http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusic/sep18_leppard-sun.html

Leppard survives, spots and all

'80s rockers never really went away
By STEVE TILLEY
Edmonton Sun

Having just embraced - or endured - aging glam-metallers Poison and former
Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil, E-Ville is now throwing open its doors to
another band that's as synonymous with the '80s as Members Only jackets and
Miami Vice.

But make no mistake - Def Leppard isn't some novelty reunion act, stumbling out
of rehab to make a fast buck off the resurgence of interest in all things
big-haired and tight-Spandexed.

"All these other bands from the '80s are re-forming and doing package tours, and
we never went away," said guitarist Viv Campbell, his Belfast-bred lilt coming
down the line from the band's stop last night in Grande Prairie.

Although the band plays the Shaw Conference Centre tonight, you could be
forgiven for thinking that this particular Leppard had in fact become extinct.

LITTLE AIRPLAY

Aside from the classic rock stations that regularly throw Pour Some Sugar On Me,
Let's Get Rocked or Animal into the rotation, the once-mighty Def Leppard gets
little in the way of radio airplay these days. And virtually none at all for
their 10th and most recent album, X.

Campbell's bandmates: Joe Elliott, Phil Collen, Rick Savage and Rick Allen
realized early in this X World Tour that a lot of fans didn't actually know any
of the songs from X. So they culled all but two or three of the new tunes from
the set list, and filled in the gaps with more classics from the Pyromania,
Hysteria and Adrenalize days.

"It's understandable," said Campbell. "People have not heard the (new) record,
it hasn't been on the radio, it barely sold ... I mean, our record company
(Island/Def Jam) basically gave up on the record.

"It's especially depressing because I genuinely believe it's the best record Def
Leppard has made in 15 years."

But the early albums, like 1981's High N' Dry and 1983's Pyromania, are
untouchable. As it turns out, both were produced by Mutt Lange, perhaps best
known to today's Canadians as the spotlight-shunning Mr. Shania Twain.

"He's actually a great, creative human being and he's very inspiring," said
Campbell. "I absolutely think Mutt has it spot-on - who the hell wants to be
famous?

"He's got it so right. He gets to write all these songs, record all these great
records, sit back and collect the royalties. And let someone else take the flak
for it."

TECHNOPHILE

It's almost too easy to get artists wound up about the current state of the
music industry, but the canny Campbell - who played with Whitesnake and Dio
before joining Def Leppard in 1992 after the accidental overdose death of
guitarist Steve Clark - knows of what he speaks.

"It's summarized by this whole American Idol thing," he said. "Anyone who thinks
there's any spark of creativity left in the music business is delusional. It's
pathetic."

A self-confessed technophile, Campbell sees things like Apple's recently
introduced pay-per-download iTunes service as a future antidote to the
stranglehold that the music industry has on the creative pulse of artists.

But Def Leppard has been through worse. From Steve Clark's sudden death to
drummer Rick Allen's loss of his left arm in a 1984 car accident, the band has
persevered. Let's hope they'll be around to see the day when good music can
again be easily enjoyed by all.

"The band survived Rick losing his arm, the band survived Steve's death,"
Campbell said. "Let's see if we can survive the death of the music industry."

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