Martin Chambers
Life in Hereford and visiting his old house

The drummer with the pretenders talks about growing up in Hereford, and goes to visit the house where he once lived, and meets a fan who lives there.

"I lived in Hereford, I think, for the first eight years of my life. After that I moved to Ross, and it was around that time when I really got interested in music."

Martin Chambers (right) at his old house in Hereford, with John, who now owns it

"It was Terry Griffin (Buffin) from Mott The Hoople who lent me his drum kit for the first gig I ever did - it was St Mary's Church Hall."

"My father, Peter Chamber, played at Wormelow a lot of the time in the Russ Allen band."

"I never really did learn to play the drums… I kind of knew how to make the noise. I sat on the arm of a chair with some knitting needles and played along to Shadows records when I was about eight or nine, and annoyed the hell out of my parents."

LIVING IN LONDON:

"I went to the labour exchange because I didn't have any money. I thought I'll get a job with a car. 'What is there? Oh - driving instructor'. So I did it just purely to get transport, to get back to Hereford on the weekends."

"When I sat in the first time with Chrissie, Jimmy and Pete, it was easy."

Chrissie Hynde

"Chrissie doesn't seem to have a great deal of an attachment to any music profile at all. She's very free - and you've got to be like that. I think if you learn music properly - learn the dots and everything else - it tends to throw you into more of a formatted area than a free area. I think in Rock n Roll especially, you've got to be completely free."

"I remember getting the call from the publisher, Clive Banks, saying 'Congratulations - you've got the first number one of the New Year - and first number one album'… It's an extraordinary feeling, and being with Warner Brothers - an international company - they want you everywhere."

"What you have is a terrific feeling of euphoria when you're out on the road and what happens is you come back and there's a big hole.

"So it's not necessary when you're on the road doing drugs and stuff, it's when you're not on the road. And 25-years-ago this year James Honeyman-Scott died."

"I miss those guys so much. They were very, very close friends of mine. It's amazing how we've managed to keep the thing going really… To lose 50% of the group within a year was horrible. It's very, very difficult."

"I think it became easier once we rehearsed and rehearsed and done a tour."

LIVE AID

Martin Chambers' old house in Hereford

"We were at the JFK stadium, which they bulldozed a couple of years ago. There were about 100,000 people in there. But of course, it was one of the first major satellite link-ups. I think it was 2.5 billion people were watching you. It's extraordinary to think there was a significant proportion of the planet looking at you - it was a pretty extraordinary thing, Live Aid."

"I live in London still now. It's all too noisy now - too noisy, too smelly, too competitive… You have to live in London pretty much otherwise you're forever on the motorway… It's always great coming home (to Herefordshire). There's nothing quite like that feeling - especially at Christmas. It's wonderful."