Pete Farndon
Encyclopedia
Pete Farndon was an English
bassist
and founding member of the rock band The Pretenders
. Farndon attended Hereford Cathedral School in his home town of Hereford, before embarking on his musical legacy with The Pretenders. In addition to playing bass with the group, Farndon sang backup vocals
and co-wrote
two of the group's song
s ("The Wait" and "Space Invader"), before being dismissed from the group on 14 June 1982 (Uncut
, 1999).
(guitar
/ vocals
/ keyboards
), and Martin Chambers
(drums / vocals
/ percussion
) hailed from Hereford
, England
. Prior to joining the Pretenders, Farndon played with Cold River Lady
until the summer of 1976, and then toured with Australia
n folk-rock band The Bushwackers
prior to the Pretenders in 1978 (Melody Maker
1979; Rolling Stone
1980). Farndon's musical influences included Stanley Clarke
and Jeff Beck
(Rhino Entertainment Group, 2006).
Farndon joined the Pretenders in the Spring of 1978, and was the first member of the 1978-82 lineup to be recruited by Chrissie Hynde
. Farndon recalled their first rehearsal: "I'll never forget it, we go in, we do a soul number, we do a country and western number, and then we did 'The Phone Call' which is like the heaviest fuckin' punk rocker you could do in 5/4 time. Impressed? I was very impressed." (Rolling Stone, 1980). A guitarist was still needed, however, and Farndon recruited lead guitarist James Honeyman-Scott into the group that summer (Rolling Stone, 1980; Uncut, 1999).
Martin Chambers worked with Farndon to adjust to Hynde's timing: "Pete and I did a fair amount of work on our own, in terms of the rhythm section being able to play Chrissie's odd timing things. So Pete and I would come in a couple of hours ahead of the others and baby talk our way through the songs. You know, 'da dad da, boom boom.' She didn't count in the traditional way so we had to reinterpret the counts. Once we made the adjustment and learned to go with her flow, so to speak, it became second nature. It's the bedrock of Pretenders music." (Rhino Entertainment Group, 2006)
Farndon played a large role in shaping The Pretenders' tough image, often wearing his biker
clothing, or later, samurai
gear onstage. Hynde later acknowledged that two Pretenders' songs, "Biker" and "Samurai" had "references to a Pete Farndon type of character" (Uncut, 1999). As a performer, Hynde recalled that "Pete was fantastic. Pete was blagging it a lot because technically he wasn't any kind of great musician. But he had real heart, like in boxing terms, he could win the fight on heart alone. And he had a great energy, borne of a kind of desperation." (Rhino Records, 2006).
Farndon's distinctive bass guitars also played a role in shaping his image and included a Fender Precision Bass
, Rickenbacker
, and at least three Hamer
guitars. The first Hamer was a double cutaway model in 1950s pink. Later Farndon switched to the Hamer 'Cruisebass' model, including one with a distinctive Japanese "Rising Sun" battle flag graphic (Dantzig Design Group, 2006).
By 1982, Farndon caused increasingly strained relations with his bandmates due to his drug use. He became increasingly belligerent, and he, according to Hynde, "was in bad shape. He was really not someone you could work with." (Uncut, 1999). He was fired on 14 June 1982. Two days after Farndon's dismissal, guitarist James Honeyman-Scott was found dead of heart failure caused by a cocaine
overdose. Farndon himself was found dead on 14 April 1983 by his American
model
wife, Conover; he had passed out and drowned in his bathtub following a heroin overdose. At the time of his death Farndon was in the midst of forming a new band with former Clash
drummer Topper Headon
- who was also battling heroin abuse and had too been kicked out of his band because of being not unable to cope with it. Farndon's death left The Pretenders with only two of its original four members.
Pete Farndon is buried at St. Peter's Church, Withington
, Herefordshire
, England
.
1981 - Extended Play
1981 - Pretenders II
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
bassist
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and founding member of the rock band The Pretenders
The Pretenders
The Pretenders are an English rock band formed in Hereford, England in March 1978. The original band consisted of initiator and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde , James Honeyman-Scott , Pete Farndon , and Martin Chambers...
