Chrissie Hynde Had Great Fun but Lost Money on Latest Tour
Chrissie Hynde enjoyed her short, low-key tour of the U.K. but says she lost money in the process, and so it probably won't be repeated.
She deliberately avoided playing the Pretenders’ best-known songs with her band His Lordship, booking into venues with capacities of around 200 – which, predictably, sold out – and focusing on material she preferred to perform.
“Not one person shouted out for a ‘greatest hit,’” Hynde enthuses in a new Facebook post. But “to be honest, it was a big money-loser because we were staying in decent hotels, had monitors and front of house sound, and we took trains. You see, playing to 200 people at £30 [$34] a head isn’t possible unless we hump are own gear, travel in the van, and stay in dives. Therefore for our next tour we’ll probably have to increase the capacity to about 1,000 people to break even.”
Despite that, Hynde maintains that they toured that way “just so we could have an absolute ball, which we did. Thank you, thank you, thank you for coming up to see us! Great towns, great audiences, great fun – exactly what a rock ’n’ roll gig [is] supposed to be.”
Before the tour, Hynde said she didn't want to play her most successful songs any longer. In fact, she wanted to ditch them earlier, but felt she needed the financial security they offered. She later quipped: “You’ve had 40 years to see those so if you missed it, more fool you – the moment has passed.”