At the time of this festival, the Pretenders were undergoing some changes. They'd released two very successful albums, "Pretenders" in 1980 and "Pretenders II" in 1981. But in 1982, bassist Pete Farndon was fired from the band due to his excessive drug use. He died of a heroin overdose in April 1983, a month prior to this festival. Also in 1982, shortly after Farndon was fired, lead guitarist James Honeyman-Scott died of heart failure related to taking too much cocaine.
Later in 1982, the Pretenders released a single of the song "Back on the Chain Gang," backed with "My City Was Gone." Both became classics, and the single reached Number Five on the U.S. charts, the band's biggest success in the U.S. so far. But the band took a long time finishing their third album, "Learning to Crawl." It wouldn't be released until January 1984.
Although "Learning to Crawl" wasn't released yet, the band played four songs from it in this set: the previously mentioned "Back on the Chain Gang" and "My City Was Gone," plus "Middle of the Road" and "Time the Avenger." Most of the rest of the songs were from the band's first two albums.
However, the set concluded with a cover of the classic Motown song "Money (That's What I Want)." This was done as kind of a jokey reference to all of the intrigues in the news about the big payments some acts were getting for taking part in the festival, including the bickering between bands like the Clash and Van Halen. Lead singer Chrissie Hynde introduced the song by saying, "I'd like to do this song especially for all the bands who played at the US Festival. And especially all the ones who didn't because they weren't getting paid enough."
This album is sourced from a soundboard worthy bootleg, and it is the complete set. I believe all the performances on it are unreleased with the exception of "Money." That was included as a bonus track on a "Learning to Crawl" release. I also was growing up in Southern California at the time. I didn't get to see the festival, but I remember this version of "Money" got played on the radio a lot at the time, even though it apparently never got an official release until much later.
This album is an hour and seven minutes long.
060 My City Was Gone (Pretenders)
061 Message of Love (Pretenders)
062 The Adultress (Pretenders)
063 Talk of the Town (Pretenders)
064 talk (Pretenders)
065 Stop Your Sobbing (Pretenders)
066 Private Life (Pretenders)
067 Time the Avenger (Pretenders)
068 Mystery Achievement (Pretenders)
069 The Wait (Pretenders)
070 talk (Pretenders)
071 Middle of the Road (Pretenders)
072 Up the Neck (Pretenders)
073 Precious (Pretenders)
074 talk (Pretenders)
075 Back on the Chain Gang (Pretenders)
076 Brass in Pocket (Pretenders)
077 Money [That's What I Want] (Pretenders)
https://www.upload.ee/files/17039576/VA-1983USFstvlDay0306Prtndrs_atse.zip.html
alternate link:
https://pixeldrain.com/u/FzL72FUP
The cover photo is from this exact concert.
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