The Pretenders and Suede are to join forces next month for a co-headline show at London’s O2 Shepherds Bush Empire.
The ‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’ rockers will team up with Brett Anderson and co to raise funds for their mutual crew member and cohort John Brandham on November 20, after he unexpectedly suffered a stroke. Tickets will go on sale from Friday October 18 at 9am and you can buy them here.
“We are delighted to be playing this unexpected end of the year show with Suede in aid of our dear pal John Brandham, most trusted friend and deluxe crew member,” said The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde. “John suffered a medical setback recently and will therefore be sadly missed during our 2020 tours – but to see him through in the mean-time, we’re doing the mother of all benefits. Should be a great night!”
Speaking of John in his recent memoir ‘Afternoon With The Blinds Drawn’, Brett Anderson said: “I bought a car and met John and we got on like the proverbial blazing house. He is the perfect person with whom to spend long journeys; he is kind and respectful and very funny, possessing a bone-dry, self-deprecating Tottenham fan’s wit and the flattened, drawling vowels of a broad Estuary accent.
“He’s the sort of person about whom no one has a bad word despite the fact that in public on more than one occasion he’s been mistaken for Ronnie Wood. He has such an air of peaceful serenity that if it were suddenly announced on the News that Jesus had returned to earth in the form of a Spurs fan from Luton I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised.”
Last week, Anderson admitted that he hated Britpop in the 90s and he tried to distance the band from it.
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“I disassociated myself from that very early on, as soon as I saw what I saw as becoming this kind of laddish, jingoistic, cartoon happening, which became Britpop, I very quickly distanced Suede from that,” said Anderson.
When asked if it made the band look snobby, Anderson added: “I think did it make us look snobby? Probably, you know, you make lots of mistakes along the way, I’m not perfect you know what I mean? But all you do, you just go with your instincts, and I saw what was happening with Britpop and for me, it felt quite distasteful. It felt nationalistic, it felt like there was, sort of, quite a strong thread of misogyny and I didn’t think Suede should be part of that.”