Def Leppard Atomic Mess News

Added Make Love Like A Hare, a parody of Make Love Like A Man to the Miscellaneous Section.

There are no bad Def Leppard albums - despite what the press often say - just varying degrees of how damn good they are. On a bad day, the very least you'll get is a fistful of good songs with great production . . . it's just that you can't always remember the titles. On a good day, you'll get great songs with great production and you won't ever bother skipping a track to get to the good stuff.

Today? Today is an hysterical day - in a Hysteria kind of fashion. Fantastic songs and production, and not only will you not be skipping any tracks, you won't be able to get it off the player or out of your head. It's true. It's damn true. Def Leppard have come up with their best body of work since Hysteria - the unstoppable album that will forever define their career.

The only stumbling block for the media appears to be that X isn't Hysteria, but that was then and this is now. Should we expect another Hysteria? Not sure, but it seems as though we all do. You can't fault X for its mindset though; the band have put any trauma firmly behind them now and this is quite tellingly their first album proper after the recovery.

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The launch of a new Def Leppard album is always an event, but when it re-unites the band with "sixth Leppard" producer and co-writer Mutt Lange, resposible for some of their greatest recorded moments, the prospect suddenly become even more exciting.

Having spent much of the day at the TV studios running through their performance for TFI Friday with transmission scheduled for the same evening, Bassist caught up with Rick for a well deserved break to find out how things were going with Def Leppard these days.

"We're playing better now than we've ever played in our lives," Rick delights in stating, "I don't know whether it comes with experience but we've honed the craft down to a fine art now. The biggest thing for us was always playing and singing at the same time 'cos when you're in the studio you do it seperately, but all the practicing and rehearsals we've done have paid off and it's becoming second nature now. It should be after all these years."

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In the early days of the West, back when Def Leppard had pretty cool album covers, the peaceful town of Sniddler's Gulch was threatened by one of the meanest desparados of all time: Cowboy X, a man who left his mark everywhere. Well OK, the 'On Through The Night' cover was pretty cheesy, but so was everything in 1980 so we'll give the Leps a break. But can anyone deny that both Pyromania and Hysteria had unforgettable cover art; Adrenalize, Retroactive, and even Slang were well above average designs. However, Def Leppard album covers seemed to take a turn for the worse with 1999's 'Euphoria.'

It looked like the designer had a little too much fun in Photoshop with the Lens Flare filter. And now this… Well, what can I say? It's a big white letter X. OK, this is the Lep's 10th album. Roman numberal 10, letter X, yeah I get it. I suppose it would stand out in a CD display at Wal-Mart, so I'll give it a point. But it gets zippo in the creative department. It looks like Cowboy X has just been through town!

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Well, it's a bit of a departure for yours truly, as I review a DVD not having anything to do with wrestling, but having everything to do with one of my all-time favorite rock groups…Def Leppard. You've probably seen the Classic Albums series on VH1 (or MuchMoreMusic in Canada), and they've issued a lot of them on DVD over the past year, with this one being the latest. However, being that it's Def Lep and they release the most absolutely STACKED DVDs I've ever seen for what is usually a fluff release genre, you'd expect a little bit more out of this one…and you get it.

Background on the actual album for those who aren't children of the 80s: Def Leppard had an insanely huge hit album in North America with "Pyromania" on the strength of hits like "Photograph" and "Rock of Ages", which are still played on radio today. The album was the vision of Robert John "Mutt" Lange, who had previously done AC/DC's "Back in Black" among other huge albums, and who brought a very pop sense to the rock scene with BIG vocals and BIG choruses. To date, Pyromania has sold close to 7 million units as a result of that vision.

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Joe Elliott is a cool dude. I'm not going to sit here and try to tell you he's "just a regular guy" because he's not - he is, after all, a mega-rock star many times over. But talking to him about music is easy, and fun - as I found out recently when I had the good fortune of being able to ask him as many questions as I could cram into a thirty-minute interview. I spoke to him about everything from his band's latest album "X" to whether or not he secretly listens to Slayer, and he pretty much tackled everything I threw at him. Now don't tell Joe this, but, going into our chat I was really keyed up, and I damn near puked. I mean… this wasn't some ho-hum so-and-so that allegedly used to be in the Allman Brothers, this was Joe freaking Elliott, lead singer for Def Leppard!

"It took about a year for "X" to be written and recorded - was it a blast, or was it a long year?"

"Did any of the stuff that you recorded in your home studio make it to the album?"

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A new version of the Def Leppard Theme for WindowsXP has been released. The new WindowsXP version includes high quality icons, cursors, and sounds from the band's new album, X. Current and old versions of the Def Leppard Theme are available for download from the Downloadable Files Section.

