The Pretenders debut new songs during intimate gig at The Great Escape

The Pretenders kicked off their intimate UK club tour at The Great Escape festival in Brighton last night (May 12), debuting some new songs.

• READ MORE: Chrissie Hynde: “People die of loneliness – it’s an epidemic”

‘A Love’ and ‘Domestic Silence’ from upcoming new album, ‘Relentless’, received their debit ahead of the album release on September 1 via Parlophone. You can pre-order ‘Relentless’ here.

The upcoming release will mark the band’s 12th full-length LP, and follows on from their 2020 album ‘Hate For Sale’.

Fans queued throughout the afternoon in Brighton for a chance to see the band perform in the small setting at The Old Market. The gig ran past curfew, with front woman Chrissie Hynde telling the audience: “Ok, we’re breaking the rules!” before playing ‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’.

As Hynde left the stage she thanked fans saying: “Thank you very much. We don’t wanna go!”

Check out some footage and pictures of the gig, together with the full set list, below:

A great show last night in Brighton by the Pretenders, Chrissie Hynde. still top notch. 👏 pic.twitter.com/pa07BlVK1M

— Graham Bell (@GBtris) May 13, 2023

Brilliant Pretenders gig in Brighton tonight. Chrissie has still got a great voice at 71 years young. Great night pic.twitter.com/ZbDdJpdi9j

— Paul Fisher (@Checkfish) February 9, 2023

Another fab day at #TGE23, yesterday’s highlights were @larkins from Manchester (very tight energetic performance), @Englishteac_her (refreshing and novel), @Blondshe11 (90s vibe, great debut album) and the fantastic @ThePretendersHQ, Chrissie Hynde as cool as ever. #Brighton pic.twitter.com/SQ0ihwfQg9

— Beatrice Bass (@BeatriceLibDem) May 13, 2023

The Pretenders’ setlist for The Old Market at The Great Escape Festival:

‘Losing My Sense Of Taste’
‘A Love’ 
‘Turf Accountant Daddy’
‘The Adultress’
‘Downtown (Akron)’
‘The Buzz’
‘Domestic Silence’
‘Biker’
‘Don’t Cut Your Hair’
‘Back on the Chain Gang’
‘Stop Your Sobbing’
‘Cuban Slide’
‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’

The Pretenders UK & Ireland Intimate Club Shows remaining dates are below; all dates are now sold out.

MAY
13 – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham
14 – MASH, Cambridge
16 – Cheese & Grain, Frome
17 – The Sugarmill, Stoke
19 – Dolans, Limerick 
20 – Cypress Avenue, Cork, Ireland
21 – Olympia Theatre, Dublin, Ireland 
23 – Limelight, Belfast, Northern Ireland 

According to the band, their new album will represent a snapshot of where they are in 2023, and arrive with the same “impulsiveness” and “attitude” that they captured in previous fan-favourites, including ‘I’ll Stand By You’ and ‘Back On The Chain Gang’.

“I liked the definition: ‘showing no abatement of intensity,’” Hynde said of the meaning behind the title. “It’s the life of the artist. You never retire. You become relentless.”

The 12-track album marks the second time that The Pretenders have written an album as a collaboration between Hynde and the band’s guitarist James Walbourne, as well as the first to be released via Warner Brothers – Parlophone’s parent record label – since 1999.

“We had developed this method of working remotely and it seemed like we just kept on doing it for this album. This is something that we’ve honed down to an art in the last few years,” Hynde continued, explaining the songwriting process for the LP. “[James Walbourne] always comes up with something I wouldn’t have thought of myself and I love surprises.”

One of these surprises on ‘Relentless’ will come in the form of a collaboration between the band and Radiohead and The Smile’s Jonny Greenwood, who appears on the album’s closing track ‘I Think About You Daily’.

The Great Escape festival continues in Brighton throughout the weekend.