From: Sue9465@aol.com Date sent: Mon, 29 Jan 1996 00:45:03 -0500 Subject: nice letter ------------------------------------------------------------ prodigy = mail: Personal Message 11/12/1995 ------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Nov 1995 19:29:07 +0800 From: Terry Zoakipny Subject: Lep I'm now about to dump down as many words as I can about the past few weeks. We met up with some of the band the night before the show in Singapore. They had just arrived after a 20 hour journey from Vancouver where they had just finished their "3 Continents" tour a few hours earlier - they had only been allowed enough time to go a Vancouver music store and purchase some new acoustic/electric guitars before flying directly here for the gig. They were extremely tired but happy about what they'd just pulled off. The next day we took over the Hard Rock Cafe and installed all the tv lighting, cameras, and sound recording gear. The band showed up at 2PM and we soundchecked/rehearsed until 5, with the odd Singaporean sneaking peeks over the railings at the proceedings. Then we went up into the private lounge that had been converted to their Green Room and ate and talked. It was a good opportunity to get to know each other so we could plan the show - they could understand what we wanted and we could understand what they planned. I particularly like talking with Phil - he chooses to get personal very quickly and in five minutes we were discussing England and America, families and food, then divorce (I've just got mine and he's about to get his, and it's funny how we both didn't want to go through it for almost exactly the same reasons) followed by local music (Indian/Punjabi/Malay/Chinese youth music) the places we both like in Europe and Asia, dogs, and I can't remember what else. He makes the situation very comfortable and open to discussion, and I found Rick was equally easy to talk with. Sav was a bit uncommunicative because he was tired and slightly nervous. Viv and Joe were also a bit edgy but that's because they were concentrating upon getting ready to perform - one can't fault them for this because they were in a very foreign and strange land, about to deliver a very different kind of show (for DL that is) after a long break from performing live. They loosened up after a while. We shot the interview in that room about 8PM. Most bands usually insist upon knowing the type and severity of the questions we have planned before they agree to any interviews, but DL didn't - they just got on with it. We divided them into two groups (Sav/Rick/Phil in one and Viv/Joe in the other) for the questions, then put them all together for the "I.D.'s" - you know, the typical "Hi we're Def Leppard and you're watching...." type of stuff. Even out of that situation Rick and Joe managed to crack everyone up. I did tell them about "lepnet" before the interview and they seemed to have heard of it, mostly secondhand. They were flattered that the group is so active, but seemed to think that a lot of the information and supposed "facts" being passed around on it were inaccurate. Of course I suggested the simple solution would be to check it out themselves at which point Viv said that was one of his goals for the coming year - to learn and master computers, then explore the net. Don't hold your breath as they haven't finished writing the new album yet let alone recording it all, so I'll bet he's going to be busy. They originally planned to do 8 songs for the show, but after we finished eating and talking they decided to do 14 (probably because I whined enough). Out of those songs, we are to make two "V at the Hard Rock" performance shows - one featuring songs from Vault (including WL&HC) and another with new songs destined for "Slang" that will go out on-air this spring once the album is released. Without really knowing the significance of the event, the Singaporean audiences were the first people in the world to see a live on-stage performance of two of the songs from Slang. They didn't know how lucky they were. Both songs are very good, superior to WL&HC, and if they don't both smash through the charts I'll be surprised. The guys can still write and play, so any rumours that they've lost it and are past their prime are simply too stupid to allow consideration - I've seen them play with more vigour than ever before, and heard the new songs which are better than anything I've heard them do before. I'm not the world's premiere DL fan, I don't tend to rave about everything they've ever done, but I know good stuff when I hear it. The songs they played from Vault were very interesting because they were "semi-plugged" for our show, which meant the songs had to be arranged and performed very differently than normal. "Hysteria" sounds great as an acoustic ballad-ish type of song. They were playing acoustic guitars but the guitars had pick-ups in them, Sav brought his electric bass, and Rick played only acoustic (no electric gimmicks anywhere) drums - very small stage so no amps or anything. We recorded each instrument and vocal separately onto a 24 track multitrack RDAT and gave the master audio tapes to the band after the show - they sent them on to their Producer in London where he is mixing them down to a stereo master for our shows, with a possible second alternate mix for release as a live CD. We used seven cameras for the DL show, but even that didn't seem like enough because once we got underway we couldn't move them adequately - the place was designed to hold 350 to 400 people, but they allowed in around 900 so it was packed to the rafters. The front row of the crowd were sat with their feet on the stage - it was very intimate and the band loved it. Out of those seven cameras, only 5 actually got the right kind of shots, less alternate shots means we have to be much more clever when assembling the programme. Nonetheless the band delivered an excellent performance and the crowd went crazy - everybody had an amazing night out. After the show we were all kind of tired but too pumped up to relax so we had drinks and chatted in the Green Room until about 2AM. We're all about the same age and have lived in a lot of the same places and have enough in common that it was all rather enjoyable. They don't bother demanding "treat me like a rock star" attention. Phil and Rick then invited us back to their hotel to listen to some demo tracks of other songs they were considering for "Slang". There was one song in particular they sort of liked but also didn't like because it was a good idea that wasn't working yet. They've tried to capture a slight Asian feel to the song intro and solo, and wanted us to assess it because we live in Asia and are more familiar with the music and blah blah. At least they understood themselves well enough to know that sometimes one can get too close to something to "see the forest for the trees" and that outside opinions may offer a more objective and clearer point of view. To that end, the song starts out with some amazing North Indian Hindi-influenced strings and beats but quickly kicks into a driving R&R song that is surprisingly powerful. They are perfectly happy with the uptempo R&R part as is, and so am I - it's the Hindi stuff they are worried with. The next day we were all supposed to travel to Thailand for more stuff, but Typhoon Angela was busy ripping the hell out of the place - most of Bangkok was flooded, so there was little electricity, limited fresh water, and no transportation. So the band hung around for a while and I flew back to Hong Kong instead. I don't know what alternate arrangements they were forced to make or if they just decided to risk it and head into the eyes of the storm. Last week we got a call from Phil and Rick who were very anxious to hear the cassette full of (Indian) music (which wasn't ready yet) so we played some stuff down the phone line for them. They went nuts about it, so we gave them the name and numbers of some Indian musicians in England and Canada. This week Ranjan got a call from one of the (Hindi) drummers from Vancouver asking if he should actually believe that it really was Phil from Def Leppard who had called and asked him to come down to their studio in California to help out on the song. He said they've already sent him the plane ticket. I just think it's very cool when global borders mean nothing, when someone from England that lives in America is playing in Singapore and meets a Canadian from Hong Kong who introduces him to a Hindi Indian living in Vancouver. It's a small world but it can actually be very fulfilling when you let it. =====================================