http://www.halifaxlive.com/artman/publish/defleppard_011605_565656565.shtml

Def Leppard To The Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame?

By Clinton P. Desveaux
Jan 16, 2005, 16:32

Well many readers over the years have asked me, "How can you be such a serious
young man?" Well I have the impression that many people think I only read,
watch, and listen to Libertarian philosophy and economic money supply issues.
This past month I was skimming through the usual collection of music industry
magazines and a feeling of disgust came over me, a feeling of such utter
contempt that I almost threw my NAD receiver out the window of my home. I'm a
simple man who enjoys Single Malt Scotch, cigars, and pin stripe suits to be
honest. My beautiful family really keeps me happy, and of course a massive music
collection exists. Something in the order of 1000 albums on the vinyl format and
1000 albums on the CD format.

Music for me became an addiction at the age of 9, while driving around in a
Camero in the freezing cold climate of Northern Ontario. Those infamous words
from Pyromania, which open Rock of Ages, were engrained into my young brain. At
that very moment I wanted to play music no matter what, my parents bought me a
harmonica, a bloody harmonica, my dad said 'don't worry John Lennon played
one'... Shortly after that pivotal moment I owned a drum kit and was also
enrolled in piano lessons. Now my son and I are going to play left handed
Rickenbacker's together when he is old enough.

So now you will find out what has my knickers in a knot and this long and yet
interesting story begins.

It began in 1977 when a couple of high school students decided to form a band,
after all if the Sex Pistols, The Ramones, and the Clash could get record deals
and become stars without knowing how to play instruments, then anyone could be a
star right?

Sheffield England (known as the heart of the black country because of the steel
mines) gives its youth 3 choices:

(1) Work in the steel mines which creates what was known as the finest cutlery
in the world.
(2) Join a Rock 'n' Roll band
(3) Go on the dole and become part of the taxpayers burden

Joe Elliott (vocals), Rick Savage (bass), Rick Allen (drums), Steve Clark
(guitar), and Pete Willis (guitar) began performing shows at high schools, pubs,
and local music festivals while they themselves were still in High School; never
a group to follow the well worn path of doing covers for a living Def Leppard
began writing and performing their own material immediately. Soon larger and
larger numbers of people began to turn out at clubs to hear the 5 young lads
from the heart of the "Black Country".

1979: The group decided to take the money they had been able to earn from their
"real" jobs and spent it recording a 3 song EP. After pressing some 16,000
copies and quickly selling out of the entire run, with a little bit of help from
a fellow named John Peel. John Peel was the pre-eminent DJ in England (may he
rest in peace) and after a chance meeting with singer Joe Elliott the ball was
set into motion. Peel discovered the punk genre before it was ever a genre, and
helped break the Sex Pistols. The record companies began to take notice of the
selling power from these self-made musicians called Def Leppard.

BBC Radio and English "pirate" radio stations began playing the independent EP
in heavy rotation as requests began to flow in from the record buying public.

During this early stage of the band, a large number of songs were recorded and
played live but never released to the general public in a proper album format.
One of the great songs to never get released but made its ways into the hands of
the public through pirate recordings and bootleg recordings was "Beyond The
Temple" (Perhaps it will appear on a compete studio recordings box set when all
is said and done). With epic songs like "Beyond The Temple" things seemed to
indicate that Def Lepaprd would have a viable long-term career if they could
stay focussed and work to improve themselves as musicians and songwriters.

The band began touring the United Kingdom extensively, finding out that Bed
&Breakfast's and Inn's are much cheaper then Motels and Hotels for kids with no
money. Look for the original 1000 pressings of the EP with the signed
autographs.

As the band became a regular on English radio, record company reps began to show
up at gigs, the giant Polygram/Mercury recording label (now Universal) signed
the band to a long-term 6-album deal. Not bad for a bunch of teenagers.

