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Def Leppard are a melodic rock band from Sheffield, England, who formed in 1977 at the time of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. The band have sold over 70 million albums world-wide with the bulk of their sales coming from the albums Pyromania and Hysteria. Def Leppard were one of the top selling rock bands in the 1980s.

Music

The music of Def Leppard is a mixture of hard rock, glam rock, AOR, and heavy metal elements. The band has occasionally been associated with the pop metal movement of the 1980s, although its sound is more accurately associated with the contemporary NWOBHM genre of the late 1970s. The band's songs generally feature simple guitar hooks and catchy, melodic choruses. The Def Leppard sound is also characterized by its combination of hard rock and polished melodic backing vocals.

By the release of the Hysteria record, it was apparent that the band had developed a distinctive, futuristic sound featuring heavily processed drums and effects-laden "space-age" guitar sounds, overlaid with a multi-layered wall of husky, harmonized vocals. Def Leppard is one of only five rock bands with two original albums selling over 10 million copies each in the U.S. The others are The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Van Halen.

History

1977 – 1979 / The Early Years

Rick Savage (bass), Pete Willis (guitars) and Tony Kenning (drums) formed the band (originally known as "Atomic Mass") in 1977 as students at Tapton School in Sheffield (see 1977 in music). Joe Elliott auditioned for a spot as their guitarist following a chance meeting with Willis. However, during Elliott's audition, it was decided that he was better suited for the role of lead singer.

Soon afterwards, they adopted the name "Deaf Leopard" (which Elliott had thought of in his school days). At the suggestion of Tony Kenning, the name "Deaf Leopard" was slightly modified to Def Leppard in order to avoid comparison to punk bands, and perhaps also as an indirect homage to Led Zeppelin's similarly styled band name.

While perfecting their sound as a band in a spoon factory, the band added another guitarist Steve Clark in January 1978. Kenning suddenly left the band prior to recording sessions for a three-song EP in late 1978. He was replaced for those sessions by Frank Noon on what was known the Def Leppard EP.

Sales for the EP soared soon after the track "Getcha Rocks Off" was given extensive airtime by renowned BBC Radio DJ John Peel, considered at the time to be a champion of punk rock and new wave music. 15-year-old Rick Allen joined the band as its full-time drummer in November 1978.

Throughout 1979, the band won a loyal following among British hard rock/heavy metal fans, and were even initially considered the leaders of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (eventually losing that spot to Iron Maiden). This emerging popularity resulted in a major label record deal with Phonogram/Vertigo (Mercury Records in the US). Before receiving this deal, EMI considered signing Def Leppard, but they were also considering signing Iron Maiden at the same time. Ultimately, EMI chose Iron Maiden, leaving Def Leppard to sign with Phonogram/Vertigo.

1980 – 1983 / Setting Rock on Fire

Their debut album, On Through The Night, was released on March 14, 1980. Although the album hit the Top 15 in the UK, many early fans were turned off by the perception that the band was trying too hard to appeal to American audiences, with songs like "Hello America" and touring more in the US (supporting Pat Travers, AC/DC and Ted Nugent). While performing at the Reading Festival in August (alongside fellow NWOBHM pioneers Iron Maiden), audience members showed this displeasure by pelting the band with garbage during their set.

In retrospect, the hostility was unfair as the band was simply taking advantage of opportunities not given to most young British rock bands at the time. However, the damage was done and it would take years until Def Leppard won back domestic fans.

The band then caught the attention of AC/DC producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange, who agreed to work on their second album, High 'n' Dry. Lange's painfully meticuluous approach in the studio greatly improved on Def Leppard's potential from On Through The Night.

Despite mediocre album sales, the "Bringin' on the Heartbreak" promo clip became one of the first "metal" videos played on MTV in 1982, and this brought increasing visibility (and momentum) to the band in the States.

Phil Collen, former guitarist with the glam band Girl, replaced Pete Willis who was fired on July 11, 1982, due to excessive alcohol consumption on the job (Willis later resurfaced with the bands Gogmagog and Roadhouse). This personnel change took place during the recording of their third release, Pyromania, released on January 20, 1983, which was also produced by Lange.

The lead single "Photograph" turned Def Leppard into a household name, supplanting Michael Jackson's Beat It as the most requested video clip on MTV, becoming a staple of rock radio (dominating the US Album Rock Charts for six weeks), and hitting #12 on the pop charts.

Fueled by "Photograph" and subsequent singles "Rock of Ages"(#16) and "Foolin'"(#28), Pyromania went on to sell six million copies in 1983, and was held off the top of the US album charts only by Michael Jackson's Thriller. The album has since been certified Diamond by the RIAA in the US, and is considered a classic in both the mainstream rock and heavy metal genres.

Def Leppard's US tour in support of Pyromania began by opening for Billy Squier in March, and ended with an audience of 55,000 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, CA in September.

As a testament of the band's popularity at the time, a US Gallup poll in 1984 saw Def Leppard voted in as favorite rock band over peers such as the Rolling Stones, AC/DC and Journey. However, this popularity was not matched in their native England, a fact that greatly bothered them.

1984 – 1989 / Mass Hysteria

Following their breakthrough, the band moved to Dublin in February 1984 to begin writing the follow-up to Pyromania. Mutt Lange initially joined in on the songwriting sessions, but then suddenly declined to return as producer due to exhaustion. Instead, Jim Steinman (producer and songwriter of Meat Loaf's Bat out of Hell), was brought in.

The Leppard-Steinman pairing was a disaster, as Steinman's methods constantly clashed with those that Lange had instilled in the band. This quickly led to him being fired, with Lange's assistant Nigel Green taking over, with no more productive results.

On December 31 1984, Rick Allen lost his left arm in a car crash on the A57 in the hills outside Sheffield when his speeding Corvette left the road on a sharp bend and went through a drystone wall. Despite the severity of the accident, Rick was committed to continuing his role as Def Leppard's drummer. He practiced drumming with pillows, and realized that he could use his legs to do some of the drumming work previously done with his arms. He then worked with Simmons to design a custom electronic drum kit.

The other members of the band fully stood behind Rick's determination and never sought a replacement. During his recovery, Mutt Lange eventually returned to the fold as producer, and Rick's triumphant comeback was sealed at the 1986 Donington Monsters of Rock festival, with an emotionally charged ovation after his introduction by Joe Elliott.

Def Leppard's fourth album, Hysteria, was finally released on August 3, 1987. The second single from the album, "Animal", reached #6 in the UK and finally made the band into stars in their home country. Hysteria immediately topped the charts in its first week of release.

US album sales were relatively slow (compared to Pyromania) until the fourth single, "Pour Some Sugar On Me". The song hit Number 2, and Hysteria finally reached the top of the US Album Charts in July 1988. In October, the power ballad "Love Bites" would become Def Leppard's first (and only) Number One single on the Billboard Hot 100, and in January 1989 the band scored another US Top 5 hit with "Armageddon It".

Hysteria is one of only a handful of albums (and the third in rock history) that has charted seven singles or more on the US Hot 100: "Women" (#80), "Animal" (#19), "Hysteria" (#10), "Pour Some Sugar On Me" (#2), "Love Bites" (#1), "Armageddon It" (#3) and "Rocket" (#12). It remained on the charts for three years and has sold 18 million copies worldwide.

Equally as successful was the accompanying Hysteria world tour which ran for 15 months and saw Def Leppard perform "In The Round". The concept proved wildly popular with fans, as evidenced in the videos for "Pour Some Sugar On Me" and "Armageddon It" (and was later used again for the Adrenalize tour).

By the end of the decade, although Guns N' Roses and Bon Jovi garnered more mainstream exposure, Def Leppard had sold more records than any other rock band in the US.

