Meet rock trio His Lordship before they joined The Pretenders and Johnny Marr

Three quarters of The Pretenders, who headlined Isle of Wight Festival 2024 last night (Friday) are in a band called His Lordship and the County Press was lucky enough to catch them for an interview.

The rock trio played the River Stage, before their set with Chrissie Hynde in the Big Top, where they were joined by legendary guitarist Johnny Marr.

His Lordship are James Walborne (guitar and vocals), Kristoffer Sonne (drums and vocals) and David Page (bass and vocals) and for Kristoffer and David, the Isle of Wight Festival was a new experience.

James performed here with the ‘Brass in Pocket’ hitmakers back in 2017, though.

• See more: Johnny Marr and The Pretenders PHOTOS

• Read more: Isle of Wight Festival 2024 Friday LIVE

• Read more: Isle of Wight Festival 2024 Saturday LIVE

Describing their music as ‘fast rock and roll for the masses’ and ‘family entertainment you can trust,’ His Lordship shared their excitement ahead of this year's set. 

“We are very much looking forward to it,” said David.

During our interview, Crowded House’s Neil Finn arrived at the guest village, much to the interest of the band.

“I just saw him at my father-in-law’s gig the other day,” James said, referring to the all-star concert at the Royal Albert Hall, celebrating the 75th birthday of virtuoso rock guitarist and former Fairport Convention member, Richard Thompson.

With an “I’ll talk to him later,” we moved on to talk about James, Kristoffe and David’s time with The Pretenders.

• See more: Crowded House PHOTOS

James Walborne with The Pretenders at the Isle of Wight Festival 2023 (Image: Lori Little/IWCP)

David Page playing with The Pretenders at the Isle of Wight Festival 2024 (Image: Jake Curran/IWCP)

Perhaps you caught their Glastonbury set on TV last year, when they were joined on stage by not one, not two, but three music legends: Johnny Marr, Dave Grohl and Paul McCartney.

“It was terrifying," said James.

“The messages were ticking in through the day that Stella McCartney was going to be there,” Kristoffer added, before revealing that they found out Paul, Stella’s father and former Beatle would also be watching from the side of the stage.

With the added factors of Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl joining them and being live on TV, James said: “We were trying not to make a mistake.”

When quizzed whether Johnny Marr would be join The Pretenders on stage at the Isle of Wight Festival this year, we were met with “you’ll just have to wait and see” but as it turned out, the dream line-up proved to be a reality.

Lo and behold, the former Smiths guitarist, only an hour after his own triumphant set, joined the band on stage for Back on the Chain Gang and Don’t Get Me Wrong.

His Lordship will be touring America later this year and if thy are anything like as good as they were at the Isle of Wight Festival 2024, it will be a gig worth seeing.