Photo by Ki Price

(RED BANK, NJ) -- Pretenders, the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame band, will headline the 2024 Count Basie Center Summer Gala on Saturday, July 13th at the Basie Center’s Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre in Red Bank. Hits like "Brass in Pocket," "Stop Your Sobbing," "Don't Get Me Wrong," and "Back on the Chain Gang" have made the band an integral part of classic rock radio each day. Showtime is 8:00pm.

Tickets, starting at $50 + fees, go on sale to the general public this Friday, March 22 at 10:00am through theBASIE.org, the Basie Center box office (99 Monmouth Street in Red Bank, New Jersey), charge by phone at 732-842-9000 and Ticketmaster. Count Basie Center members will receive a presale opportunity starting March 20th, while sponsorships in support of the fundraising concert are available now at www.thebasie.org/gala.

After moving to London from Akron, Ohio, in 1973, Chrissie Hynde fast became a key player in London’s punk scene, and was involved in early versions of the Sex Pistols, the Clash and the Damned. In 1978 Hynde formed own band, The Pretenders, and although their debut singles ‘Stop Your Sobbing’ and ‘Kid’ garnered critical acclaim, it was ‘Brass in Pocket’ that gave the band their first UK #1.

Their self-titled debut album, released in 1980, has been named one of the best albums of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. The band went on to perform at Live Aid in ’85, and have since released 11 commercially acclaimed studio albums. Despite many line-up changes over the years, the Pretenders continue to release new music and perform sold out shows to fans worldwide.

The band’s latest album, Relentless, was released last September and features Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, and a cast of musicians Hynde refers to as the “Pretenders Collective” – multi-instrumentalist Carwyn Lewis, drummer Kris Sonne, bassists Chris Hall and Dave Page and Greenwood. While early iterations of the band’s processed saw elements of jazz shine through (Hynde’s 2019 solo album, Valve Bone Woe, was a collection of jazz covers), Hynde says the band ultimately returned to its roots.

“Once we went in as a band and started to rehearse it, I suppose, inevitably, the more we played it the more it rocked up,” she said. “I think we were born to rock and there’s really no getting around it.”

Aside from the Basie Center summer gala, the Pretenders have quite the summer ahead of them – they’re set to open for the Foo Fighters on many dates of the band’s stadium tour.

Fans can expect a collection of the band’s greatest hits plus new music on July 13 at the Basie Center gala. This year’s gala is presented by blockchain technology company Ripple. Proceeds from the gala will benefit the Count Basie Center’s nonprofit mission and student scholarships.

The Count Basie Center for the Arts is New Jersey’s premier center for the cultural arts, dedicated to fostering powerful, inclusive artistic experiences and creative exchange of ideas. The Basie mission is to inspire, educate and entertain through its distinct and engaging cultural and artistic offerings that embrace and amplify the diversity of the region.  As a nonprofit organization, the Basie is committed to enriching the community’s quality of life by generating opportunities for participation in the arts, partnering with schools, collaborating with other mission-based organizations and driving regional economic prosperity. The Basie Center has hosted an array of world-class artists, including Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band, Jon Bon Jovi, John Legend, Crosby Stills & Nash, Tony Bennett, Sophia Loren and Ringo Starr. Count Basie Center programming is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.