Def Leppard Atomic Mess News

It's been 14 years since Vivian Campbell joined British glam-pop rockers Def Leppard, but for some, he's forever the new guy. He doesn't mind.

"I'll always be the new guy," the Irish guitarist says. "Ronnie Wood will always be the new guy in the Rolling Stones, and it's been, like, 31 years."

Still, Campbell, 45, who played with Whitesnake and Dio, is a full-fledged, certified member of Def Leppard, whose appearance tonight with Journey at Sound Advice Amphitheatre will no doubt draw a cache of Union Jack T-shirts, ripped jeans and invitations to have sugar poured on oneself.

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How many bands do you know can make a comeback with a cover album? I cannot think of many. Def Leppard is one such band with the experience, the chops, and charisma to pull it off in a big way. When yet another cover album press release comes through, I cringe because rarely do they fulfill the promise of the advertising and media prior to the release. This time my feelings were way off base. Yeah! is an incredible album, a full-fledged classic rock masterpiece.

I always liked Def Leppard and once I heard them cover some of their most beloved songs (and mine); I came to know them in a different way. All at once, they were a long lost friend I knew when I was a teenager. I was there when all of this music first came out. I loved it all, and I still do.

This is not your typical cover album because of the track choices. You would expect a more generic group of songs that everyone would immediately identify with. This is not so, and it is exactly what makes cover albums so predictable and ultimately boring. The way this album kicks off, man its just killer, with a rockin’ "20th Century Boy." I was speechless and immediately knew I was in for a special treat.

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On a day when the space shuttle Discovery launched back into space, two of the world's most successful rock bands blasted into Raleigh.

More than 11,000 people packed Alltel Pavilion at Walnut Creek on a humid Tuesday night, choosing to celebrate America's birthday with a bunch of British rock stars — Def Leppard. Of course, that's only half true. Journey, which calls San Francisco home, opened the show.

Both bands gained worldwide popularity in the 1980s: Journey with songs such as "Don't Stop Believin' " and "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" and Def Leppard with "Rock of Ages" and "Pour Some Sugar on Me." Each band focused on these hits Tuesday while sprinkling in new songs as well.

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Def Leppard survived being lumped in with the hair-metal bands in the '80s. The popularity of grunge didn't stop them. And the rise of hip-hop hasn't kept fans away.

The British band may not sell as many albums as it once did–1983's "Pyromania" and 1987's "Hysteria" both achieved diamond status by selling more than 10,000,000 copies in the U.S., while the group's last studio album, "X," didn't even go gold–but they insist on rocking, and audiences are eating it up.

The band toured last year with Bryan Adams to promote its platinum-selling two-disc "Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection." Now Def Leppard is back on the road–this time with Journey–to promote its latest album, "Yeah," a collection of covers of songs the fortysomething band members loved growing up.

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Two of the biggest rock bands of the '80s performed at the Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain on Friday before a ready-to-party crowd of 10,500. And though the perception might be that the two groups are quite different stylistically, the show revealed, surprisingly, that they might not be as far apart as one might think.

Journey and Def Leppard, quite simply, are both very good, guitar-driven rock bands with a super gift for melody. Put 'em on the same stage on the same night, and you've got yourself almost three hours of pop and rock classics.

America's Journey – considered by most to be the softer of the two – actually rocked pretty hard during most of its set. Guitarist Neal Schon, one of rock's finest players, gave a chunky kick to tunes such as "Be Good To Yourself," "Wheel In The Sky, "Chain Reaction" and "Lights" while the rest of the band also played more like a hard-hitting unit than a band best known for prom songs.

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England might have lost in the World Cup last weekend, but it won the unofficial battle of the bands Monday night at Hersheypark Stadium, where pop-metal king Def Leppard shared a bill with American rockers Journey.

The five-piece band from San Francisco started off with the title track from its latest album, "Faith in the Heartland," but it was marred by a muddy, too-loud mix that would plague the group throughout.

Singer Steve Augeri struggled, both to be heard and to hit notes. Guitarist Neal Schon, however, was in fine form with his trademark clean, crisp tone and fiery solos.

"Be Good to Yourself" was set off by great harmonies, but again, even when Augeri was singing alone, he was barely audible. Schon took over for a blistering rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" and played with plenty of embellishment.

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On Def Leppard's ninth studio album, Yeah!, the band become the most famous cover band on the planet. The songs they picked to cover are ones they remember fondly from their youth; a soundtrack, as it were, to their pubescent lives. "Yeah!" is rewarding taken at its face value premise of celebrating the longevity of the group while honoring some pop classics. But it is disappointing that, while the production values the band is known for is still top notch, stamping their indelible sound, one that took them to the upper echelons of rock stardom in the 1980's, onto the performances of these fourteen notable pop/rock tunes from the late 1960's and 1970's, are relatively straight forward note for note copies of the originals.

Ironically and quite unintentionally, Yeah! exposes in glaring light Def Leppard's strengths and weaknesses as artists. The band's strengths, going all the way back to their first full length recording, On Through The Night, to Yeah!, has always been their exuberant performances that showcased very fine musicianship with boundless passion and energy devoted to the craft of recording songs. They love rock 'n' roll and it shows on all of their recordings.

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With the rain that soaked the area all week gone by Friday night, 10,500 people came to rock out at the Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain, with generations of fans gathering to enjoy the classic rock sounds of Journey and Def Leppard.

