The Pretenders’ 1983 single “2000 Miles” is one of the all-time great new-wave Christmas songs, and it gets even better once you realize the depth of feeling that Chrissie Hynde put into it. Hynde wrote the song for original Pretenders guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, who died of cocaine-induced heart failure the previous year. Over the years, a ton of artists, including Coldplay, Kylie Minogue, Natalie Imbruglia, and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, have covered the song. And now the London dream-poppers Night Flowers have offered up their own take on it.

Night Flowers, who released their Wild Notion album earlier this year, have recorded “2000 Miles” in the same spirit that Hynde wrote it. Night Flowers write that the cover is a tribute to Sandeep “Sonny” Heer, a fan and friend of the band who recently passed away. The proceeds from the Bandcamp single will benefit CALM, the Campaign Against Living Miserably. Below, listen to Night Flowers’ lovely and faithful cover, watch the video for the Pretenders’ original, and read what Night Flowers have to say about it.

Night Flowers write:

Seasons greetings.

We were extremely saddened recently to hear of the passing of Sandeep ‘Sonny’ Heer – a music lover, Night Flowers fan and all round lovely bloke. We met Sonny in Coventry when he and a friend came out to see us and we had a great chat with him about music and life. We would like to extend our huge sympathies and thoughts to Sonny’s family and friends and thank his brother Jat for getting in touch and for these words –

‘Sonny always listened and helped others but like so many of us, rarely talked about himself. He had a pure love for music and was able to speak openly and passionately about it. Music is in his soul. No words will ever describe our loss, we just wish Sonny was around today to tell us how he was feeling.’

We’re just a small band – we don’t have many tools at our disposal but what we do have is our love and our music. With this in mind, for Christmas this year we have recorded a cover of The Pretenders 1983 seasonal banger ‘2000 Miles’, which we would like to dedicate to Sonny’s memory. Any proceeds from the single will be going to CALM, as per his families wishes.

Please keep Sonny, his family and those others lost all too soon in your thoughts this Christmas, enjoy the track and donate what you can to a great cause.

RIP Sandeep ‘Sonny’ Heer (1975-2018)

Be excellent to each other,

Night Flowers

You can buy that cover at Bandcamp.