Chrissie Hynde of Pretenders fame fronts new band with ex-boyfriend

They have told the story a hundred times now, but it's still a stunner.

Chrissie Hynde, frontwoman of the Pretenders and a post-punk, long-legged, leather-clad legend, was standing against the bar at a London party in 2008 when J.P. Jones, a relatively unknown musician from Wales, walked right up.

He told her she was awesome, that they should work together and, over a few rounds, mentioned that his parents worked and raised him on a fairground by the beach.

That last part, the fairground, intrigued her.

She gave him her number, and headed off on tour. In a text, he wished her "fairground luck." She texted back: Write a "fairground song." He sent her one the very next day.

"I couldn't remember what he looked like, but I was knocked out by his songs and his voice," Hynde said by phone the other day.

When she came back from the tour, she took Jones to Cuba "on a whim." They holed up in a hotel suite, drank, wrote, sang and fell in love.

They couldn't continue as a couple, mostly because of the age difference (she's 59, he's 32). But their musical affair continues as "J.P., Chrissie and the Fairground Boys," and their album, "Fidelity!" which chronicles their May-December romance and brings them to the Showbox at the Market Wednesday. .

"Songs are usually quite often very personal, anyway, but they're not so obvious," Hynde said of tunes like the album's opener, "Perfect Lover," and the rollicking knock on the door to love, "If You Let Me."

"We are singing these songs to each other, and about each other, together," Hynde said. "And we both thought it was the best thing we've ever done and decided to record it."

To release it, they started their own La Mina label to cut out the middle man, then took to the road with three of Jones' mates.

"I love starting at the bottom with this great band," said Hynde. "I don't think I've done anything really great. You finish a project and always think it could be better. But just working with him has been a revelation."

They're touring on a bus, traveling overnight and then checking into hotels to clean up before heading to sound check. The shows are pared down, compared with what Hynde is used to after 30 years of Pretenders tours.

But that's all right; the attention should be on Jones. His voice, she says, is "surprising," in that it's not only vulnerable but conveys something beyond his years.

"He's really in the moment," Hynde said. "He doesn't hold anything back. He's always on it, he's always there. I'm learning from him all the time."

Jones started the band Grace, in 2006, and put out an album that ran into problems with the label. He recruited friends from the British band Big Linda to back him and Hynde on the record, and they're with them on this tour.

After the shows, the boys — who have never toured North America — mix with the fans and hit the bars, while Hynde retreats to the bus.

"I don't like the unwelcome attention," she said. "It ruins the dynamic. I'm a lot more quiet than you would expect."

Jones, on the other hand, loves to mix with the crowd, sell CDs and T-shirts.

"The reaction to the shows has been amazing," he said. "I didn't expect to be received so well. I was afraid people would think I was the guy who would take Chrissie away from the Pretenders."

But no. He's just the guy who had the nerve to approach her, to do what she asked, and be open to learning from her and loving her.

"Chrissie's made me realize that you just have to be yourself and not cater to anyone else," he said.

He said he has "written enough songs for 10 albums," which Hynde is eager to hear, and get on record.

"We had a master plan and we achieved everything we wanted to do," she said. "My ambition is to take him into the studio when we have time. We have some really great things in store."

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Tuesday and Friday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.