In 1989 Def Leppard won Favorite Heavy Metal Artist as well as Favorite Heavy Metal Album (for "Hysteria") during the American Music Awards. It was the first time that a heavy metal category was added to the awards show. The category has since been deleted in recent years.

1990 – 1999 / Rock Survivors

After Hysteria's mammoth success and tour, the band quickly set out to work on their fifth album, hoping to avoid another lengthy absence between albums. However, Steve Clark's alcoholism issues worsened to the point where he was constantly in and out of rehab. Recording sessions suffered from this distraction, and in mid-1990 Steve was granted a six-month leave of absence from the band.

Unfortunately, Clark never reached the end of his leave, and his addictions resulted in Steve's death from an accidental mixing of prescription drugs and alcohol on January 8 1991 in his London home. The other band members decided to carry on recording of the album as a four-piece, with Phil mimicking Steve's style on his intended guitar parts.

Def Leppard's fifth album Adrenalize was finally released on March 31 1992. The album simultaneously entered at Number One on both the UK and US album charts, staying there for 5 weeks on the latter. The first single, "Let's Get Rocked", was an instant smash hit and its video was later nominated for Best Video of the Year at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards.

In April 1992, acclaimed hard rock guitarist Vivian Campbell (formerly of Dio and Whitesnake) joined Def Leppard. He would make his "major" live debut with his new band at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert (after a short warm-up tour of small clubs in the U.K). Adrenalize yielded six hit singles and sold 6 million copies worldwide. Another successful world tour followed, but the band's fortunes were beginning to be affected by the rise of grunge and alternative rock.

A collection of b-sides and unreleased tracks recorded between 1984 and 1993, Retro Active, was released in October 1993, preceded by the chart success of the acoustic ballad "Two Steps Behind", featured in the Arnold Schwarzenegger film Last Action Hero.

Another ballad, the piano-heavy "Miss You In A Heartbeat", hit the Top 5 in Canada, becoming one of the band's biggest hits in that country.

Two years later, Def Leppard issued its first greatest hits collection, Vault: Def Leppard's Greatest Hits (1980-1995), which would go on to sell 7 million copies worldwide. Alternate track listings of the album were released for North America, the UK and Japan.

The compilation included a new track, the ballad "When Love & Hate Collide", which became their biggest ever hit in the UK, hitting #2. However, in a reversal of fortunes, the single did not reach the Top 40 in the US. It only managed to peak at #58 on the Billboard Hot 100.

On October 23, 1995, the band entered the Guinness Book of World Records by performing three concerts in three continents in one day (Tangiers, Morocco, London, England, and Vancouver, Canada).

The next Leppard album, the first on which Campbell would actively collaborate in the songwriting and recording, was Slang, released in 1996. It was a drastic musical departure from their traditional hook-filled, melody-heavy sound, and had an altogether darker, grungier, alternative rock feel. While the album was not well-received by many fans, Q Magazine would feature it on their list of Top Ten Albums of 1996, and numerous alternative rock radio stations throughout the US played several tracks from Slang in regular rotation.

Just when the 90's seemed to mark the end for Def Leppard, VH1 revived their fortunes in 1998 by featuring them on one of the initial episodes of Behind The Music. It would renew interest in the band in the States (although they still had strong fan bases in Canada, Japan, and the UK). The episode became so popular that it was even parodied on Saturday Night Live.

Also in the meantime, Mutt Lange's spoken intro from "Rock Of Ages" was now being heard on The Offspring's Pretty Fly (for a White Guy), the biggest hit single of their career.

Next came the album Euphoria in 1999. The first single, "Promises", reunited the band with former producer Mutt Lange, and hit the top of the US mainstream rock charts for three weeks. The return to the classic Def Leppard hard rock sound proved a hit with fans old and new, as Euphoria was quickly awarded for gold sales over 500,000 units in the US. As of April of 2006, Euphoria has scanned 583,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan.

