Def Leppard Atomic Mess News

Can you guess which of these were actual New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands, and which are fake?

Bashful Alley, Handsome Beasts, Heavy Pettin', Witchfinder General, Pet Hate, Thin End of the Wedge, Agony Bag, Dumpy's Rusty Nuts, Truffle, Ethyl the Frog, Cloven Hoof, Ezy Meat, and Smokin' Roadie.

(Answer: They're all real.)

The New Wave of British Heavy Metal — NWOBHM, as it's affectionately known by those fine people of Long Acronyms for the Musically Esoteric (LAME) — was a movement afoot in the mid-to-late '70s after Deep Purple began to lose its luster, and drunken, lower-class laddies from industrial towns like Sheffield and Birmingham began rooting around for something heavier.

Full text of article…

The music of the 1970s may be in vogue again, but it takes a brave man to admit he still enjoys listening to '80s rock.

While the 1980s' plethora of one-hit wonders enjoy a certain measure of nostalgic adoration, bands that actually flourished during the "Me Decade" find themselves in a much tougher spot these days.

Branded as too plastic or simply untalented by most critics, such groups have become the butt of many a joke.

On Sunday night, however, more than 6,700 fans filed into the Mandalay Bay Events Center to proclaim their enduring love for Def Leppard, the hard rocking Brits who dominated the FM airwaves during the 1980s.

Full text of article…

THE ALMIGHTY have officially cancelled their December U.K. tour.

The following is the group's statement on the matter:

"With great sadness, we announce the UK tour in December has been cancelled. With slow ticket sales for the shows scheduled for THE ALMIGHTY in December and after careful consideration, [THE ALMIGHTY frontman] Ricky [Warwick] has made the decision to cancel the shows and to accept a tour of America with DEF LEPPARD where news of his solo album release is being well received.

Do you take sugar? One lump or two?

Def Leppard vocalist Joe Elliott will pose those familiar questions — lyrics from his band's 1987 mega-hit "Pour Some Sugar on Me" — tonight at 7:30 at Mandalay Bay Events Center.

On Tuesday we asked the 43-year-old Elliott some questions of our own during a telephone interview from his home in Dublin, Ireland. The cordial hard-rock veteran chatted about hair metal, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Leppard's legendary hard-partying reputation.

Full text of article…

In the mid-1980s, my mom managed a local rock band in Atlanta that opened for a few national acts who hogged the stage. INXS, say, would give Mom's band, like, six feet of space to open. But there was one band that gave its opening acts plenty of room to stretch out on, and then acted nicely backstage. That band was Def Leppard.

I was never a big Def Leppard fan. But it seems amazing to me that any band can stick around for 22 years, and Def Leppard did that, despite the drummer losing an arm, and another member dying of an overdose, and all that other VH1 "Behind the Music" drama.

Also, the British singer, Joe Elliott, was nice to me on the phone, while he promoted the band's Sunday show at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. I reached him in Japan. It was midnight there and, like, 7 a.m. here.

Full text of article…

There has been much discussion on the noticeboards concerning the release of 'X', Def Leppard's tenth studio album. While many long-time fans have been bemoaning the lack of power to be heard on the album, others have leapt to their defence proclaiming that it's the quality of the songs that is important, not how heavy they are.

Paul Flanaghan caught up with the guys just prior to the UK Top of the Pops appearance and began by asking Joe if it was their intention to make a more commercial album, working with the likes of Andreas Calrsson Per Aldeheim and Marti Fredrickson.

Joe: Yeah it was. We discussed it, say about a month before the last tour finished, about getting multi producers in. We were even thinking of using five or six different people and making it like a 'Now That's What I Call Music' album, where it's all different you know. That was never going to pan out because it was really too far fetched. We got it down to three different teams: ourselves, Pete Woodroffe, Andreas and Per, and er Marti as well….of course we wanted to work with Marti after we all kind of enthusiastically grasped the Aerosmith thing 'Just Push Play.' And what he did with 'Jaded' was great, he made Aerosmith sound like they were about 23 years old. We thought, somebody said to us 'You guys are starting to get,' - excuse the pun - 'a bit jaded'. We thought we would mix it up a bit ourselves, and throw a bit more ingredients into the pie, just to jazz it up a little bit, that's why we did it.

Full text of article…

Def Leppard have just released their tenth studio album, entitled "X", easily their best since the ground breaking "Hysteria" album. While the music on "X" is instantly recognisable as Def Leppard, it represents a fresh approach with new directions, resulting in an album with great crossover appeal. Roland Oei met up with vocalist Joe Elliott and guitarist Phil Collen on their recent promotional tour to find out more about the record that will undoubtedly put the band back at the top of the rock world.

How did you get interested in music?