. Farndon attended Hereford Cathedral School in his home town of Hereford, before embarking on his musical legacy with The Pretenders. In addition to playing bass with the group, Farndon sang backup vocals
Backing vocalist
A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
and co-wrote
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
two of the group's song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
s ("The Wait" and "Space Invader"), before being dismissed from the group on 14 June 1982 (Uncut
UNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
, 1999).
Career
Farndon and fellow bandmates James Honeyman-ScottJames Honeyman-Scott
James Honeyman-Scott , commonly referred to as "Jimmy", was an English rock guitarist, songwriter and founding member of the band The Pretenders....
(guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
/ vocals
Backing vocalist
A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
/ keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
), and Martin Chambers
Martin Chambers
Martin Chambers is the drummer in the rock band, The Pretenders. In addition to playing the drums with the group Chambers sings backing vocals and plays percussion...
(drums / vocals
Backing vocalist
A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
/ percussion
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
) hailed from Hereford
Hereford
Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Prior to joining the Pretenders, Farndon played with Cold River Lady
Cold River Lady
Cold River Lady was a rock band that was formed in 1970 in Hereford in the Welsh Marches of England. Their music however drew on far wider influences...
until the summer of 1976, and then toured with Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n folk-rock band The Bushwackers
The Bushwackers (band)
The Bushwackers Band, often simply The Bushwackers, is an Australian folk and country music band or Bush band founded at La Trobe University in Melbourne in 1971....
prior to the Pretenders in 1978 (Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
1979; Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
1980). Farndon's musical influences included Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...
and Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...
(Rhino Entertainment Group, 2006).
Farndon joined the Pretenders in the Spring of 1978, and was the first member of the 1978-82 lineup to be recruited by Chrissie Hynde
Chrissie Hynde
Christine Ellen "Chrissie" Hynde is an US musician best known as the leader of the rock/new wave band the Pretenders. She is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, and has been the only constant member of the band throughout its history.-Early life and career:Hynde is the daughter of a part-time...
. Farndon recalled their first rehearsal: "I'll never forget it, we go in, we do a soul number, we do a country and western number, and then we did 'The Phone Call' which is like the heaviest fuckin' punk rocker you could do in 5/4 time. Impressed? I was very impressed." (Rolling Stone, 1980). A guitarist was still needed, however, and Farndon recruited lead guitarist James Honeyman-Scott into the group that summer (Rolling Stone, 1980; Uncut, 1999).
Martin Chambers worked with Farndon to adjust to Hynde's timing: "Pete and I did a fair amount of work on our own, in terms of the rhythm section being able to play Chrissie's odd timing things. So Pete and I would come in a couple of hours ahead of the others and baby talk our way through the songs. You know, 'da dad da, boom boom.' She didn't count in the traditional way so we had to reinterpret the counts. Once we made the adjustment and learned to go with her flow, so to speak, it became second nature. It's the bedrock of Pretenders music." (Rhino Entertainment Group, 2006)
Farndon played a large role in shaping The Pretenders' tough image, often wearing his biker
Motorcycle
A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...
clothing, or later, samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
gear onstage. Hynde later acknowledged that two Pretenders' songs, "Biker" and "Samurai" had "references to a Pete Farndon type of character" (Uncut, 1999). As a performer, Hynde recalled that "Pete was fantastic. Pete was blagging it a lot because technically he wasn't any kind of great musician. But he had real heart, like in boxing terms, he could win the fight on heart alone. And he had a great energy, borne of a kind of desperation." (Rhino Records, 2006).
Farndon's distinctive bass guitars also played a role in shaping his image and included a Fender Precision Bass
Fender Precision Bass
The Fender Precision Bass is an electric bass.Designed by Leo Fender as a prototype in 1950 and brought to market in 1951, the Precision was the first electric bass to earn widespread attention and use. A revolutionary instrument for the time, the Precision Bass has made an immeasurable impact on...
