Age hasn't withered Chrissie Hynde. The ever-contrary star of tireless rockers the Pretenders, she bathes in the spotlight, relishing the authority of her role as band leader yet rejecting any notion of celebrity. While she makes the ordinary appear profound, her tender melodies cascading around caustic lyrics, she remains brazenly proud of being the crudest woman in pop.
"Why was Michael Jackson shaking that baby over the balcony?" she ponders, one hip raised coquettishly, legs defiantly astride. The answer - too tasteless to print - brings a chorus of slightly amused, largely disgusted groans from the audience. She smiles wickedly.
Hynde has always enjoyed her uniqueness and the affection it inspires. She is too pop for punk, too rock for pop. The Pretenders have been refusing to be pigeonholed for the past 24 years: their 1980 debut album combined spit and fury with sunshine and melancholy, reflecting the duality of Hynde's personality. Their new album Loose Screws adds the buoyancy of personal enthusiasm and the bitterness of public indifference. Dressed in a white jacket, a tie slung haphazardly around her neck as tight jeans grip her legs, Hynde is nobody's manufactured pop lovely, but a pickled vision of her youth. With her hairstyle just on the cool side of a mullet, she forces fashion to catch up with her.
She could be Strokes leader Julian Casablancas's slightly demented mum. The tremulous, yearning yet seedy voice that floats above the jangling rhythms is purer than ever. The shimmering simplicity of Kid still tingles; the blistering passion of Precious still burns. Hynde plays at being one of the boys, throwing guitar shapes with attitude, but the desperation of The Losing and martyrdom of Stand By You are unapologetically feminine.
Hynde's relationship with the past is uneasy. "You just can't get enough of those new ones, can you?" she comments sarcastically as a greatest hits set unfolds. Despite her negativity - and, in the case of Brass in Pocket, utter scorn - she devotes as much energy to her back catalogue as to the new songs. And she appears to enjoy every minute, keeping true to her contradictory nature.
