From: "Mike N. Reinemann" Date sent: Sun, 13 Feb 2000 00:48:11 -0500 Subject: Def Leppard on the prowl Saturday, February 12, 2000 Back The Halifax Herald Limited Def Leppard on the prowl Brit rock behemoths get back to basics Universal Music Def, but not dumb: U.K. rockers Def Leppard return tonight to the Halifax Metro Centre for an evening of hot licks, tight pants and million-selling audience favourites from their 22-year-long career. By Stephen Cooke / Entertainment Reporter You know you've been on the road too long when you can't catch some Zs in a stationary hotel bed. After two decades on the road, Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen prefers the solace of the band's tour bus, currently en route to tonight's show at the Halifax Metro Centre with Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. "I can't sleep unless the thing is moving," says the blond British rocker over the land cruiser's cell phone. "I asked my wife to buy a set of wheels and tires for the bed at home. Then, before I go to sleep, I'll get her to make generator sounds. "Nowadays I'm on the Serenity Bus. We have two busses out, the other is the Disco Dancing Bus. On the Serenity Bus everybody's in bed by 12:30 on a show day. We have rock and roll tea parties." Allen paints a picture that's a far cry from the band's heyday of hard times and hard partying that resulted in tragedies like the death of guitarist Steve Clark in 1990 from a lethal cocktail of alcohol and painkillers, and Allen's own loss of his left arm in a car crash in 1984. But the band has adapted and moved on, although the band learned that change merely for the sake of change is rarely a good idea when their last album, Slang, an attempt to be more progressive, slipped out of Billboard's Top 40 after only four months. Def Leppard's current tour is riding on the strength of last year's Euphoria CD, which saw a return to the heavy riffs, thickly layered vocals and dashes of glam that made them the stadium success they've become over 22 years of playing together. The band even enlisted the aid of their old friend producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange to lend his songwriting expertise to a few new songs. Allen says there's no point in trying to change people's minds about Def Leppard's position in the pop music marketplace. Why should a Leppard change its spots? "Music goes in big, big cycles," he explains. "Every eight to 10 years or so. When we first came on the scene, punk was kind of the thing, and we embraced some of that in the idea of making three-minute, to-the-point songs. Punk was a reaction to the long-winded rock song, acts like Genesis and Deep Purple and ELP, and I thought it was good for music because it brought everything back down to basics. "We had a good run of success up through the early '90s, but then it was time for a change again. We were big fans of Nirvana, the whole idea of that sound, but unfortunately it shut down a lot of outlets for our music. Music got very dark for a while, and we're almost becoming the alternative again, simply because it's coming around. People want to be entertained again." Allen is already working on building a new generation of fans, starting with his two-year-old daughter Lauren. "I've taken her out on stage a couple of times, and whispered in her ear that all these people are here to see daddy and the band, and they're all happy to be here," he says with a note of pride. "When I tell her I'm going away on tour, she says, 'Are you going to play drums, Daddy?' So she knows I do something kind of alternative for a job." ------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 2000 The Halifax Herald Limited