2000 – Present / New Beginnings

On September 5, 2000, Def Leppard was inducted into the RockWalk of Fame, on Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard by their friend Brian May of Queen.

In 2001 VH1 produced and aired Hysteria - The Def Leppard Story, a biopic that included Anthony Michael Hall as Mutt Lange and Amber Valletta as Lorelei Shellist (Steve Clark's girlfriend). The docudrama covered the band's history between 1977 through 1986, recounting the trials and triumphs of Rick Allen and Steve Clark. Although arguably melodramatic (reviews were mixed), and with Canadian filming locations unconvincingly doubling as Britain, the July 18 broadcast still produced some of the channel's highest-ever ratings. The movie is now available on DVD.

An interesting side project at the time would consist of Joe Elliott and Phil Collen teaming up with surviving members of the Spiders From Mars (David Bowie's former band), known as the Cybernauts. The group would play shows revolving around Bowie's Ziggy Stardust-era songs.

Def Leppard's tenth album, simply titled "X", was released in July 2002. It saw the band's musical direction moving more towards pop and further away from the band's hard rock roots. In fact, some tracks were produced by the hit factory behind Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys.

Although it was greeted with generally positive reviews, X quickly disappeared from the charts, ultimately becoming the band's least successful record. However, the accompanying tour played to the band's strongest audiences since Adrenalize.

An expanded and updated greatest-hits CD, Best Of, was released in October 2004 worldwide. The North America-only version, titled Rock Of Ages - The Definitive Collection, was released on May 17 the following year. The compilations went platinum in the U.S., double platinum in Canada and gold in the U.K.

In 2005, Def Leppard participated at the Live 8 show in Philadelphia, and toured baseball stadiums with Bryan Adams in the summer. The year also saw the band leave their longtime management team, Q-Prime, to sign with HK Management (Aerosmith, Lenny Kravitz).

On May 23 2006, Def Leppard released an all-covers album titled Yeah!. The disc pays homage to the musical heroes of their childhood, including David Bowie ("Drive-In Saturday"), The Kinks ("Waterloo Sunset"), Blondie ("Hanging On The Telephone"), Electric Light Orchestra ("10538 Overture"), Badfinger ("No Matter What"), among others. It debuted at #16 in the US (their tenth consecutive Top 20 album). In October 2006, Def Leppard released Hysteria: Deluxe Edition, a two disc re-release of their blockbuster hit of 20 years before. It includes a remastering of the original album, and rare songs from that era including b-sides and remixes.

Def Leppard ended its tour with Journey in the US in late November of 2006 after touring together since the late spring of that same year. The band, along with Queen, KISS, and Judas Priest, was an inaugural inductee into the "VH1 Rock Honors" on May 31, 2006. The Associated Press announced this news by saying "the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame looks to be getting some competition." In addition, "Love Bites" has been featured in recent Sirius Satellite Radio TV commercials. A new studio album of all-original material is planned for 2007 with the tour to follow.

Legacy

Much like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Deep Purple in the 70's, Def Leppard were rock pioneers in their own right. Their unique brand of melodic hard rock in the 80s, sometimes referred to as "pop metal", influenced a generation of bands in their decade, and afterwards.

Prior to Pyromania, hard rock was restricted to a mostly male following with limited to no mainstream success. When the five young, photogenic members of Def Leppard arrived on MTV, the image added a large female following to the audience, but the music remained loyal to the influences of hard rock and glam metal with a radio-friendly edge, courtesy of Mutt Lange.

It wasn't long before other young "pop metal" bands started hitting MTV (in particular, Bon Jovi and Poison). While the look was more outrageous (most notably the hair) in some cases, the music, with its big hooks and polished production indisputably followed Leppard's lead, and was now crossing over onto the pop charts with greater frequency and success.

