagram

All photos by Melanie Smith – Louder Than War | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Portfolio

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• Saturday October 19, 2024 Pretenders Connexin Live, Hull
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Monday 23 October 2023

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Whitworth Street W M1 5NQ Manchester, UK 0161 236 4355 o2ritzmanchester.co.uk/

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