Pretenders is the debut studio album by the British-American band The Pretenders, released on 19 January 1980 under Real Records (Sire Records in the United States). A combination of rock, punk and pop music, this album made the band famous. The album features the singles “Stop Your Sobbing”, “Kid” and “Brass in Pocket”. Pretenders debuted at number 1 on the UK Albums Chart in the week of its release and stayed there for four consecutive weeks. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the album number 155 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and, in 1989, ranked it the 20th best album of the 1980’s. (More from Wikipedia)
After taking several years off from making music, Mick Farren resurfaced in 1978 with a brilliant solo album, Vampires Stole My Lunch Money. The album opens with what might be the best cover of a Frank Zappa song by anybody: “Trouble Coming Every Day”, a seething litany of what’s wrong with the world that could surely have come straight from Farren’s pen.
Vampires Stole My Lunch Money is a more personal record than his other albums. There are no less than three songs about drinking – “I Want a Drink”, “Half-Priced Drinks”, and “Drunk in the Morning” – plus a monologue about personal demons called “(I Know from) Self-Destruction”. Whether this is just a persona or the actual state of Mick Farren’s life at that point – I doubt anyone could tell the difference, the music is that heartfelt. Musicians on hand include Larry Wallis of the Pink Fairies and Wilko Johnson of Dr. Feelgood; supporting vocals are provided by Sonja Kristina of Curved Air and Chrissie Hynde, the lead singer of Pretenders (a year and half before their first album, Pretenders came out).