1980 "On Through the Night" Years: Blowing the whole record advance on studio
time and real instruments Def Leppard wrote and recorded their debut full length
album "On Through The Night", which consisted of 11 tracks in Ringo Starr's (Yes
the Beatles) Home Studio. The sound was pure Rock 'n' Roll, Beatles-esq/Beach
Boys background vocals combined with English "Glam" guitar, and written with the
commercial feel of the Rolling Stones for parts of the album. The problem is a
lot of filler is included as well. I almost get the feeling when listening to
this album that someone else with "authority" involved with the record company
was deciding which knobs and dials were going to be turned since the group are
teenagers and with no extensive studio experience.

The album has some unique musical moments, the epic track "Overture", and plenty
of traditional rock n roll with "Hello America" (Def Leppard doing Beach Boys
lyrics), and "Rock Brigade" (Led Zeppelin meets Rolling Stones). The overall
studio production of "On Through The Night" is lacking, it shows these five
young teenagers were novices; album cover art was horrible and embarrassing. If
you are looking for this album look for the original vinyl format pressing with
the sleeve that featured many black and white photos of being in a studio and
touring. As far as the CD format goes look for the original white and pink disc.

The guitar sound is bit bothering though; one gets the feeling that the twin
lead guitarists want to take the band in different directions musically. Also
Joe Elliott sounds drunk for most of the recording for some reason...

One of the bonuses of collecting Def Leppard recordings from this era is that a
large number of b-sides and unreleased material exists such as "Good Morning
Freedom", and "Glad I'm Alive". Soon tours as an opening act began, and the band
discovered foreign places such as Canada and the United States. The band had
achieved minor commercial success on rock radio by touring, and managed to even
sell a few albums; not enough to recuperate studio costs and touring losses
though. Things were moving in the right direction as the group built up a large
loyal audience in their home country.


1981 "High 'n' Dry" Years: Robert John "Mutt" Lange (husband of Shania Twain)
had heard Def Leppard recordings in the early stages from their debut album due
to record company connections. Mutt had recorded such acts as the "Cars",
"ACDC", and "Foreigner". Sensing a potential that he had not heard in a number
of years Mutt decided to take a chance with the five guys from England.

Now the "High n Dry" album was released with a much more power chord oriented
guitar sound and had clearly improved in the song development department. Album
cover art was a very good step forward. What is interesting about this album is
that for the genre it doesn't have any filler as would be expected once you get
past the singles. This is in many respects the first real record label debut
album from Def Leppard. Song structure is tightened up, vocals recorded
properly, and instruments that revolve around the song rather then the other way
around.

Classic electric guitar rock can be found on this album such as "High 'n' Dry",
Let It Go", "Me And My Wine", "You Got Me Runnin".

This album didn't sell as well as they had hoped for in their native country of
England. North America and Asia on the other hand began to purchase this album
at a much more steady pace then their previous debut recording. Perhaps British
tastes are different from North American and Asian tastes. When I listen to this
album with a set of headphones on the Discman, one of the things that I seem to
hear in the guitar sound is a feeling of Steve Clark asserting greater guitar
duty from Pete Willis, which moves the band in a different direction from the
debut recording.

The best way to describe this album is Def Leppard meets AC/DC, the group had
yet to find a single consistent element that one could point to as pure Def
Leppard. Joe Elliott really improves his vocals on this album as well.

Look for the original version of this album that has 2 fewer songs then the
later re-worked versions with a slight colour change on the alum cover art.

Unfortunately and curiously though little unreleased material and b-sides have
made their way into the hands of album collecting enthusiasts from this era of
Def Leppard.

1983 "Pyromania" Years: Things had really begun to change when the new recording
sessions began in January 1982 in both bad and good ways when problems began to
appear within the band.

Pete Willis co-lead guitarist was asked to leave the band for alcohol and
behavioural problems that were adversely affecting the group dynamic live on
stage and in the studio. Phil Collen was asked to replace Pete Willis, this
allowed Def Leppard to dramatically improve their background vocals and bring
back some stability within the band.

