From: "Mike N. Reinemann" Date sent: Sun, 25 Jul 1999 03:43:34 -0400 Subject: A giant Lep backward -------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.cjonline.com/stories/072399/ele_deflep.shtml -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Members of the band Def Leppard, from left, Rick Savage, Joe Elliot and Phil Collen performed last month in the parking lot of a San Antonio, Texas, Wal-Mart to kick off a tour in support of band's newest album, "Euphoria." The band performs Saturday night at the Kansas Expocentre's Landon Arena. Edward A. Ornelas/The Associated Press -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A giant Lep backward Def Leppard returns to its '80s pop-metal spots with a new album aimed at people "bored to tears with alternative whining." By BILL BLANKENSHIP The Topeka Capital-Journal July 23, 1999 Excess sells. Def Leppard spent a decade taking the MTV Generation over the top with bombastic, hook-driven, pop-metal tunes before being buried in a landslide of grunge. "They were the biggest selling rock band of the '80s. They held the center ring of the rock 'n' roll circus through a frenzied decade marked by stadium- sized excess," says the grim-voiced narrator of VH1's "Behind the Music: Def Leppard." Sometimes the rockumentary series amounts to a musical obituary, but anyone looking at current record sales charts knows Def Leppard had at least one more life left. Tickets DEF LEPPARD will perform at the Kansas Expocentre's Landon Arena in a concert that begins at 8 p.m. Saturday with an opening act, Moon Dog Mane. Tickets to the show are $25 and on sale at the Expocentre box office and all Ticketmaster outlets. When Nirvana dimmed the power rock of the '80s, the British band tried retreating into the dark, industrial corners of angst-ridden rock. The result was 1996's "Slang," a blend of psychedelic music and melancholy lyrics which failed to earn the band a new audience. Long-time fans opted for the previous year's "Vault," a best-of collection that included hits from the '80s epics, "Pyromania" and "Hysteria." "Pyromania," which was released in 1983, spent 92 weeks on the U.S. charts, locked in the No. 2 spot for six months behind Michael Jackson's "Thriller." Sales of "Vault" are approaching 2 million units at the rate of 7,000 to 8,000 a week. "We should have gone on vacation the whole of the '90s," guitarist Phil Collen told Rolling Stone Online last month. However, with the approach of a new millennium, the band realized the tide of grunge was rolling back. "People are bored to tears with alternative whining," said front man Joe Elliot. "They want big-time rock 'n' roll stars again. They want excitement." They want "Euphoria," which Def Leppard released last month. Elliot told the Express News in San Antonio, Texas, where the band debuted the album in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart, that music got too serious in the '90s. "When it first started and Kurt Cobain did his thing, and Pearl Jam did their thing, I think it was absolutely necessary," Elliot said. "There was too much chaff, too much hair spray and too many bands sounded the same. "Since those days there's been a million Nirvana sound-alikes; there's now a million Korn sound-alikes. It's gotten very boring. These bands perform less energetically than we do in sound check." "Euphoria" is what a Los Angeles Times critic called "a giant step backward. But frankly, that's the best thing about it." A Scripps Howard News Service reviewer called the CD "heavy metal comfort food." "It's strictly formulaic, but what a fun formula it remains," he said. And unlike many bands still touring after two decades, Def Leppard's lineup is the same from its 1983 "Pyromania" heyday: Collen, Elliot, bassist Rick Savage and drummer Rick Allen, with the only change being Whitesnake guitarist Vivian Campbell, who replaced Steve Clark, who died in 1991. Elliot, in the "Behind the Music" documentary, said the band has no intention of retiring anytime soon. "At this stage in our career, we have to look at people like the Stones and Aerosmith and go, 'Look, these guys are in their 50s, and we're still in our 30s.'" Rock on. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1999 Topeka Capital-Journal. All rights reserved.