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Publication date: 11/25/2002



Some kind of pretender




BY TOM LANHAM

Special to The Examiner




Don't ever anger mighty Chrissie Hynde. Because hell hath no fury like a Pretender scorned. Take, for example, a faux pas that clothing chain the Gap made last year, one that cost them dearly.



They sent me a letter saying they wanted a song for their 'everyone in leather' campaign, says Hynde, a devout vegetarian and part-time animal-rights activist. So there were some good newspaper headlines on the whole thing, like 'A Gap in their intelligence.'



But Hynde didn't stop at a polite refusal. With her friends in PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), she undertook a cross-country protest of the company's use of black-market leather from India, where cattle are tortured just to keep them standing.



We started in San Francisco, at Gap headquarters, and we showed them the Pamela Anderson-narrated video about the Indian leather trade, Hynde recalls. In response, the firm promised to source its leather.



Hynde adds, But we weren't interested in them sourcing it. We wanted an unconditional guarantee that they would no longer buy from India.



Vancouver. Chicago. Boston. The Pretender/PETA picket hit Gap stores across the land, culminating in a New York-outlet fracas where Hynde and cohorts took over a showroom window, yanked leather apparel from mannequins, and shredded it while chanting, We won't go until the cows come home.



The police were finally forced to come in and arrest us, so I spent the night in jail, she says with pride. And it wasn't the first time.



All in keeping with her philosophy: Anything that exploits animals, kills them or uses them in any way is very evil and misguided, and it's got to be stopped. There's a spirit in everything that lives, and you have to let it run its own course, have its own life. I don't even associate with meat-eaters if I can help it.



So fur flew. And the Gap backed down, swore off suspect hides from India and China.



It was another victory for Hynde, 51, who'd been adding her clout to PETA causes for nearly a decade. (Her will even authorizes PETA to, upon her death, continue to use her image in any way it chooses.)



The Akron-born, London-based singer attended Kent State in the early '70s, she says, back when there was a voice of dissent on campus. So now I don't understand why all these other celebrities are doing Gap ads -- maybe they didn't read Naomi Klein's 'No Logo'.



Hynde kicks off her heels, curls into a hotel-room chair, and rummages through her purse for photos of herself onstage at PETA rallies around the globe.



Passing through the Bay Area a few weeks ago to promote her latest outing with the Pretenders, Loose Screw, Hynde looked as ferocious as she did on that famous cover shot from Pretenders, her band's buzz-sawing 1979 debut.



The hairstyle's still the same, so are the mascara and sneer. But there's nothing particularly tough about me, she says. I just play guitar in a rock band, and I'm certainly one of the most crap celebrities ever, because I don't like being fussed over or being the center of attention.



Hynde has been enjoying a high profile lately. With the Pretenders, she recently opened several dates for the Rolling Stones, and she appeared on Lifetime's recent Women Rock TV special, alongside Chaka Khan and Gloria Estefan.



Not to mention the eclectic Loose Screw, which couples soaring ballads (The Losing) with funky dub (Complex Person, Nothing Breaks Like A Heart) and a vintage guitar wallop worthy of original axmen Pete Farndon and James Honeyman-Scott (Lie To Me, Fools Must Die).



I just wanted a return to the good old days, says Hynde, who hung with the Vivienne Westwood/Malcolm McLaren punk crowd after moving to Britain in 1976. Like when you go home and put a record on because it's a blast, not because you wanna get bummed out.



Hynde admits that her Stateside visit has been something of a bummer. Her punk/activist dander up, she likens America's current political climate to what it must've been like in Nazi Germany. There are flags everywhere, there's intense patriotism, everyone's afraid and people are being very careful not to say anything out of line.



Loose Screw shies away from politics. But in person, Hynde blasts her opinions. She swears that any individual can make a difference by becoming vegetarian, avoiding slaughterhouse by-products (Buy a pair of leather boots, wear 'em until they're worn out); taking public transportation; tuning into news channels fed from other countries, not our CNN-controlled own; and supporting causes like PETA.



She also believes that water will soon be worth more than gold; a couple of companies will eventually control all the media; there should be a $5 million salary cap for the wealthy, with the overflow funneled into free health care.



I'm certainly not interested in any political party that doesn't put the environment and animal welfare at the top of its agenda, she adds.



With a hand-rolled cigarette hanging from her lips, Hynde delivers her screed with such force, she could run for office herself.



Does she feel like a survivor after all these years and battles?



Survivor? I don't know, she says, packing her suitcases. But I guess it's better to be a survivor than be dead.

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