Def Leppard decided to follow the later Beatles direction of spending long hours
in the studio. In January 1983 a proper balance of instruments and vocals was
heard, the album "Pyromania" made its way into the hands of the public.

Pyromania and Appetite for Destruction by Guns and Roses are considered to be
the greatest "hard rock" album for its genre from that time. With short snappy,
foot-tapping songs, this is the album that spawned a generation of hair bands
that almost destroyed an entire decade for many music lovers. Who knows maybe
Kurt Cobain would never have been a successful, famous, and rich star had all of
these hair bands attempting to emulate Def Leppard not saturated the market
place.

In fact the bandwagon effect by record companies signing the "next" Def Leppard
would bite the in the ass later in their career.

That is not to say that this album is limited to its genre, expanding the
musical boundaries with such stellar material as "Billy's Got A Gun", and "Die
Hard the Hunter".
Racking up massive album sales in the multi millions because of well thought out
and musical friendly songs such as "Photograph", "Too Late For Love, "Foolin",
and "Rock Of Ages", and my personal favourite "Action Not Words". Def Leppard
had finally arrived.

The band toured Asia, South America, Europe, and North America for their first
time as a headline act. Playing arenas and the occasional stadium in front of
55,000 people over the course of 18 straight months of constant touring. The
ironic aspect of this album is that it almost went unnoticed in the United
Kingdom. This album was denied the number 1 spot on the charts all year because
of a little giant named Michael Jackson who had created Thriller.

Polygram/Mercury decided to expand the band's record contract from 6 to 11
albums when they saw what the group had achieved with Pyromania.

The album artwork is absolutely amazing, again like the "High 'n' Dry" sessions
very little in the way of studio outtakes, b-sides, and unreleased material has
worked its way into the hands of public.

One would assume that when an album sells millions of copies that the musician
or band would be set financially for life, however this isn't always the case.
Def Leppard had built up a large amount of debt from their 3 previous recordings
and tour costs, combine this with England's former astronomically high taxes and
not a great deal of money is left. Some members of Def Leppard had vowed to
learn from their past mistakes, quickly packing up their bags and moving assets
to Ireland which had much lower taxes then England plus you could still watch
English TV and read English soccer scores.

By the time 1985 arrived, an album "First Strike" of pirate recordings from the
1977-1980 era surfaced, it seems that Def Leppard's first early management had
kept a number of rough early takes when the band sought out other management,
the old management re-worked various demo's into an album. The pirate album was
released as a way to cash in on Pyromania's success, when the members of Def
Leppard realized that this album was released they had the courts pull it from
the shelves. Any Def Leppard fan that collects vinyl needs this album in their
collection.

1987 "Hysteria" Years: The "Hysteria" sessions started out in a bad enough way,
the band had really wanted to release a follow up to "Pyromania" quickly,
however world tours have a way at dragging things out. When the band had an
opportunity to get into the studio and begin laying down the initial recordings
for "Hysteria", tragedy struck. December 1984, Rick Allen (The drummer) was
involved in a serious automobile accident. Allen had lost his left arm, doctors
attempted to re-attach the arm but after a short time the arm was removed again
because of infection. Now in most cases this would mean that a band either
breaks up or a new drummer is found. Well Rick Allen turned to the non-existent
book for 1 armed drummers and taught his right leg all of what his right arm
knew.

When the album "Hysteria" had finally been released in August of 1987 Joe
Elliott is said to have made the astute observation that to recover the
expensive recording costs of the album and video production costs "Hysteria"
would need to sell 1 million copies to break even and begin generating wealth
for the individual band members. Well "Hysteria" would break the band out of the
"hard rock" genre and open the band to a much more larger crossover audience.
When a list of the greatest albums for 1987 is released this album will be on
the same list as U2's "Joshua Tree", Public Enemy's "It Takes A Nation Of
Millions To Hold Us Back", Guns N Roses "Appetite For Destruction", and Inxs's
"Kick".

