The Pretenders announce 2023 UK tour – including stop at The Great Escape

20 March, 2023

Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders

The Pretenders have announced a run of shows, which will take place in the UK and Ireland this spring.

The band will release their 12th album, ‘Relentless’, later this year, although no release date has been given. It will mark the follow-up to 2020’s ‘Hate For Sale‘.

They’ll begin their ‘Relentless Tour’ with a stop at The Great Escape on May 12, where they’re due to headline The Independent Stage as part of an exclusive set. Access to the show will be via a festival wristband and tickets are on sale now.

After The Great Escape, the band will head to Nottingham’s Rescue Rooms on May 13, followed by dates in Cambridge, Frome, Stoke, Limerick, Cork, Dublin and Belfast. Tickets will be available this Wednesday, March 22 at 10am. You can find UK tickets here and Ireland tickets here.

Following their solo dates, The Pretenders will also be headlining the inaugural Midnight Sun Weekender in Stornoway on May 25, with Primal Scream and John Fogerty also on the line-up for the weekend. Find out more and buy tickets for the festival here.

In February this year, the band took on a short, intimate UK tour for Independent Venues Week. The run of gigs kicked off at The Deaf Institute in Manchester on February 5, before stops in Newcastle, London, Brighton and Bristol.

Singer, guitarist and chief songwriter Chrissie Hynde, meanwhile, last released her own work in 2021 with The Pretenders’ lead guitarist James Walbourne.

The record features covers of Bob Dylan songs, called ‘Standing In The Doorway: Chrissie Hynde Sings Bob Dylan‘.

In other news, last week, Hynde shared her thoughts on diversity within the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, calling it “total bollocks”.

This month, Courtney Love started a conversation around inclusion in the prestigious club by calling for more female acts to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, while highlighting that there are also “few” past inductees of Black origin.

Hynde, who was inducted into the hall with The Pretenders in 2005, then took to Facebook to share her thoughts on the topic, saying she doesn’t “even wanna be associated with” the institution.

“Other than Neil Young’s participation in the induction process, the whole thing was, and is, total bollocks,” she added. “It’s absolutely nothing to do with rock ‘n’ roll and anyone who thinks it is is a fool.”

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