The Pop Corporation

After saying that she wasn’t bothered about the prestige of a needless arena tour, Chrissie Hynde is brilliantly speaking her mind again because she doesn’t give a fuck. We say that as a compliment.

Now, Hynde has got under the skins of some wet-wipes this week because she’s asked fans not to continually command the front row of The Pretenders shows night after night. While younger acts have been hitting out at the Stans, whatever the older equivalent is, Hynde has those at her shows.

There’s people who follow older acts all over Europe and all that, which is obviously great for artists, but we’ve often wondered if it’s a bit irritating for artists to keep seeing the same faces down the front.

Well, Hynde tapped a message out on the socials, asking that the die-hards “give local fans a chance”. Not ungrateful, she added her gratitude, but added: “When we go on tour, the whole point of it for the band is that we are playing to a different audience every night. That’s why we go on tour!”

“So if we’re in Edinburgh (like we are tonight), we look forward to seeing local faces. This is what makes it new for us every night. We appreciate those of you who follow us and buy tickets for multiple nights, so please don’t be offended if we request you to move out of the front row.”

“All we are asking is that you give the local fans a chance. This is what keeps it new for us… especially after being on tour for so many months.”

Stan Twitter and the like have predictably spat their dummies out, and many of them you assume, aren’t fans of The Pretenders anyway. Such is social media right? And it might be a bitter pill to swallow to those who have coughed up loads of money to get the best seats for this latest tour. We advise that The Pretenders annoy their fans further by saying ‘fine – if you’re going to be babies about it, the floor seats are gone and you can all stand up – see how your knees like that!’

Anyway, here’s the full post.