Pretenders resume (1990–present)
There was a hiatus in musical activity for Hynde until 1990, when Hynde hired still more session players (including one-time Pretenders Billy Bremner and Blair Cunningham) and released
Packed! to a generally dismal reception. The closest thing to a hit from the album was "Sense of Purpose".
By 1993, Hynde had teamed up with ex-
Katydids guitarist
Adam Seymour to form the latest version of the Pretenders. The team of Hynde and Seymour then went through a number of session musicians to record
Last of the Independents that year, including ex-Smiths bassist
Andy Rourke. But by the end of the album sessions (and for the subsequent tour) the official band line-up was Hynde, Seymour, bassist Andy Hobson and returning drummer
Martin Chambers. This line-up would then (perhaps surprisingly) endure for well over a decade with no changes, although Hobson would often be replaced with session bassists on many of the band's studio recordings.
When
Last of the Independents was released in 1994, it met with reasonable overall commercial success. It was also critically well-received in many circles, and the album's centrepiece ballad "
I'll Stand by You" received substantial airplay. Hynde (perhaps seeking hit material) wrote a good portion of the album with the hitmaking team of
Billy Steinberg and
Tom Kelly.
Subsequently, the band toured in small venues around the U.S., sometimes including a
string quartet, with Hynde wistfully noting that a certain violin part "was a fine transcription of James Honeyman-Scott's guitar solo." Some of these arrangements are preserved on the 1995
The Isle of View live album and DVD, made at London's
Jacob Street Studios, which sometimes revealed an approach more sophisticated and subtle than perhaps was shown by the original albums.
Over time, Hynde had become increasingly focused on political activism, vocally supporting the
environmental movement and
vegetarianism, and her social and political views were woven into more than one of the band's successful releases.
Perhaps the most infamous example of Hynde's political extremism occurred in June
1989 at a
Greenpeace Rainbow Warriors conference in
London, at which, asked what she had done to save the environment, she replied, "I firebombed
McDonald's." The next day, a McDonald's restaurant in
Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, was actually firebombed. Though no one was hurt in the attack, McDonald's threatened legal action against Hynde, who subsequently agreed in writing not to make inflammatory statements in public against the hamburger chain.
Later performances at the 1999 edition of
Lilith Fair were high-energy and inspiring, featuring clashes between the resolutely un-
PC Hynde and festival organizers. While sometimes strident, Hynde has also delighted in confounding others' expectations, once flippantly saying she is no feminist icon and in fact "is just like any chick who likes to talk about makeup in the girls' room."
Viva el Amor was released in 1999, as was their collaboration with
Tom Jones on the album
Reload. The Pretenders joined with
Emmylou Harris on
Return of the Grievous Angel: A Tribute to Gram Parsons, performing the song "She". A
Greatest Hits compilation followed in 2000. In 2002
Loose Screw came out on Artemis Records to only modest commercial success. It was the first Pretenders record to be released by a company other than WEA. Rolling Stone noted its "refinement, stylish melodies and vocal fireworks," while Blender called it "slick, snarky pop with flashes of brilliance."
In March of 2005, the Pretenders were inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Only Hynde and Chambers were at the ceremony. In her acceptance speech, Hynde named and thanked all the replacement members of the group, then said:
"I know that the Pretenders have looked like a tribute band for the last 20 years. ... And we’re paying tribute to James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon, without whom we wouldn’t be here. And on the other hand, without us, they might have been here, but that’s the way it works in rock 'n' roll."