During a long hiatus between albums back in the mid-80s, Def Leppard feared metal/pop crossover groups such as Bon Jovi had hijacked its core audience. In 2000, Bon Jovi returned to the airwaves with full force thanks to the single "It's My Life," a crossover Phil Collen and his bandmates are hoping to duplicate with their new Island album, "X."

"The rules have completely changed," he tells Billboard.com. "The reason Bon Jovi is having success now is they have a great image and it is appealing to a lot of younger people. It's crossing over to pop music basically. 'Hysteria' was that, crossing over to pop."

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This year WBMX-FM ("Mix" 98.5) decided to go indoors for its MixFest, holding it at the FleetCenter and offering a generous platter of pop craftsmanship. With David Gray, John Mayer, Guster, Rubyhorse, and two of today's pop princesses - Pink and Avril Lavigne - to go along with old-school metalists Def Leppard, the show was a decided walk on the mild side. Good songs, solid choruses, well-strummed acoustic guitars, polite thank-yous: This was a show moms could love, and many of them in the audience did, shaking and shimmying alongside their children.

It was the Def Leps who shook up the house up after what was a sometimes too- pleasant evening. With rip-snorting guitars and drum wallops to back Joe Elliot's effortless vocal gymnastics, the quintet helped the audience get the Lep out during its closing set. The band mixed old sing-along classics with new tunes from its fine new CD, "X," which recalls the best of the hummable rock that once created Def Lep hysteria.

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MIXFest, with Pink, Def Leppard, John Mayer, Avril Lavigne, at the FleetCenter, last night.

What on Earth could 17-year-old skater pop princess Avril Lavigne possibly have in common with middle-aged soft-metalers Def Leppard?

Besides both appearing at WBMX-FM's MIXFest 2002 at the FleetCenter last night, that is? Diverse as they are, both acts know how to spin out a pop- toned hit. Indeed, the link between all seven artists on the bill was a canny knack with hummable, memorable tunes.

Ending a long evening, Def Leppard, its glory days long since past, dragged out too many middling songs, including "Now" from its ballad-heavy new CD "X," which is out Tuesday. Even catchy, chart-busting '80s hits like "Animal" seemed dulled by time.

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While the workday crowd begins to filter out of downtown Reading, the boys are just getting down to business on the stage of the Sovereign Performing Arts Center.

A couple of helpers emerge from backstage at the former Rajah Theater with a half-dozen cups of fresh Starbucks coffee imported from the Barnes & Noble store in Spring Township.

The five members of the rock band Def Leppard conclude a meeting backstage, where they had to discuss the band's upcoming European tour.

It's approaching 4 p.m., roughly two hours after the scheduled rehearsal was to begin for tonight's sold-out show a few blocks away at the Sovereign Center, and the band has still not assembled on stage.

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The band has managed to survive and thrive through 10 albums thanks to its ability and willingness to change with the times.

There's irony in the fact that rockers Def Leppard (originally Deaf Leopard but changed in the late '70s) have hovered near the top of the charts for nearly 25 years by their ability to change their spots … but it's true.

"We try to do something different every time," said lead singer Joe Elliott, from his home in Dublin, Ireland, just a week before the band will arrive in Reading for a performance at the Sovereign Center on Friday.

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This is Part 2 of our interview with Rick, where he talks to us about recording Def Leppard's new CD, X, tapping into "basic knowledge" with the Raven Drum Foundation, VH1's version of the Def Leppard story, and much more!

MD: What kit did you use on the new album, X?

Rick: I used this beautiful old vintage Ludwig kit that sounded wonderful. Producer Marti Frederiksen also brought some snare drums with him that were quite interesting, including a Pearl free-floating snare drum. The main snare we used was a Ludwig Black Beauty of mine from '83 or '84. My tech, Jerry Johnson, brought this 14×22 bass drum, and there was a 14″ hanging tom, with 16″ and 18″ floor toms. This kit just sang. I felt like I was John Bonham.

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"I'm in the hills of Malibu. My closest neighbor is a coyote (laughs). It's pretty remote but it's nice. I like being up here. I'm far enough from so-called civilization to feel like I get some privacy, but not too far away where I can't go into town, just check out what's going on, for shows or concerts or whatever."

Ah yes, to be a rock star. That is the fate of Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen, who is getting set to tour the band's shockingly poppy new album X, a record that has tongues wagging as to the lack of teeth this time 'round.

The burning question went something like this (although the answer didn't burn quite as much as I would have liked): Looking at this new album, are there closet metalheads in the camp that wanted it to be heavier, or did you all agree to this direction immediately?

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Added tour dates for the US East Coast (July/September) and Japanese (November) promotional tours. The full current tour schedule can be found at 2002 X Confirmed Tour Dates.