Def Leppard Atomic Mess News

I've added the videos for From The Inside, Two Steps Behind, When Love & Hate Collide, and Winter Song that Rick Savage and Joe Elliott performed at the "Sincerely Sheffield" show on March 12, 2004. The files are available from the Video section.

The videos are in the MPEG-4 format. If you're on Windows, you'll need Quicktime version 6.5 or better. Macs and Linux systems should just work, as usual.

Thanks to Trish for sending me these videos.

I've finally finished the lyrics pages for Yeah!. The site now also includes lyrics for all the extra bonus songs available from different stores. The lyrics are available in hypertext format and in plain text format as well.

Ask Vivian Campbell if he is under the influence and the answer is a resounding "Yeah!"

More accurately, the Def Leppard guitarist and his Sheffield, England, bandmates are promoting an album called "Yeah!" featuring cover songs originally recorded by the group's pre-1980 glam-rock heroes.

"I must admit that I wasn't pushing for ELO," Campbell jokes while gently placing that blame on bassist Rick Savage. "The songs on this album basically reflect the artists that made each of us want to play music for a living. For me it was Marc Bolan and T. Rex. In 1971, I was 9 years old and I remember seeing Marc Bolan on TV. I was smitten by the image and knew I wanted to play guitar."

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Def Leppard is enjoying a rebirth of sorts in 2006. The album Yeah! debuted at #16 on the charts and the single "Rock On" is the bands first big hit in years. They are in middle of a tour featuring Journey as the opening act. The concert has been drawing huge numbers and many of the venues have sold out.

We caught up with Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen to find out how life in Lep is going and what to expect from the future. Collen could not hide his elation at seeing the band’s hard work paying off again in terms of album sales and attendance at concerts.

During our chat we discussed the aggressive marketing campaign with retail giants Wal-mart and others who wanted exclusive versions of Yeah! and if Phil considered that selling out. Collen also related that Leppard is heading for the studio in January and that the next album will be harder rocking than some of the band’s more recent releases. In the end, it appears Def Leppard is truly back in our face and will continue to rock on for years to come.

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No spring chicken, they, but the Lep can still get reasonably Def

At a time when critics are fawning over cutting-edge acts like Arctic Monkeys and Tapes 'N Tapes, one refugee from the golden age of '80s pop metal (whose name is not Bon Jovi) has been selling out venues around the country. And while Def Leppard always managed to pull in big numbers on the touring circuit throughout its career, record sales were not as kind during the lean '90s, when music trends veered toward grunge, bubblegum pop, and agro-rock, and acts like the Leps, Warrant, and Poison fell out of favor. But unlike the latter groups, the UK quintet continued releasing albums - like 1996's experimental Slang and 1999's return-to-form Euphoria - albeit it to an indifferent fan base more inclined to hear Def Leppard dip into fare from its '80s heyday.

With the release of Yeah!, an all-covers album of material by artists (mostly from the UK) who influenced the band, Def Leppard is enjoying a critical and commercial renaissance. The mix of songs by artists like T. Rex, Mott the Hoople, Badfinger, and Roxy Music are a reflection of the band's hard-rock-and-glitter roots that brings back lots of good memories for guitarist Phil Collen.

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Def Leppard sang "Let's Get Rocked" and the sold-out crowd at the DTE Energy Music Theatre did on Monday night, to the double-pronged attack of hit-filled sets from the British rock veterans and its similarly long-in-the-tooth tour partner Journey.

It was in some ways a case study of how the right summer pairing can be more than the sum of its parts. Both groups are well past their commercial primes of the '70s and '80s - when this kind of double-bill would have been a stadium-sized affair - but together they represent solid value and a strong hit-to-dollar ratio, even with top pavilion prices at $88.

And let's not forget the nostalgia factor for all those younger end baby boomers who were ushered into the arena rock world by Journey's "Wheel in the Sky" or Def Leppard's "Bringin' on the Heartbreak."

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When Def Leppard recorded "Rock of Ages" back in the early '80s, they did it as a young band celebrating the hard rock music they loved, though in years previous it had lost momentum to dance music and other, more superficial sounds.

They couldn't have known then that the song, which claims that rock is "still rollin'," was ultimately an oath, a promise they'd continue to fulfill more than two decades later.

In that time musical trends have come and gone, but no one has surpassed the British quintet's ability to deliver energetic, high-harmonied pop metal with bombast, swagger and pure, adrenalized escapism.

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You could feel the energy in the air just maneuvering down Harlem Avenue and walking through the gates of the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre on Wednesday night.

The 28,000-capacity venue in Tinley Park was abuzz with fans, from the food court to the back of the lawn, juggling guitar-shaped beer cups, scouting the $40 T-shirts and other concert gear, and generally acting like the day they saw their first big concert at age 16.

After all, many fans first experienced Def Leppard and Journey live in the '80s. And now they're high on nostalgia, with kids in tow.

Despite a downpour and humidity from hell, the vibe continued on through to Def Leppard's 11 p.m. encore of "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and "Love Bites" and afterward, when westbound Interstate 80 was reduced to one lane for nighttime construction. Even the bumper-to-bumper pace didn't dampen fans' spirits, and their singing, screaming and hanging out of car windows provided occasional comic relief along the way.