Clocking in at 63 minutes with 12-quality tracks, any one of which could have
been released to commercial radio as hit singles. Again the band includes music
expanding material with "Gods Of War" which includes direct audio quotes by
Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, and the tune "Rocket" with it's African
Burundi tribal drumming.

The album cover and sleeve is excellent, and a very large collection of b-sides,
unreleased material, and rarities is also available such as an Englebert
Humperdink cover.

The tour dragged on for 2 full years, by the time all had been said and done
"Hysteria" had sold millions upon millions of copies. The group even managed to
rebuild their fan base in the United Kingdom and even pulled off a number one
hit with "Animal" in the UK.

Joe Elliott (vocalist) quickly corrected any remaining past mistakes and built
his own recording studio in his home to almost eliminate any future costs for
recording albums.
As time wore on after Hysteria's release, problems began to appear within the
band again, Steve Clark (co-lead guitarist) no longer able to deal with stardom
and responsibility slowly developed major problems with cocaine and alcoholism.
The band intervened and insisted that Steve Clark seek medical assistance in
dealing with alcohol and cocaine issues. January 1991 Steve Clark passes away
from a lethal combination of alcohol and painkillers, a moment that I will
always remember.

1992 "Adrenalize" Years: The band continued to work on Adrenalize as a 4 piece,
and released what some consider the "perfect" Def Leppard album. Vivian Campbell
joined the band after Adrenalize had been completed to replace Steve Clark;
Campbell was and is the perfect choice. Campbell dramatically improved Def
Leppard's background vocals further and brought back a real sense of fun to the
band while up on the big stages. The album attracted rock radio and commercial
radio debuting number 1 in Canada, United States, and their home country
England. Stand out material on this album are "Stand Up Kick Love Into Motion",
"Heaven Is", and the classic Leppard epic sound "White Lightning". Now not that
any of the guys in Def Leppard will ever read this but I really feel that the
original version of "Tear It Down" which appeared as a b-side to the "Women"
single back in 1987 is a much better version then the final Adrenalize recording
of 1992.
The world tour began immediately after the release of the album and dragged on
for 2 years like the previous tours of Pyromania and Hysteria had. Only this
time the band was playing more stadiums and outdoor festivals with up 30,000 to
60,000 people in the crowd while all the time Pearl Jam, Sound Garden, and
Nirvana had sent every other big haired rock band from the 80's packing. The
group had finally arrived in their home country becoming a household name in
Britain, Ireland, and Scotland. The album cover is excellent; b-sides of the
Rolling Stones, Hendrix, and Alice Cooper plus unreleased material with Hothouse
Flowers are wonderful.

*** 1993 Retro-Active *** While on the Adrenalize tour the band had found time
to release another semi-album called "Retro-Active", which consisted of some new
material, b-sides, and re-worked unreleased material. This album introduced a
real organic feel for the band and in many respects would turn out to be a
blueprint for their next official album Slang. Well "Retro-Active" began to sell
and was an instant hit on radio with a number of ballads such "Two Steps
Behind", "Miss You In A Heartbeat" plus an amazing cover of The Sweet's
"Action". Look for the stand out musical expanding tracks "From The Inside", and
"Fractured Love". This album also dragged out the Adrenalize world tour that
much longer.

The album cover is one of the best "mind tricks" you will ever see, plus a
surprising amount of b-sides were made available for this album.

1995: The obligatory greatest hits album, "Vault" was released in between
"Retro-Active" and their next proper full-length album Slang. Anyone out there
like myself who loves vinyl needs to find the vinyl format of this album, it has
a bonus track, one of the coolest tracks Def Leppard has ever released "Can't
Keep Away From The Flame", which has a very earthy Led Zeppelin III acoustic
feel. Of course the greatest hits package has been a sales success with one of
the greatest love songs of all time, "When Love And Hate Collide" which was the
bands last commercial hit single. You see at this moment, the record label
decided that promoting the band was a waste of money since the back catalogue
sells on its own with minimal work. Now unlike U2, which released the Pop album
with no promotion and had a major drop in sales; Def Leppard were never going to
be on the good side of the record label again, the current management of the
label didn't care anymore. The label returned to promoting U2 and what happened?
Well their next album All That You Can't Leave Behind was a sales success.
Amazing what a request to have a release "placed in high rotation" does,
commercial radio sells albums not your work...