PC: It was my cousin. My cousin was two years older than me. I was in London - I was born here. He just got these American bootlegs and this weird shit that no one had ever heard of in England. My cousin ended up messing himself up 'cos he got into acid very young. I bypassed that bit and I got into the music. He got me into it, actually. At 14 I saw my first gig, which was Deep Purple or something at Brixton. That was it. But it was my cousin Dave that actually really got me into it.

Full text of article…

What year is it again? While Def Leppard are quite literally working in the present tense with their single "Now," the song's video plays upon their status as '80s survivors by tracing the journey of a classic LepT-shirt. The Sheffield boys are smart enough to know that there has always been a need for metal riffs and catchy choruses. And judging from their new album X, the band can still serve up both. Singer Joe Elliott and guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell spoke with VH1 about guilt-free mullets, the junkyard known as eBay, and how recording X almost turned into Barry White.

VH1: The "Now" video has a great concept, with the Def Leppard T-shirt changing owners and traversing eras.

Phil Collen: Getting a treatment for a video is like people giving you demo tapes. Most of the time they aren't great, but occasionally there's one that's cool." We chuckled about this one and thought it could really work! Then we met the Malloys, who had done Blink-182's videos. We said, "We don't really do the comedy thing like you do with Blink-182, but we can see where you're going to go with the video. It's goofy and funny but also nostalgic." It worked perfectly.

Full text of article…

Def Leppard have rolled out the first ten dates of a U.S. tour, set to begin December 8th in Las Vegas. Currently the dates run through December 21st in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, but additional stops are forthcoming. The band is plugging its most recent album, X, which was released in July. "I think this is the most relevant record we've made since [1987's] Hysteria," frontman Joe Elliott says. "Because Adrenalize [1992] wasn't relevant. It did OK on momentum. On Slang [1996] we tried hard to not be who we were. And Euphoria [1999] we tried too hard to be who we were. It's 2002, everything we do we know we have to try twice as hard to get half the response. That's the way it is, and it's not gonna be any easier on the next record. You only occasionally have your Indian summers like Carlos Santana, or your perpetual ones like Aerosmith."

Elliott said the band fiddled with the formula for Adrenalize, "but we didn't realize there was a music revolution kicking down all the walls coming from Seattle." And Slang was "the commercial suicide album, which was artistically satisfying." But those detours aside, the band has found a comfort zone with its signature style. "We are a rock band and unashamedly so," he said. "Whenever we go off on a tangent, it has to be a very gentle one. Because you're taking people with you who want more of the same, but it has to be different."

Full text of article…

After stunning the crowds at 'Feel The Noise' at the Arena in July, Sheffield rockers Def Leppard are to play the Hallam FM Arena on Thursday 20th February 2003. Tickets priced £26.00 go on sale at 9am on Thursday 7th November 2002.

Def Leppard are ambassadors of the 'Made in Sheffield' tag, being one of the definitive rock bands of the 80's and one of only a handful of acts to make the successful transition into the 90's. Lead singer Joe Elliott, Rick Savage (Bass) and Rick Allen (Drums) all come from Sheffield, with the rest of the band being made up of Viv Campbell (Electric and Acoustic Guitars) and Phillip Collen (Electric and Acoustic Guitars).

Full text of article…

The popular UK rock band today announced they will be heading out on tour early next year and have booked a gig in at Ipswich Regent on February 26.

The foundations of the band, originally named Deaf Leopard, were laid in the late 1970s. With original members Steve Clark and Pete Willis on guitars, they performed their first gig on July 18, 1978 at Westfield School in Sheffield, getting paid £5 from the pocket of a teacher.

A year later John Peel played their first EP on Radio 1 and things gradually began to pick up.

Full text of article…

On November 18, Four letter Word will be released to rock radio in North America. Long, Long Way To Go is still scheduled to the be main second single for X and will include full promotion, with a video, etc to Top40 radio.

As if four NASCAR-sanctioned races, two evening concerts at the Oasis, an expanded midway and several driver appearances at various fan hospitality areas weren't enough, Phoenix International Raceway (PIR) announced today that internationally-acclaimed rock band Def Leppard will entertain race fans prior to the start of the Checker Auto Parts 500 presented by Pennzoil on Sunday, November 10.

Widely regarded as one of the main architects of the anthemic pop/metal and larger than life rock n' roll, Def Leppard recently released their tenth album, "X", on July 30th on Island Records.

Full text of article…

Added tour dates for the US West Coast (December) tour. The full current tour schedule can be found at the 2002 X Confirmed Tour Dates page.

Yes, that's right — your eyes are not deceiving you. On Mariah Carey's new album, Charmbracelet, the sexy chanteuse warbles a cover version of Def Leppard 's 1993 hit "Bringin' on the Heartbreak."

I know it sounds weird, and that it probably won't work, but guess what? At last night's listening party for Carey's new disk, this was one of the many applauded tracks on an album full of potential hits.

Full text of article…