http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/entertainment/

August 22, 2003

Def Leppard able to survive '80s pop-metal craze

By ERIC FINE
For the Press, (609) 272-7247

This just in: Def Leppard doesn't consider itself to
be a hard-rock band. The British veterans cite the
melodic pop and textured arrangements favored by the
Beach Boys' Brian Wilson rather than the high-decibel
thunder of head bangers such as Metallica.

Lead singer Joe Elliott spends a good portion of a
recent phone interview from a tour stop in  
Def Leppard lead singer Joe Elliott, center, doesn't
think of his group as a metal band, but instead names
several pop icons as influences. Quebec discussing all 
things not heavy metal.

He recalls watching Mott The Hoople, David Bowie
(during his Ziggy Stardust period), Roxy Music and
Sweet on television. Again, this is not the sort of
nostalgia you expect from a hard-rock singer.

"What I call the British band scene," Elliott says,
"has nothing to do with Motley Crue and Poison. It was
'70s ... golden-age-of-rock-'n'-roll stuff. It was
three-chord power pop. That's pretty much what we are.
I've got nothing against heavy metal, but I deny that
we are a heavy-metal band. I loved Motorhead, I loved
Montrose, but I don't see where we sound anything like
them."

Indeed, Def Leppard was among the early pioneers of a
style that found a happy medium between pop songs and
hard rock. "Pyromania," the band's 1983 album,
established the band as a genre unto itself - what
rock journalists began referring to as "pop metal."

The singles "Photograph" and "Rock of Ages" featured
very "un-metal-like" vocal harmonies that were
uncharacteristic of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, The
Who, KISS, Mountain, Ted Nugent and Grand Funk
Railroad, all of which created a hard-rock benchmark
during the 1970s.

Interestingly, when Def Leppard performs Saturday,
Aug. 23 at Atlantic City's Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa,
the band will be, in effect, celebrating the 20th
anniversary of "Pyromania's" release.

But Elliott fails to mention this milestone. Instead,
he focuses on the present and the future - even after
roughly 25 years, a dozen or so albums and more
sold-out concerts than anyone can remember.

"It's amazing that it really doesn't seem that long to
us," Elliott says, "because we've always been
perpetually working. We've never not worked. So
consequently, it's like a very upbeat Ground Hog day.
You just keep doing it. It's something that we'd do if
it were our hobby.

"When I was 12 I saw T. Rex on 'Top of the Pops' (a
British television show), and I saw Marc Bolan and it
was like this musical aneurysm just blew up in my
brain," he says.

"That was when I decided - the soccer ball's great but
it's not that good and I put the tennis racket away. I
just wanted to be involved (in music) somehow, and I
was just very fortunate that I got the chance. And I'm
working with four like-minded people. And we've all
maintained the same level of enthusiasm to do it.

"It's not that as if we're driven by any foul means,
like money or anything, because we don't need to work.
It's just the thought of always knowing that we may
not have written our best song yet. And until we stop
trying, we'll never know. The thing is, you have to
keep touring the album, and then when that's finished
we go in (to the studio) and make some more music. It
still excites us to do that. It's a very joyous
thing."

The band formed in the mid-'70s in Sheffield, a
blue-collar city east of Manchester with a population
of approximately half a million.

The band began calling itself Def Leppard shortly
after Elliott became the frontman. After signing with
AC/DC's manager and being picked up by Mercury
Records, the band recorded its debut "On Through The
Night" (1980) and toured with Ozzy Osbourne and Judas
Priest.

"High N' Dry" (1981) pushed the band over the top,
selling more than a million copies and scoring the
band its first hit, "Bringin' On The Heartbreak." The
aforementioned "Pyromania" sold 10 million copies and
made the band a staple on then-fledgling MTV. And
"Hysteria" (1987) produced six Top 20 hits.

Still, the band had to deal with adversity.

Drummer Rick Allen lost his arm in a New Year's Eve
car wreck in 1984, and guitarist Steve Clark died in
1991 after years of abusing alcohol and drugs.

Though not nearly as successful in the 1990s, Def
Leppard continues to perform nearly 200 shows a year.
"X" (2002), the band's most recent album, received
favorable reviews in Rolling Stone, People and USA
Today.

In spite of having celebrated his 44th birthday
earlier this month, Elliott doesn't want to be
perceived as "old school," although he takes pride in
the band's longevity.

"We've always done it our own way," he says. "We got
successful that way and we will die that way. We made
music that was a lot more traditional than what (their
peers) were doing (in the 1980s), but we doing it with
a new slant. We wanted to use the technology that a
lot of the (Brit synth-pop bands) were using."

The same philosophy holds true today: "We can do a
song with or without harmonies, with or without
(synthesizers). We can use real drums or we can use
machines. We can layer the vocals or do it simply over
an acoustic guitar. We have a lot more avenues to
explore."

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WHO: Def Leppard

WHERE: Event Center, Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 23

HOW MUCH: Tickets are $75, $90 and $100. Call (800)
736-1420 or online at www.ticketmaster.com