Def Leppard
34 articles
Audio interviews
Def Leppard's Joe Elliott (1991)
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages Audio, December 1991
The Leppard frontman looks back at guitarist Steve Clark's descent into alcoholism and eventual death: how it impacted the making of latest album Adrenalize; guitarist Phil Collen stepping up in Clark's absence; how it is possible for rockers to grow old; the essential escapism of metal, and how marvellously uncool it is.
File format: mp3; file size: 45.4mb, interview length: 47' 15" sound quality: ***
Def Leppard's Joe Elliott (2006)
Interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages Audio, 2006
Joe Elliott tells tales of the road, talks about his heroes (and one or two villains), and looks back at Rick Allen's accident and Steve Clark's alcoholism and death.
File format: mp3; file size: 66.6mb, total interview length: 1h 9' 24" sound quality: ****
List of articles in the library
Def Leppard: The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal — Part Two
Report and Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 16 June 1979
BY DEAF BARTON ...
Def Leppard: Mayfair, Newcastle
Live Review by Ian Ravendale, Sounds, 25 August 1979
Big cat's big let down The Def Leppard backlash starts here (what, already? — Ed) ...
Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 1 March 1980
THE LEPPARDS CAUGHT IN AN A'N'R INDUSTRY STRANGLEHOLD. WILL THEY BE THROTTLED? ASKS GEOFF BARTON ...
Report by Mary Harron, The Guardian, 19 July 1980
Mary Harron takes a trip to Sheffield and discovers a surprising rock revival. ...
Letter from Britain: Iron Cookies From Island Nations
Column by Penny Valentine, Creem, August 1980
MY FRIEND Nigel looked at the queue winding its way two blocks round the Rainbow Theatre and made his pronouncement: "Bored punks who never got ...
Def Leppard Breaks the Heavy-Metal Mold
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 2 October 1980
KANSAS CITV, Missouri — Oblivious to the sticky heat and the rancid aroma of animal fat from the rendering plants across the Missouri River, the ...
The Luxury Of Real Fur: Def Leppard/More: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Phil Bell, Sounds, 8 August 1981
SUBTLE AS THE brain-scalding squeals of a skewered pig on the barbecue, roasting alive. Ass-kickin', rabble-rousin', atom-splittin', hard-livin', ever givin'. More had the ear-ringin' toned ...
Def Leppard: The Leppard Doesn't Sleep Tonight
Report and Interview by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 6 February 1982
ROUGH NOTES/ROUGH NOTES (Prelude) ...
Def Leppard, Rock Goddess: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Chris Welch, Kerrang!, 24 March 1983
A WILD and ferocious Def Leppard leapt at the throats of its audience and claimed another killing on the first major Lep safari in many ...
Def Leppard: Pyromania (Mercury)
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, May 1983
IT ALL COMES down to how many ways there are to conjugate the regular verb "to rock" in a context that suggests endurance of a ...
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, May 1983
LONDON – Directly or indirectly, Eric Clapton is responsible for my being here. ...
Comment by Deborah Frost, The Village Voice, 1 November 1983
DEF LEPPARD is a band that's been greeted with total indifference by everyone except the four million and counting people who bought their third album. ...
Def Leppard unleashes Hysteria
Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 10 September 1987
DEF LEPPARD'S album Pyromania, released in 1983, sold 6 million copies in the U.S. alone. It's no surprise, then, that people ask Def Leppard bassist ...
Def Leppard: Royal Centre, Nottingham
Live Review by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 12 September 1987
SUGAR ON THE ROCKS ...
Def Leppard: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Chris Roberts, Melody Maker, 19 September 1987
WHAT A sorry charade this is. Stuck for jokes I am, as the Lepers churn out their wall of John Bull nothingness to the adoring ...
Heavy Metal: The Sound Too Dense to Die
Comment by James Hunter, L.A. Weekly, 16 October 1987
TWENTY SUMMERS ago, it was love. In 1987 it was metal, pop-metal, ushered in by Bon Jovi's much less musicianly 7-mil play on Van Halen's ...
Def Leppard: Hysteria (Polygram); