From: "Nikki Wiebe" Date sent: Sat, 2 Sep 2000 12:57:56 -0500 Subject: Def Leppard still having fun with rock 'n 'roll Today's News - September 2, 2000 2000 OREGON STATE FAIR SELL-OUT: Rock group Def Leppard includes members Rick Savage (from left), Rick Allen, Joe Elliot, Vivian Campbell and Phil Collen. CYNTHIA LEVINE / Gannett News Service file Band photo can be seen here http://news.statesmanjournal.com/single_article.cfm?i=12443 Def Leppard still having fun with rock 'n' roll The group keeps fans coming back with its pop-rock-metal sounds. BRIAN BLAIR, Statesman Journal Def Leppard has a thin line to walk. On one side, they are proud of a history in which they've sold 45 million albums and recorded two of the biggest albums of the '80s, 1983's 'Pyromania' and 1987's follow-up, the 12-times platinum 'Hysteria.' It's a legacy that has established the band in the annals of rock history. On the other side, the group can't rest on old achievements. In a time when many of the band's contemporaries are reforming and hitting the road to run through past hits, Def Leppard can't afford to look like a nostalgia act. Def Leppard's concert at 7 tonight at the L.B. Day Amphitheatre at the Oregon State Fair comes on the heels of its success from its 1999 release, "Euphoria." Behind the strength of the album's first single "Promises," the album opened at No. 11 on Billboard's album chart. Over the course of 11 songs, vocalist Joe Elliot, guitarist Phil Collen, bassist Rick Savage, guitarist Vivian Campbell and drummer Rick Allen return to the pop-rock hooks that dominated their albums in the '80s and re-create the "rock 'n' roll is meant to be fun" attitude that prevailed a little more than a decade ago. To assist in returning to the sound that shaped "Pyromania" and "Hysteria," the band brought in the producer of those albums, Robert John "Mutt" Lange. Lange, who has found attention in recent years as Shania Twain's producer/husband, opted to not produce the album but, instead, co-wrote three of the tracks, including the first single, "Promises." Undoubtedly, "Euphoria" is a return to form for one of the most popular bands of the past two decades, but the road to this point hasn't been an easy one. On the cover of the disc, a sticker proclaims - After ‘Pyromania’ and ‘Hysteria’ comes ‘Euphoria.’ - Although chronologically true, the brief history excludes among other things, 1992's "Adrenalize." When it was released, "Adrenalize" wasn't as successful as its predecessors, but it enjoyed a moderate success and proved that the group could continue to sell albums in the midst of the grunge movement. As if to prove the point, the group released a greatest hits package in 1995 titled "Vault." The compilation has sold 2 million copies and sits at No. 9 on Billboard's Top Pop Catalog Album chart. Things took a turn for the worse in 1996 when the band attempted to reinvent itself with melancholy lyrics and a guitar sound that was obviously lifted from the alternative bands that dominated the radio. Universally panned by the critics and confusing to the fans, "Slang" appeared to be the nail in Def Leppard’s coffin. At the time, the band stood proudly behind the project and Elliot even went as far as to tell a Japanese magazine, "I still think 'Slang' is the best." In retrospect, it wasn’t a bad album, but it certainly wasn’t the right album for the band to release, and the band thinks the album died because of bad timing. "It was our turn," said Elliot in a 1999 interview with Billboard magazine. "The tide of the world and the music industry had turned away from bands like Def Leppard. We could've made "Sgt. Pepper" at the time of ‘Slang,’ and it would’ve failed." If modern music was responsible for any part of Def Leppard's misstep, it wasn't intentional. Young bands such as Lit and Buckcherry have admitted to listening to the band growing up, and pop-punkers The Offspring sampled one of the group's songs - 'Rock of Ages' - on its 1998 smash hit "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)." Four years later, the band has regained its footing and is moving forward. In a 1999 interview with the British magazine Q, Elliot summed up the band's two-decade run. "We never set out to rewrite the history of music. We went out there to grab a few people and say,"Enjoy this." We've never been dangerous. We're reliable, like a Jeep or something, but at least we always start the first time on a cold morning. The longer we're together, the more I appreciate things. I'm 40 now, and people still want to hear us. I love being me." WHERE: L.B. Day Amphitheatre, Oregon State Fairgrounds, 2330 17th St. NE, Salem WHEN: 7 tonight COST: Tickets are sold out.