Ironically, a growing legion of Leppard soundalikes would contibute to its fall at the dawn of the 90s. Pop metal bands would be churned out like machines from a factory, armed with the power ballad sure-fire hit and generic songs on mediocre albums. Fans grew tired of the formula, and drifted towards grunge and alternative rock bands, with a completely opposite image and style. However, Leppard would be one of the biggest victims of this backlash, and their fan base would drastically shrink following the Adrenalize tour.

By the mid-90's, the music scene had virtually erased Def Leppard from existence, but it was becoming evident that their songs had influenced a new generation of bands who wanted to successfully incorporate a melodic edge in their heavier style of rock. Their music would be recognized as some of the best rock music of the 1980s.

Side Projects

Phil Collen played guitar, uncredited, on Sam Kinison's "Wild Thing" from 1988. The video featured members of Poison, Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe, Guns N' Roses, Ratt, and Aerosmith.

Collen produced and played on the 1991 album On The Edge from Australian band BB Steal.

Joe Elliott sang lead vocals on two tracks on Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood's 1992 solo album, Slide On This. His then-wife Karla even appeared in one of Ron's videos.

Various members of Def Leppard have played on tribute records for Jeff Beck, AC/DC and Alice Cooper.

Elliott also contributed two tracks to the soundtrack of the 1996 Sheffield-set motion picture, When Saturday Comes, the title track and an instrumental, "Jimmy's Theme".

Collen and Elliott were both involved in the side project Cybernauts, a tribute to the David Bowie-Mick Ronson Ziggy Stardust era, featuring members from the Spiders from Mars. Cybernauts released one Japan-only live album, which was subsequently released online with additional studio tracks. Both albums were limited edition and have since been deleted.

Joe Elliott has regularly appeared as a guest on UK tours of Ian Hunter, featuring in Hunter's recently released "Just Another Night" DVD.

Phil Collen has a side band called Man-Raze, which released its debut single, "Skin Crawl", on October 31, 2005.

Vivian Campbell has played with two side bands in recent years, Clock and the Riverdogs, and recorded a solo album, Two Sides of If, released in 2005.

Trivia

• In the video for Pour Some Sugar On Me (in the UK version) Rick Allen can be seen wearing a black t-shirt with the cover from Metallica's The $5.98 EP: Garage Days Re-Revisited on it.
• Def Leppard were good friends with Iron Maiden and in the mid-1980's they twice played a yearly soccer match versus each other. Each band won one and lost one.
• The Bloodhound Gang achieved a minor cult hit with their song "Why's Everybody Always Picking On Me", which featured the charming chorus, "The drummer from Def Leppard's only got one arm."

Discography

For complete details on album and singles (with sales, chart positions and non-North American releases), see Def Leppard discography.

1. On Through the Night (1980)
2. High 'N' Dry (1981)
3. Pyromania (1983)
4. Hysteria (1987)
5. Adrenalize (1992)
6. Retro-Active (1993)
7. Vault: Def Leppard's Greatest Hits (1995)
8. Slang (1996)
9. Euphoria (1999)
10. X (2002)
11. Best of Def Leppard (2004)
12. Rock of Ages: the Definitive Collection (2005) (North America only)
13. Yeah! (2006)

Personnel

Current Members

• Joe Elliott - lead vocals (1977-present)
• Phil Collen - guitar, backing vocals (1982-present)
• Vivian Campbell - guitar, backing vocals (1992-present)
• Rick Savage - bass, backing vocals (1977-present)
• Rick Allen - drums (1978-present)

Past Members

• Steve Clark - guitar, backing vocals (1978-1991)
• Pete Willis - guitar, backing vocals (1977-1982)
• Tony Kenning - drums (1977-1978)
• Frank Noon - drums (1978)

See also

• List of best-selling music artists
• Terror Twins - Steve Clark and Phil Collen together

External links

• Def Leppard.com - Official Site
• Def Leppard Official MySpace Site

• Def Leppard
• English musical groups
• Glam metal groups
• Music from Sheffield
• Rock music groups
• British heavy metal musical groups