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It was a double dose of 80's rock in Hershey on July 3, with Def Leppard and Journey hitting the stage at Hersheypark Stadium. With more than 100 million records sold between the two, the bands have provided the soundtrack for a generation of music lovers' lives, or generations as evidenced by the diverse crowd in attendance.
This review was quite a bit different when first written. But shortly after the show, Journey's lead singer, Steve Augeri, left the tour because of throat problems. And that explains everything, because in Hershey, something just wasn't firing properly. Journey, which is a much better band than what I heard, just wasn't that good.

In fairness, a big issue I had is with the mix of their sound. Extremely distorted at times, Augeri's vocals were barely distinguishable throughout the show. A few times I couldn't even figure out what they were playing. They may have been playing very well, you just couldn't tell from where I was standing.

But it was Augeri who was noticeably struggling. The former Tall Stories and Tyketto singer is usually just about dead on; but was a little more gravelly and crackly this time. Last time the band played in Hershey a few years ago, he commanded the stage, this time he seemed out of place. Drummer Dean Castronovo even sang three or four songs, and keyboardist Jonathan Cain sang one.

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This may come as a complete shock: 18,000 people turned out for the Def Leppard/Journey double-bill concert at the Verizon Wireless Virginia Beach Amphitheater. Most of those in attendance certainly counted themselves as lucky.

Def Leppard was the headlining act primarily because it has a new charting album, Yeah, a collection of ’70s British glam rock gems. They performed David Essex’s "Rock On," Badfinger’s "No Matter What" and T-Rex’s "20th Century Boy" from that CD.

All five members were physically fit and displayed outstanding musicianship. The band was as good if not better than in its heyday of the 1980s. There were stairways leading to a platform that extended behind the drum kit, as well as a standard large video screen used as a backdrop and a hot light show.

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Twelve years and 90 pounds ago. That is how long it has been since I last saw Def Leppard. I am not the only person in Nashville, Tennessee who can mark the passage of time in belt loops. Nostalgia is a bitch.

Rock critics and hipsters can make all the snide remarks they wish about a Journey/Def Leppard show, but in this era of three dollars per gallon gas and the perpetual tale of woe told by the concert industry, Journey and Def Leppard sold out the 17,000 seat Starwood Amphitheatre. Validation? Maybe not, but it does say something.

The two veteran rock acts played sets of nearly equal length on a warm, humid, breezy night at Starwood (which is, by the way, the best outdoor venue I have ever seen a show at). Journey played first with Def Leppard following.

Def Leppard is a major segment of the soundtrack of my middle school and high school life and my notes reflect it. I took two full pages of notes during Journey's set. I did not need that for Def Leppard — I know these songs. I needed no notes to remember them. That and well…I got in that time machine Guster speaks of (you just knew Guster would have to figure in to this review at some point) and remembered the good parts of being young again.

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In the opinion of Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell, the longevity of the British pop-metal outfit - which is generating excitement among the fan faithful with a new album of classic cover tunes called "Yeah!" - boils down to one essential thing.

"We're a really (explicit) good band," he says.

"I know people think that's conceited of me, but there's a very strong work ethic in this band," Campbell continues, by phone from a tour stop in Atlanta. "We have the strongest vocals of any band in the world, bar none. I throw down the gauntlet to anyone. The greatest compliment that people pay us is when they ask if we use vocal samples onstage. But we don't. It's us."

That can't be comforting news to Def Leppard's tourmates, Journey, who recently replaced ailing singer Steve Augeri with Jeff Scott Soto. Internet rumors suggested that Augeri was using backing tapes to support his vocals -something Campbell wisely won't comment on.

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Just about every major rock act eventually goes the covers album route-so the only surprising thing about Yeah!, Def Leppard's just-released tribute to the 1970s pop and glam-rock artists they grew up on, should be that it took them 26 years to get around to it. But it turns out that Yeah! is full of surprises, featuring creative song selections from formative influences like David Bowie, Thin Lizzy, Mott the Hoople and T. Rex, including a few tunes that will be new to most American ears.

Have you spent much time in Nashville?

On and off I have. I’ve had three different friends move there in the last year or so, so I'm really looking forward to that gig.

How did you guys pick which songs you'd cover on the new album?

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Added the cover version of Two Steps Behind by Brian D'Souza & Jeremy Fonseca to the Audio section.

A two-hour drive to watch a pair of bands that refuse to burn out — or fade
away — proved well worth it Monday in West Palm Beach, where Journey and Def
Leppard rocked a crowd of about 8,000 fans at the Sound Advice Amphitheatre.

Fans in Southwest Florida can embark on another two-hour drive today and catch the pair of bands at 7:30 p.m. at the Ford Amphitheatre in Tampa. Tickets range from $25 to $75 and can be purchased at the gate or at ticketmaster.com.

Each band played a 90-minute set list Monday, and each band stuck to trademark hits.

Journey fans take note: The five-piece band had to resort to its third-string singer.

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