http://www.pe.com/entertainment/stories/PE_Fea_Daily_D_leppard25.e050fd.html

Def Leppard finding new ways to sell latest album

06:55 PM PDT on Thursday, April 24, 2008

By JOE ARDENT
The Press-Enterprise

Def Leppard may be writing a new formula for rock bands trying to reach an 
elusive fan base.

Unlike in decades past, when all a successful band had to do was release an 
album and watch it grow, it takes more than a catchy single to sell CDs these 
days. You need an aggressive marketing strategy, said Vivian Campbell, the 
band's guitar player for the past 16 years.

"The audience is fractured. It's very difficult to market your record," he said 
Wednesday in a phone interview. "Bands are always trying to find new ways to 
reach their audience and to grow their audience. It's one thing to reach your 
core audience, but you always want to be moving forward and trying to reach new 
people."

For that reason, Def Leppard has launched a full-throttle marketing machine to 
promote its first studio album in six years. "Songs From the Sparkle Lounge" 
will be released Tuesday.

But before the record hits store shelves, Def Leppard has already toured 
America, released the first single, "Nine Lives," on the popular video-game 
series "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock," filmed a music video and a TV intro 
for the NBA playoffs, and will perform the new single live on ABC's "Dancing 
With the Stars" on Tuesday.

The band has a concert Sunday at Soboba Casino.

 "With the decline of physical CD sales, you've got to come up with new 
incentives for people," Campbell said. "Whatever we can think of to excite 
people and connect with our audience."

The band even tossed away the rock-hard blueprint by bringing in country-music 
star Tim McGraw for a rare collaboration on "Nine Lives." McGraw co-wrote the 
song and appears in the group's music video.

"It wasn't really like sitting in a room kicking tunes with Tim, although that 
would have been a much more interesting collaboration," Campbell said about the 
recording process. "That's not generally the way Def Leppard works. We kind of 
arranged the track first. His vocals were actually done much later."

Def Leppard and McGraw are connected through Robert Allen, the brother of Def 
Leppard drummer Rick Allen and McGraw's tour manager. McGraw and his wife, 
Faith Hill, reportedly are also big Def Leppard fans.

Campbell said the band -- featuring himself along with original members Joe 
Elliott (vocals), Phil Collen (guitar), Rick Savage (bass) and Allen -- learned 
some things from the country star during filming of their music video six weeks 
ago.

"It was great doing the video with him, principally because he got us to really 
interact on camera, which is something we are not good at," he said. "Usually 
we're really cold when it comes to making videos. Tim's energy is really high 
and that really helped us."

Campbell said McGraw is not joining the band on tour, but sends his cowboy hat 
along for good luck. "Unfortunately, he can't make it. But we did tell him, if 
he can't make it, he can send his wife. We'd be happy with that, you know?"

The last time McGraw took the stage with Def Leppard, it didn't go over so 
well, Campbell recalled.

"When he got up on stage with us in 2006, he was wearing jeans and sneakers, a 
T-shirt and a baseball cap," he said. "I really think that maybe 13 people in 
the audience knew who he was. The rest of them were probably waiting for 
security to come and throw him out."

For Sunday's show at Soboba, concert-goers can expect a heavy dose of old 
favorites from the albums "Pyromania," "Hysteria" and "Adrenalize." "Right now, 
we are playing 'Nine Lives.' That's the one new song we have in there," 
Campbell said. "We're rehearsing the new songs. We're trying to stay ahead of 
the curve and be prepared to play the newer songs. But, you know, the last time 
we put out an album with original material was in 2002, an album called 'X.' We 
started that tour playing six songs from the new album, and actually, it 
backfired. Our audience didn't want to hear anything that they were not 
familiar with."

The one thing Def Leppard has learned, Campbell said, is you've got to give the 
fans what they want.

"It's not like it was in the '70s and the '80s," he said. "It used to be you'd 
go on tour to support a record. Now you basically do a record to legitimize a 
tour. ... That's the hard-core fact; it's the way it is now. ... They can't 
wait to hear 'Foolin', 'Pour Some Sugar on Me' and 'Photograph.'"

DEF LEPPARD
When: 7 p.m. Sunday
Where: The Arena, Soboba Casino, 23333 Soboba Road, San Jacinto
Tickets: $55-$85; www.ticketmaster.com
Information: www.soboba.net; 866-476-2622