Journey kicked off the night with a high-energy tune including the typical Journey elements of electrifying guitar solos and pounding drum beats.

As the night wore on, Journey mixed old favorites like "Be Good to Yourself" and "Wheel in the Sky" with more unfamiliar recent songs.

Although a few diehard fans scattered throughout sang and danced with lead singer Steve Augeri, an undertone of disappointment spread through the Pavilion. Unfortunately, although their names sound similar, there was no mistaking Mr. Augeri for rock legend and former front man Steve Perry.

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Joe Elliott, lead singer of Def Leppard, what are you …

… Listening to?

I admire [ The Arctic Monkeys'] work, what I've heard of it so far. It's got its moments that are just hysterical. I mean that in the best possible sense. There's a lot of humor in that record. There's a lot of teenage angst and attitude, which a band of their ability and age should have. These guys are doing their own thing. And it's interesting for a band that broke on the Internet, that the record has sold so many copies. I'm still listening a lot to the Kaiser Chiefs' album - that's sinking further into my DNA, as did the Scissor Sisters two years earlier. There's not much [else] in rock 'n' roll [that's impressing me] these days and I'm sad to say that, because I wish there was.

… Reading?

… Watching?

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Only six months after Def Leppard wrapped up its 2005 co-headlining tour with Bryan Adams, the band is hitting the road again. This summer, Lep has chosen to do another co-headlining road jaunt, though this time with prominent '70s and '80s arena rock band, Journey. And according to Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell, both Def Leppard and Journey want to "give the fans and taste of old and new."

After more than two decades of delivering power ballads and stimulating hard-rock hits, Def Leppard has proven to be rock and roll legends. With 11 award-winning, chart-topping albums and over 65 million albums sold worldwide, the band could possibly be defined as the epitome of rock music. And with the recent release of their all-covers album, "Yeah," these infamous '80s rockers are getting back to basics.

Said Joe Elliot in a press release: "I thought it was about time we showed the world what our true roots were. The songs on this album are at least partly responsible for us making the kind of music that we do."

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"We were nothing to do with a new wave. Never were. So don't call us heavy metal. We always had one foot in pop." Joe Elliott

Call it hard rock if you want, and feel free to split hairs about what Def Leppard used to be when they released On Through The Night and High 'N' Dry, but the fact remains that once upon a time, this band created a record–Pyromania–that may have very well been the best damn record ever released in the 80's–I'm not kidding. Each song had a definite hook combined with tons of emotion accompanied by a memorable, anthemic chorus. Sadly enough, tunes like "Too Late For Love", "Comin' Under Fire" and "Foolin'" are light years removed from the "adult contemporary" material the band has been releasing ever since. It is precisely because these guys were once so fuckin' amazing that the Bon Jovification of Leppard on VH-1 has been so difficult to watch.

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The Sheffield-steely glam of Def Leppard and the album-oriented rock of Journey have zip connection. So, despite being '80s media stalwarts under VH-1 sponsorship, it was hard to tell what Friday's sold-out pairing of those rock elders at Camden's Tweeter Center was meant to convey to its crowd - a mix of over-40s and young teens. Other than that there's no age limit on an audience's ability to ape guitar pyrotechnics and look stupid doing it. And that the mullet is indeed a tonsorial staple of all generations.

Def Lep - MTV's first metal darlings - happily refuse to age gracefully. Instead, the mussiest of hair bands (a compliment, that!) chop-chop-chopped and shugga-shugga swaggered through gutsy glam stuff with equal amounts of icy precision (their signature helium harmonies) and groovy sloppiness (their punchy rhythms).

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Def Leppard will be performing tonight, June 23 at 12:35AM ET/PT (technically very early Saturday morning) on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on your local CBS station. Check your local listings for the exact time and channel. Also on the show will be Tyrese Gibson (from the film Waist Deep) and Paul Morrissey.

After 25 years of being one of rock's most successful acts, Def Leppard has decided to set the record straight.

"We put out an album and do press every three years, and someone will always say, "So, you guys are from the New Wave of British heavy metal.' And I'll say, "Who? Not me!' " says Joe Elliot, lead singer of the band whose co-headlining tour of North America (with Journey) kicks off tonight at Camden's Tweeter Center (there's also a July 1 date at Atlantic City's Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa).

"Yes, we have one foot in metal," he continues, "but we have a wider footprint (elsewhere). We figured after 25 years of not being listened to, we'll sing and dance it, and see if we're listened to."

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They could have concentrated on pop standards of the '40s and '50s, or classic-rock tunes of the '60s, or hits by bands that peaked, as they did, in the 1980s.

But for their first collection of cover songs — "Yeah!," which was released last month on the Mercury/Universal label — British rock quintet Def Leppard looked to the days of glam-rock, power-pop and proto-punk. The album is an affectionate tribute to artists like T. Rex, Thin Lizzy, Sweet, Free and David Bowie, who are represented, mostly, by songs that came out between 1970 and 1974.

"It's why we got into music, when we were 14, 15," said guitarist Phil Collen, 48, of "Yeah!" selections like David Essex's "Rock On," the Faces' "Stay With Me" and Mott the Hoople's "The Golden Age of Rock & Roll." "It was the moment in time where it's kind of like, 'This is my music, this is really speaking to me.' We were impressionable 14-year-olds or 15-year-olds.

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