, Rickenbacker
Rickenbacker
Rickenbacker International Corporation, also known as Rickenbacker, is an electric and bass guitar manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California...
, and at least three Hamer
Hamer Guitars
Hamer Guitars is an American manufacturer of electric guitars. Founded in 1973 by vintage guitar shop owners, Jol Dantzig and his business partner Paul Hamer. Early instruments featured guitar designs based on the Gibson Explorer and Flying V...
guitars. The first Hamer was a double cutaway model in 1950s pink. Later Farndon switched to the Hamer 'Cruisebass' model, including one with a distinctive Japanese "Rising Sun" battle flag graphic (Dantzig Design Group, 2006).
By 1982, Farndon caused increasingly strained relations with his bandmates due to his drug use. He became increasingly belligerent, and he, according to Hynde, "was in bad shape. He was really not someone you could work with." (Uncut, 1999). He was fired on 14 June 1982. Two days after Farndon's dismissal, guitarist James Honeyman-Scott was found dead of heart failure caused by a cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
overdose. Farndon himself was found dead on 14 April 1983 by his American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
wife, Conover; he had passed out and drowned in his bathtub following a heroin overdose. At the time of his death Farndon was in the midst of forming a new band with former Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
drummer Topper Headon
Topper Headon
Headon was extensively interviewed for the Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten documentary film about the late Clash frontman. He related his experiences during this period, how he became addicted to heroin and how there were problems before his dismissal...
- who was also battling heroin abuse and had too been kicked out of his band because of being not unable to cope with it. Farndon's death left The Pretenders with only two of its original four members.
Pete Farndon is buried at St. Peter's Church, Withington
Withington, Herefordshire
Withington is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, about north-east of Hereford at .-History:One of the historical features of Withington is the Roman mile post situated on the Worcester road...
, Herefordshire
Herefordshire
Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Sources
- Dantzig Design Group, 2006, Pete Farndon of the Pretenders. Hamer Unofficial Artist Archives. Accessed 29 July 2006, at http://www.dantzig.com/hamerhist/artistpages/farndon_001.htm
- Melody Maker, 1979, Say a Prayer for the Pretenders, by Mark Williams, 17 February 1979.
- Rhino Entertainment Group, 2006a, "The Wait", performed live 7 December 1980 for "Alright Now" TV show. Video from Pirate Radio box set DVD.
- Rhino Entertainment Group, 2006b, This is Pirate Radio, by Ben Edmonds. Article from Pirate Radio box set booklet.
- Rhino Records, 2006, Interview (Part II) with the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde. RhinoCast show no. 037, 6 June 2006. Accessed 29 July 2006, at http://www.rhino.com/RZine/rhinocasts/podcastkeeper.lasso?shownum=37
- Rolling Stone, 1980, The Pretenders Leather Love Songs by Kurt Loder. Rolling Stone, vol. 318, 29 May 1980. Accessed 29 July 2006, at http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/pretenders2/articles/story/7088982/the_pretenders_leather_love_songs
- Uncut, 1999, Rock and Roll Heart, by Allan Jones. Uncut, v. 25, June 1999.
The Pretenders
1980 - PretendersPretenders (album)
Pretenders is the debut studio album by the British New Wave band The Pretenders, released on 19 January 1980 on Real Records . A combination of rock, punk, and pop music, this album made the band famous...
1981 - Extended Play
Extended Play (The Pretenders EP)
Extended Play is an EP released by new wave band The Pretenders. "Message of Love" and "Talk of the Town" were included on their second album released later in the year. "Porcelain" and "Cuban Slide", outtakes from the first album, were included on the 2006 remastered edition of Pretenders, as well...
1981 - Pretenders II
Pretenders II
Pretenders II is the second studio album by British rock band the Pretenders.-History:The success of the Pretenders' debut album in 1980 created a great demand for more material from the fledgling band; however, a lack of songs precluded the quick release of a followup album...