Fringe society

How many real rock legends are there today? True icons, we're talking, who tick all the boxes. How many can you name that have retained that X factor, are still credible, haven't sold out and, most of all, still rock? Now, how many are women?

Your list should read: Chrissie Hynde. Just turned 52 and looking good on it, it's no surprise to discover her second husband, Colombian artist Lucho Brieva is 14 years her junior. Her first husband was Jim Kerr (of Simple Minds), although she nearly made it through the register office doors with several other musical heroes.

"Johnny Rotten offered to marry me so I could stay in the country," she explains. "With Sid we actually got to the register office, but it was closed and he had to go to court the next day because he put someone's eye out with a glass. There was nothing romantic in it.

"With Ray somehow we were mercifully prevented. I think the registrar was freaked out 'cause I was crying. We'd come in twice that day. It was so shabby, the guy said, 'Why don't you go away and think about this'."

Chrissie is a confirmed Anglophile, having spent most of her life in London - landing in the epicentre of the punk revolution in the early 1970s. She worked at Malcolm McLaren's infamous 'Sex' shop and music paper the NME, while trying to launch a band.

"It was good fun 'cause everyone was trying to get a band together," she enthuses. "And it was exciting for me, I was new in London working at the NME, from Akron, Ohio. Are you kidding me? It was wonderful.

"I'd never seen a Teddy boy before and they used to all come in the shop, 'cause that's what Malcolm used to sell - drape jackets. It was just fantastic.

"I was just this bum. I don't know how I did it - I got a job at the NME. I didn't even want to. I met the assistant editor in the pub. I was talking about an album and this guy leans over and says, 'You should write for us.' I lucked out," she admits.

The young rock chick did, of course, form a band along with Pete Farndon (bass), James Honeyman-Scott (guitar) and Martin Chambers (drums), called The Pretenders. In true tragic rock 'n' roll-style Farndon and Honeyman-Scott both died of drug overdoses.

The band continued with various line ups and enjoyed considerable international success, with Chrissie the driving force and songwriter. Hits over the past quarter century have included the number one Brass In Pocket, Talk Of The Town, I Go To Sleep, Back On The Chain Gang and Don't get me wrong.

The Pretenders now have a new line up with Adam Seymour on guitar and Andy Hobson on bass. Original member Martin Chambers has made a welcome return, following a few years in the wilderness. They are back sounding

as good as ever with an October tour, taking in Southampton's Guildhall

and a new critically-acclaimed album Loose Screw.

Chrissie still loves being on the road and playing guitar but, like many, is no fan of today's music industry. "When you see that a record company has given someone £30 million to sign them, that's just disgusting," she says. "No artist should be getting that amount. It's got to the point where it's all sales.

"They can't get enough exposure - they just want more and more and more. It's not about going out and playing small clubs where you can see the audience and they can see you. It's about being the biggest, the most famous, making the most money. If you're not interested in all that - which I'm not - then you just bide your time and do your thing and you kinda live within and without the industry."

She's never been led by greed and admits to still being a hippie at heart. "It's all to do with your philosophy," she explains. "There's a lifestyle too, but a lot of people have a hippie lifestyle but they don't have the ideology. I don't have the lifestyle but I have the philosophy."

Don't think that the hippie tag equates with laziness - Ms Hynde is proactive

in many ways and is still a rebel with several causes. She has even been arrested on behalf of organisations and charities that she has an affinity with. She also has a hatred of the power and control that multi-national companies hold and can see the UK being swamped in the same way the States has been.

"You can certainly see it with Starbucks and the uniformity that's creeping in. Nobody really wants it but they all go there. Nobody wanted McDonalds - but they all went there."

Chrissie has had a pop at the fast food chain on more than one occasion in the past. She once joked that she had blown up a McDonalds restaurant. This unfortunately led a misguided fan to commit a similar act in her honour. The consumer society still rankles her.

"The only way you can really stop

capitalism... only the consumer has the power, but the only way you can really do it is don't consume.

"But who's gonna be the first one to say, 'OK, I won't drive my car and I won't consume more than I need'? That's a very simple solution.

"I had to get arrested to stop The Gap using Indian and Chinese leather - humiliate them publicly and draw attention to them through the media. But if everyone just said, 'We just won't buy anything there,' they would soon change their policies."

She's involved with PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)

probably more than any other charitable organisation and even helped them set up a headquarters in Virginia.

She's very modest when talking about her involvement. "PETA know how to work the media - they're the best at it. I lend myself to them just to help get attention to these things. It's hardly being on the frontline.

"I was on the Greenpeace ship - Rainbow Warrior - in Valencia a couple of weeks ago," she continues, name-

dropping activist organisations the way others would name-drop celebrities.

"They had impounded the ship because it tried to stop another ship bringing in illegal timber from Africa. So what did they do? They impounded the Greenpeace ship. That's our society.

"They couldn't move until they got 300,000 euros to release the ship. We went along, had a photo call but no one was paying any attention to Rainbow Warrior because Posh and Becks had just got to Spain - which says it all."

The woman considered a rock icon and a sex symbol by many - although she herself laughs at the suggestion - admits to feeling humbled and honoured by the crew when they invited her to join them.

Something in her voice sounded as if she hadn't ruled the possibility out. So, assuming it's not a big news day for the Beckhams, and Greenpeace get some coverage for one of their protests in the future, keep an eye out for a very distinctive fringe.

The Pretenders play Southampton Guildhall on Friday. Box office: 023 8063 2601