http://www.birminghammail.net/what-is-on-in-birmingham/rock-and-pop/2008/05/16/leppards-out-of-their-natural-environment-97319-20920685/ Leppards out of their natural environment May 16 2008 By Andy Coleman Def Leppard bassist Rick 'Sav' Savage is not looking his best when I meet him the morning after the band's intimate performance at London's Carling Academy Islington. There were just a few hundred invited guests and competition winners in attendance and Sav says: "It was like the club gigs we did before the debut album came out in 1980." But Sav adds that he went on stage in some discomfort - and he's still suffering. "I've been a little under the weather with a kidney infection which leaves me weak," he reveals. "When we came off stage I told the others that I wouldn't want to do that kind of show every night for a living!" Adds frontman Joe Elliott: "There wasn't room to swing a cat on stage. It was a bit like Manchester United turning up at Wycombe Wanderers. "Being so close together on stage you hear the sound in a different way. It takes time to adapt." That's because the band swiftly rose to arena and stadium status - and have never looked back. "We were never artists that looked to get our music across in an intimate setting," agrees Sav. "We thrive on playing big gigs." It was the release of Songs From The Sparkle Lounge, Def Leppard's first studio album in six years, that brought them back to a small venue, although they'll be back at Birmingham NEC, on June 18 for a co-headliner with Whitesnake. "We knew the show would be in a club-style venue and it would be hot, sweaty and loud so it was more appropriate to keep the mood uptempo," says Sav, explaining the absence of ballads from the set. "For our proper shows there will be Love Bites, an acoustic version of Bringing On The Heartache and a second stage in the middle of the audience where we'll play the ballads. "We aimed to play for 75 minutes at Islington but when we were calculating the timings we forgot we weren't doing an arena show where there's more of a gap between songs. When we came offstage we were told we'd only done 55 minutes so after our planned encore we did two extra songs - Wasted which we've only played three times in ten years, and Mirror Mirror which we'd performed on our American tour." The new album was written during an American tour with Journey. A backstage area was set aside for the band and was dubbed The Sparkle Lounge. As well as setting up the instruments for rehearsals the roadies started putting up Christmas lights and erected a 'Sparkle Lounge' sign. Hence, 'Songs From The Sparkle Lounge'. First single, Nine Lives, features country star Tim McGraw. Joe says: "We met up with him in Nashville and he suggested we do something together. So he brought along the song's title, I worked on the lyrics and Sav and guitarist Phil Collen did the music. "But we haven't turned into a country band - Tim stepped up to the rock plate." * Ticket info Def Leppard & Whitesnake play the NEC on June 18. Tickets: £37.50 plus booking fee from 0871 945 6000 or www.theticketfactory.com © 2008 owned by or licensed to Midland Newspapers Limited.