Def Leppard are the cla**ic story of the schoolboys that made their way to the rock superstars. Since their formation in 1977, they had the music flair, determination, and stamina to climb to the heights of the international stardom, capped by their multi-million sales album Pyromania. Personal adversities multiplied by the professionals disasters that inflicted their lives resulted into the relative obscurity in the mid-1980s. More than anything, though, Def Leppard had good instincts. And in rock & roll instinct spells survival.
Rick Savage, Tony Kenning, and Pete Willis went to the same school in Tapton in the Sheffield, South Yorkshire. This trio started their own band Atomic Ma** in 1977. Joe Elliott was only 18 at that moment and he simply missed his bus to accidentally meet with Pete Willis. During the auditions, the members of the group came to the conclusion that Joe Elliott is the best option to be the band's the vocalist. With all things settled, the group played their first concert in the dining room of Westfield School in Mosborough, Sheffield.
Soon after that Joe Elliott came up with a suggestion to change the band's name into Deaf Leopard that he had made up even before joining the Atomic Ma** at the lessons of the English language. Probably, this name was inspired by the success of Led Zeppelin and to avert the obvious analogies Tony Kenning suggested to slightly change the name into Def Leppard that is a real rock brand nowadays.
Steve Clark was immediately incorporated into the band in January 1978 after he impressed at the auditions by performing Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird". As the group was preparing to release their first three-song try Tony Kenning chose to suddenly leave the group to start his own band Cairo. Frank Noon stepped in to help them finish the session and was soon replaced by the 15-year-old drummer Rick Allen who became a full-time drummer. The sales of The Def Leppard E.P. skyrocketed after the track Getcha Rocks Off was aired on the BBC Radio by a famous DJ John Peel.
Through the 1979 Def Leppard earned the respect of many devoted fans among the British hard-rock and heavy metal followers being credited by many as the leaders of the new wave of the British heavy metal movement only to lose that title to Iron Maiden in the end. Their growing popularity resulted in their first serious contract with a huge music label Phonogram/Vertigo (Mercury Records in the US).
Def Leppard's debut album On Through the Night was released on March 14, 1984, and hit the top-15 in the Great Britain but the band lost lots of their early fans accusing the British rockers of their extreme effort to appeal to the American people. After the song "Hello America" and the numerous US tours supporting Pat Travers, AC/DC and Ted Nugent Def Leppard finally turned their sights to Britain but were bombarded by the beer cans and bottles filled with urine as an act of displeasure at the Reading Festival. Later Joe Elliott was quoted as saying in the Metal Evolution series documentary that thus festival was over advertised in the media and all the bands felt the anger of the crowd.
By that time Def Leppard drew the attention of AC/DC producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange who offered his serviced for the second album High 'n' Dry being released on July 11, 1981. Lange helped the band find their style for the forthcoming years. Despite poor sales of the album, video for "Bringin 'On The Heartbreak" was one of the first videos from the metal groups that were lavishly aired on the MTV to tremendously increase their awareness among the US audience. Def Leppard dispatched for the European tour to support the High 'n' Dry album opening the concerts of Ozzy Osbourne and Blackfoot.
Phil Collen, a former guitarist of the glam metal band GIRL, came in to replace Pete Willis who was axed from Def Leppard due to the serious abuse of alcohol on the job site. This team change took place amid the recordings of their third album Pyromania that was unveiled on 20 January 1983, under the supervision of Robert John "Mutt" Lange. The first single Photograph later became the trademark of Def Leppard to surpa** Michael Jackson's "Beat It" as the MTV's most wanted video on MTV. It was followed by a ma**ive US tour with a very expected name Photograph.
The flagship single "Photograph" and the supporting singles "Rock of Ages" and "Foolin'" helped the band to sell around six million copies in 1983 and Pyromania's ma**ive success inspired the further developments of the glam metal movement in the 1980s. Later in 2004 Pyromania album was certified Diamond after reaching the spot of 10 million copies sold.
A huge US tour in support of Pyromania was crowned with success as Def Leppard lead the performance at a 55-000 Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, California in September. According to polls, the band's popularity was getting bigger in the US while the band was still not so well received on their homeland with Duran Duran topping the ratings. To reduce the tax losses from the income of Pyromania album Def Leppard moved to Dublin in 1984 and got down to write their next piece. Their producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange left the songwriting sessions soon after joining the company there due to exhaustion and was replaced by Jim Steinman.
All of a sudden, Rick Allen lost his left arm following a car accident on 31 December 1984 as his Corvette Dutch with his girlfriend Miriam Barendsen did not bend into a sharp turn and went through a drystone wall after swerving the road. Rick Allen showed great determination to continue as Def Leppard's drummer using his leg to play the drums instead of the lost hand. Luckily for him, the other band members supported this idea and later Simmons developed a custom electronic drum kit that Rick Allen learned within a few month of training sessions in a special studio.
During the hard times former producer Robert John "Mutt" rejoined with the band and they hired Jeff Rich as an a**istant drummer in August 1986 to help Rick Allen during the Def Leppard's warm-up concerts in Ireland. Having accidentally missed one of the gigs, Jeff Rich was axed from the band. Rick Allen returned back to the full-time concert activity at the Monsters of Rock festival in 1986 in England with the crowd shouting "Rick Allen" at the end of the performance.
Finally, after more than three years of studio recordings Def Leppard gave birth to their fourth album titled Hysteria in August 1987. Its headlining single Animal was the first song to strike the top-10 chart in their native England. On the very first week after the release, the Hysteria album topped the UK album charts but the sales in the US were unimpressive and only got a significant boost following the release of the fourth single Pour Some Sugar on Me.