1996 "Slang" Years: Well this is where Def Leppard prove they have more guts
then the average rock band out there by releasing an album within a music
climate that has grown tired of "hair bands", it should be pointed out that Def
Leppard were not and never wanted to be part of the whole spinal tap thing.
Maybe the music industry could learn to avoid signing up a million cheap copies
of the same thing in whatever genres that happen to be popular at any given
time. Slang takes off from where Retro-Active left, filling in the organic
edges. The album shows immediately that Vivian Campbell (co-lead guitar) could
introduce a new and exciting dynamic to the Def Leppard song category with the
very modern sounding, yet edgy "Work it Out". It also consists of "All I Want Is
Everything" a nice edgy blues song, and one of the best epic songs of all time
since Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir": "Pearl Of Euphoria" (In my opinion Def Leppard
meets Jim Morrison).

Rick Allen also returns with real acoustic drums, which really brings back a
natural organic feel to all of the recordings. Guitars are plugged directly into
Marshall amps instead of the direct to digital feeds which have a way of
neutering the essence of Rock 'n' Roll. Creating an almost garage band feel.

Slang has been the most diversified of any Def Leppard album, this may have also
confused many people, it consists of acoustic guitar "Where "Does Love Go When
It Dies" (The best lyrics that Joe Elliott has written thus far), Indian rock
loaded with sitars such as "Turn To Dust", and r&b rock with "Slang", and
"Breathe A Sigh" which both have a real Prince feel to them. My only complaint
of this album is that the tracks "Can't Keep Away From The Flame" and "When Love
and Hate Collide" should have been included here instead of the "Vault" hits
album.

Now I know this is nitpicking, but I feel that the final track order of Slang
should have been revamped with Work It Out as the lead off track, followed by
All I Want Is Everything and so on.

The album cover has an interesting Middle Eastern feel and a nice collection of
covers such as David Bowie, and Jeff Beck for b-sides.

1999 "Euphoria" Years: Vivian Campbell really plays a significant part in song
writing on Euphoria, for the first time in many years Def Leppard write more as
a group, with the song writing and music credits shared among Joe Elliott, Phil
Collen, Vivian Campbell, and Rick Savage. The vocals are tight and the album has
more fluent feel to it then the previous studio outing. Look for the really
interesting epic track "Paper Sun" which has sort of a North/South Irish
fighting feel about it. "Day After Day" has a nice raw emotional feel as well.
With a track such as "It's Only Love", Def Leppard really showcase what a tight
musically thinking group they are creating a Beatles Rubber Soul feel. "To Be
Alive" also moves the group in a more relaxed feel. Kings of Oblivion should
have been left off the album because it's rubbish, or left as a b-side and the
guitar solo track "Disintegrate" is very annoying, we all know that Phil Collen
can play a guitar and we don't need a guitar clinic to prove this.

My only other complaint or question I have about this album is: Was it ever made
available on the vinyl format? This question really irritates the avid vinyl
collector. Phil Collen told me during a short interview back in 1996 that yes it
was indeed on vinyl yet I have never found it anymore. A number of people have
written me telling me that they own it on vinyl, and their official Webmaster
has told me it was never on vinyl.

Look for the early limited edition CD format versions of the album with the 3-D
cover. Very good b-sides were made available, a great cover of Ian Hunter
(ex-Mott The Hoople), "Who Do You Love" and some Alice Cooper too.

The Japanese version of this album has bonus tracks, and the very nice "I Am
Your Child" should have been included on the North American version of the
album. The only issue with this album that the band should have concerned them
selves with was waiting until 2001 for a more receptive music climate to
actually release the album.


2002 "X" Years: Well Def Leppard are heading into their 25th Anniversary and
some 40 million albums sold not counting "X", as in the Roman numeral for 10.
This album is great and really has a re-energized feeling that really takes off
and can proudly be set next to Pyromania and Hysteria in your album collection.
Of course with no label support it never would get played on radio. The lead off
single "Now" has a very nice feel, like it unintentionally belongs in the year
2002. The other interesting aspect of this album is that it feels as if the
initial recordings were done on acoustic guitar, when listening to the album on
a Discman sometimes you can hear the acoustic guitar buried deep in the mix. The
track "Torn To Shreds" would have made a great single; picture a major chick
flick motion picture, Julia Roberts looses the love of her life, and that last
minute he turns and realizes he can't leave her, cue the music!

Rick Allen's drumming is absolutely stunning, he really could teach a few
lessons to two arm drummers about timing and proper balance. The background
vocals are classic Leppard, and Joe Elliott hasn't seemed to have lost anything
over the years. There is something very unique about the desperate North
American vocalisms of Joe Elliott that is hard to explain. The guy understands
phonetics in such a manner that seems to come from the T-Rex or John Lennon era.
You either love the guy, or hate him. Commercial radio ignores the group now,
the record label doesn't care. The label has made millions off the cash cow.
It's up to the band to promote itself when a new album is released. While on
tour self promotion is the only promotion that arrives for the 5 guys it seems,
and yet even with this mess they still draw 3000-6000 a night and occasionally
pull off 12,000 to 15,000 a night. Impressive really.

Some really cool b-sides and covers of David Bowie, and the Faces were recorded
too, which is nice for the collector.
Look for the Japanese version of this album that has bonus tracks included,
bringing the total number of tracks up to 15.

Again this album wasn't released on vinyl, why on earth would a lead vocalist
like Joe Elliott reportedly an avid music collector not insist that this album
go out on vinyl?

2004 the double disc "Best Of" is released, a magnificent cover of the Kinks
classic Waterloo Sunset is included. The album goes platinum in Europe but North
American release was delayed till this year 2005. The album made my number 1
spot on the Top 5 albums of the year award on HalifaxLive, which goes to show
that I do indeed listen to something else besides Mel Tormé

With 2005 here, Def Leppard enters its 25th Anniversary since it signed a major
record deal back in 1980, which brings us back to why I started this column to
begin with. While flipping through my music magazine collection like I do every
month, I discovered that Def Leppard was passed over for entrance into the Rock
Hall of Fame! I attempted to contact the record label, to set up an exclusive
interview with HalifaxLive. The label ignored my requests, what kind of record
label ignores media request anyways? Back in 1996 I had some time to actually
hang out with Joe Elliott, for a few minutes in Halifax, we chatted, and I
brought up the potential 25th Anniversary and the Hall of Fame. He told me then,
"Forget it, we won't get in, you have to be part of the establishment to get
in".

What a joke, all I can say is fuck the critics who decide who gets in and who
doesn't, what utter shite the system has become. You see you have to be the
darlings of the music industry to get any respect, which means you can't be a
band that has sold millions of records and sold thousands of concerts otherwise
Led Zeppelin would have won a Grammy at some point in their career. You see
there are only 3 rock bands in the history of music to have 2 or more albums
sell 10 million units plus in the United States market, Led Zeppelin (With 5
albums all breaking 10 million), Van Halen (With 2 albums), and Def Leppard
(with 2 albums, and soon Adrenalize may in fact break the barrier as well making
it 3) which explains why those who are popular will never get the respect they
deserve. The one thing I would love to do is, write a second book to the first
book published about the band back in 1987. Cover everything that has happened
since that time. If anyone out there is reading this, can you set me with an
interview to discuss Def Leppard being shut out of the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of
Fame Please? Maybe we can get the ball rolling for 2006?

For more information on Def Leppard: www.defleppard.com

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