Martin Dale Chambers (born 4 September 1951) is an English musician, best known as a founding member and
drummer
A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums.
Most contemporary western music ensemble, bands that play Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, or Contemporary R&B, R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeepi ...
of the
rock band
''Rock Band'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series, the main ''Rock Band'' games have players use game controllers mod ...
the Pretenders
The Pretenders are a British rock band formed in March 1978. The original band consisted of founder and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), James Honeyman-Scott (lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards), Pete Farndon (ba ...
. In addition to playing the drums with the group, Chambers sings
backing vocals
A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...
(
lead vocals
The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...
on the song "Fast or Slow (The Law's the Law)", the B-side of the singles "2000 Miles" and "Show Me", which he also wrote) and plays
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...
. He was part of the original band line-up, which also included
Chrissie Hynde (
vocals
Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...
/
guitar
The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...
),
James Honeyman-Scott
James Honeyman-Scott (4 November 1956 – 16 June 1982) was an English rock guitarist, songwriter and founding member of the band the Pretenders.
Honeyman-Scott established a reputation, in the words of AllMusic, as "one of the most original a ...
(
guitar
The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...
/
vocals
Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...
/
keyboards) and
Pete Farndon (
bass guitar
The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...
/
vocals
Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...
). Hynde and Chambers are the only two surviving original members, and he has served two separate tenures with the group.
Career
Prior to joining the as yet unnamed Pretenders, Chambers played with
James Honeyman-Scott
James Honeyman-Scott (4 November 1956 – 16 June 1982) was an English rock guitarist, songwriter and founding member of the band the Pretenders.
Honeyman-Scott established a reputation, in the words of AllMusic, as "one of the most original a ...
in Cheeks, a band led by former
Mott the Hoople keyboardist
A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instru ...
Verden Allen. At the time Chambers joined the yet unnamed band in 1978, he was working as a
driving instructor in
Tufnell Park
Tufnell Park is an area in north London, England, in the London boroughs of London Borough of Islington, Islington and London Borough of Camden, Camden.
The neighbourhood is served by Tufnell Park tube station on the Northern Line.
History
...
,
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
where he had got a job with the
British School of Motoring "because it came with a car so I could get about" and because of that he found where Jim and Pete were living and then replaced Gerry Mcilduff on
drums
The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...
(Uncut, 1999). At Chambers's first rehearsal with the group, Hynde recalled: "We plugged in and started playing "Precious", and I remember clearly, I had to turn around and face the wall, I was laughing so hard, because as soon as Martin started playing with us, I knew this was it. We had the band." (Uncut, 1999). Martin also recalled the rehearsal "We knew it straight away. We just locked in." (Rhino Entertainment Company, 2006). In the Autumn of 1981,
The Pretenders
The Pretenders are a British rock band formed in March 1978. The original band consisted of founder and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), James Honeyman-Scott (lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards), Pete Farndon (ba ...
cancelled their US+Canada Tour as Chambers had cut his hand, and the injury was so bad that he couldn’t play for a number of weeks. The band decided to postpone the tour rather than replace Chambers.
Chambers proved to be a versatile drummer within the group, with a hard-hitting style that is evident on
song
A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...
s such as "Middle of the Road". Guitarist
Adam Seymour has acknowledged that "there's a definite thing going on in the rhythm between Chrissie's guitar and Martin's drums that you would need a scientific equation to explain. Martin kind of pulls back on the beat while Chrissie's pushing it forward." (Rhino Entertainment Company, 2006).
Chambers' first tenure with the group lasted from mid-1978 until the mid-1980s. Coping with the death of bandmates Honeyman-Scott and Farndon proved difficult, and his consequent lack of enthusiasm resulted in his departure from the group during the ''
Get Close'' sessions. According to Hynde, "I felt his playing had deteriorated. I think he was still very traumatized by
he loss ofPete and Jimmy." (Uncut, 1999) Martin concurred, admitting "I wasn't really into it to be honest."
Chambers rejoined the group in 1994 during the sessions for ''
Last of the Independents'', and has been with the group ever since (Uncut, 1999). When he rejoined, Seymour recalled "When Martin sat down, it began to feel like a real band." Martin summed up his reunion with the group, saying: "at the end of the day
hrissieasked me back because no one could make it work quite like we did." (Rhino Entertainment Company, 2006) Hynde concurred, saying: "I missed him terribly. ... Both he and I were floundering—and probably not playing well—and I needed someone to kick me in the ass and inspire me. We went through one song and it was the same buzz as when we first played together. No one has that swing and feel." (Hot Press, 1994).
In late 2008, The Pretenders released the album ''
Break Up the Concrete'' with Chambers being replaced by
Jim Keltner, although Chambers remained an official member and played with the band on live dates. He did, however, appear on the 2020 album ''
Hate for Sale''. In addition to playing with the Pretenders, Chambers also plays in the band Miss World fronted by
songwriter
A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...
Jonathan Perkins, who had worked with artists such as XTC and Original Mirrors.

In late September and early October 2009, Chambers sat in on drums for the seven Mott the Hoople reunion shows (two in Monmouth and five at Hammersmith Odeon) alongside former Cheeks bandmate Verden Allen due to the illness of Dale Griffin who had loaned Chambers his kit for his first live show in 1967 at St. Mary's Church Hall,
Ross on Wye, Herefordshire.
Chambers played drums on the fourth
Razorlight
Razorlight are an English indie rock band, formed in 2002 in London by lead singer and guitarist Johnny Borrell. Along with Borrell, the current line-up of the band is composed of founding members Björn Ågren on guitar and bassist Carl Dalem ...
album, ''Olympus Sleeping'' (2018).
Discography
* 1979 – ''
Pretenders
Pretenders may refer to:
Film
* ''Pretenders'' (2018 film), an American drama film
* ''The Pretenders'' (1916 film), a lost American silent film
* ''The Pretenders'' (1981 film), a Dutch film Literature
* ''Cemetery Girl – Book One: The P ...
''
* 1980 – “A Swift One”, on the ''
Miniatures (A Sequence Of Fifty-One Tiny Masterpieces Edited By Morgan-Fisher)'' compilation
* 1981 – ''
Extended Play
An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...
''
* 1981 – ''
Pretenders II
''Pretenders II'' is the second studio album by British rock band the Pretenders, issued on Sire Records in August 1981. It incorporates two songs that had been released as singles in the UK and placed on an EP in the US. It peaked at #7 on ...
''
* 1984 – ''
Learning to Crawl''
* 1986 – ''
Get Close'' (track 11)
* 1994 – ''
Last of the Independents'' (tracks 3, 4, 6 & 12)
* 1999 – ''
Viva el Amor''
* 2002 – ''
Loose Screw''
* 2009 – ''
Hammersmith Live'' with Mott the Hoople
* 2014 – DVD Mott the Hoople Live in Manchester November 2013
* 2020 – ''
Hate for Sale''
Sources
* ''Hot Press'', Hynde Sight, 4 May 1994.
* Ben Edmonds, Rhino Entertainment Company (2006), ''This Is Pirate Radio'', Pirate Radio Box Set booklet.
* Allan Jones, ''Uncut'', June 1999, Rock and Roll Heart (Pretenders Special), by Allan Jones, pp. 46–65.
References
External links
Pretenders 977 Radio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chambers, Martin
1951 births
Living people
English rock drummers
Musicians from Hereford
The Pretenders members
Dave Stewart and the Spiritual Cowboys members
Mott the Hoople members