http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusic/jul30_def.html

Friday, July 30, 1999  

Leppard changes spots

By DAVE VEITCH -- Calgary Sun

Sometimes Joe Elliott feels he just can't win. 

"For the longest time," says the lead singer of British rock group Def
Leppard, "your brothers and sisters in the media have accused us of never
evolving and never changing. And the second we do, they don't want to know
about it." 

Elliott, 39, is referring to the fate of the Leps' 1996 album Slang, which
found the quintet moving beyond their patented arena-rock sound to
incorporate everything from Eastern influences to funk. Successfully, too.


But Slang only shifted two million units, a far cry from the band's heyday
when 1983's Pyromania and its 1987 followup Hysteria sold a total of 22
million copies. 

"I still love that record (Slang)," says Elliott, whose band plays
Rockfest '99 tomorrow at Labatt Raceway in Nisku, just outside of
Edmonton. "I just feel the album was never really given a chance." 

To quote one of Elliott's favourite Ian Hunter songs, one bitten twice
shy. Last month, Def Leppard returned to record stores shelves with
Euphoria, a return to their pre-Slang form. 

Back again are the melodic, big-riffed rockers that were the band's bread-
and-butter throughout the '80s and early '90s, as well as
Pyromania/Hysteria producer Robert (Mutt) Lange, who co-writes a couple
tracks including the first single, Promises. 

"I'm not trying to backtrack or cover up any evidence," the singer says,
"but we always said that (Slang) is something we needed to get out of our
system. We never said this is the way we're going for the rest of our
lives." With Euphoria, Elliott says the band -- drummer Rick Allen,
bassist Rick Savage and guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell --
opted for a "classic-sounding Leppard record." 

Reteaming with Lange for the first time since 1991 was quite a coup, given
he's been busy producing and co-writing music for his wife, country music
superstar Shania Twain. Perhaps not surprisingly, some of Twain's songs
would fit snugly in the Def Lep songbook. Elliott laughs. 

"I thought the same thing.... I thought (Twain's hit Any Man of Mine)
sounded just like Pour Some Sugar on Me with fiddles rather than guitars,"
he says. 

"It has the We Will Rock You, stomping drum thing. It's got that da-da-da
thing that we've used a million times in the bridge into the chorus." 

Talk to Elliott long enough and you'll realize he's something of an expert
in '70s British rock, with a particular fondness for glam. ("I would have
willingly put mascara on," he reveals when asked if he would have liked a
cameo in last year's Velvet Goldmine, filmmaker Todd Hayne's loving
tribute to the glam-rock era.) 

On Euphoria, those influences surface in the Glitter Band-inspired Back In
Your Face and the Marc Bolanesque 21st Century Sha La La La Girl. As well,
several new Leppard originals sport previously used titles: Paper Sun
(Traffic), Demolition Man (The Police) and Day After Day (Badfinger). 

Surely, the Leps are winking at fellow British music lovers. 

"Funny you should mention that," Elliott replies. 

"When we did Pyromania, we did two songs that had the same titles as Band
songs: Stage Fright and Rock of Ages, which were pointed out to me
afterwards. I was never into The Band. 

"But it's not that we're consciously stealing," he continues, sounding
more defensive than he should. 

"What we're doing is not giving a (bleep) that it is a phrase that has
been used before.... That's what songs are -- a collection of people's own
cliches put to rhyme, really."  

Def Leppard's Joe Elliott: he gets hysteria, when you're near 
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