Hysteria finally reached the top of the U.S. Billboard 200 in July 1988 with The "Pour Some Sugar on Me" video becoming the top-rated on MTV for a record 73 days. The song that is often a**ociated with Def Leppard reached the second spot on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the 80s" in 2006. Hoping to evade another long and unproductive spell Def Leppard quickly got down to work on the fifth album but Steve Clark's alcohol addiction exacerbated to such an extent that he was attending the rehab on the regular basis. This threatened the recordings of the forthcoming album and the other members agreed to grant Steve a six-month leave. Steve Clark died on 8 January 1991 in his house in London because of drug and alcohol mix to become a huge shock for the band's fans.
Having recovered from the loss, Def Leppard decided to finish the Adrenalize album with Phil Collen mimicking the Steve Clark's style. Being released on 31 March 1992, the Adrenalize album simultaneously was voted No. 1 in the UK and US charts and the first song Let's Get Rocked immediately turned into a hit with its video to be nominated for the MTV Video Music Awards. In April 1992, Def Leppard were featured at the Wembley stadium in London playing a three-song set at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. In 1992, Def Leppard went on an international tour with the former Dio guitarist Vivian Campbell taking place instead of Steve Clark but the popularity of the band was affected by the emergence of the alternative rock, including grunge.
On October 23, 1995, Def Leppard carved their name in the Guinness book as the first band to perform three concerts on the three continents on the same day (Tangiers, Morocco; London, England; and Vancouver, Canada). The new album Slang that was presented in May 1996 showed the band's style was shifting in the direction of the alternative rock which was a big disappointment for many true fans. Despite some resistance, the Slang album was well received by Q Magazine as one of the best 10 albums in 1996.
VH1 revived the group in the US in 1998 by featuring them on one of the first episodes of Behind the Music. The rerun of the episode was one of the best rated in the history of Behind the Music series to boost the popularity of Def Leppard who tried to catch the wave and returned to their cla**ic sounding as the Euphoria album saw the daylight in 1999. The reunion with the Robert John "Mutt" Lange made Euphoria album golden in the US and Canada.
On September 2000 Def Leppard were escorted to the Rock Walk of Fame on Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard by their friend Brian May (Queen's guitarist) and the next year VH1 channel filmed a documentary "Hysteria - Def Leppard Story" telling the band's story between 1977 and 1986, precisely about the challenges and triumph of Rick Allen and Steve Clark. The appearance of the tenth album in 2002 with the short name "X" marked yet another shift in style as the Def Leppard's singing became softer and had some shades of pop rock. The X album never saw any recognition and quickly vanished form the charts to become the least successful release of Def Leppard but the British rockers still had a full house at their concerts.
In 2004, Def Leppard released a "Best of" album worldwide while the US fans were granted with a special edition titled "Rock Of Ages - The Definitive Collection" in May 2005. The band also released the album "Yeah!" in 2006 featuring the cover songs of their childhood idols like Blondie, The Kinks, Sweet, ELO, and Badfinger. In May Def Leppard were invited to the VH1 Rock Honors along with Queen, Kiss, and Judas Priest. In April 2008, Def Leppard pleased their fans with the new studio album "Songs from the Sparkle Lounge" that was compiled from a fresh material after six years of silence.
Def Leppard backed the "Songs from the Sparkle Lounge" album with a tour that started on March 28, 2008, in Greensboro with Styx and REO Speedwagon joining the US tour dates as guest bands. After featuring on a few European rock festivals and following the co-joined UK tour with Whitesnake and Black Stone Cherry Def Leppard announced a 2008 World Tour covering 41 concert venues. Country star Taylor Swift, a devoted fan of the group since the childhood, invited Def Leppard to join her for the taped CMT Crossroads show in Nashville, Tennessee in October 2008.
Exactly one year later Def Leppard canceled the last leg of their North American tour (23 shows) due to the unforeseen personal matters to spark the rumors about possible splitting. They just needed a year to catch their breath while Joe Elliott used this spell to set up his own side project Down 'n' Outz. The band started to rejuvenate in summer 2011 releasing the first live two-disc album with three new studio tracks called "Mirror Ball: Live & More". It was followed by "Viva! Hysteria" two years later - an attempt to revive the memories of their blockbuster 1987 on the first diss and a collection of rarely played and early raw material on the second.
On June 15th, 2011 Def Leppard's three-month North American tour with special guest HEART was named #1 on â€œHot Toursâ€ list of Billboard inspiring them to head off to Australia and New Zealand for 8 more dates. The band also was warmly received in Japan in November where Mirror Ball was #1 before jetting off back to the UK to launch a short six-date tour with Motley Crue and special guests Steel Panther. In 2013, the band had a residency at the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, performing the album Hysteria in its entirety.
The same year in June Vivian Campbell unveiled he was suffering from Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer, but continued to perform as it helped him stay positive. He later experienced the remission but then faced the recurrence of cancer forcing him to undergo another chemotherapy round. The latest milestones of Def Leppard include the eleventh self-titled studio album that was released on October 30, 2015. The 14-track album with the lead single "Let's Go" entered the US chart at number 10 on the Billboard 200.
After touring in 2015 Def Leppard led the Hysteria on the High Seas concert cruise aboard the MSC Divina in January 2016 before commencing their much-anticipated in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida only to postpone it a few days later due to Joe Elliott's vocal issues. Though some of the live shows had to be canceled at all, Def Leppard tour dates were rescheduled and extended to 50+ concerts. The Summer 2016 Tour with old fellows Tesla and REO Speedwagon is expected to be a huge success and will commence in Pensacola, FL on May 2.
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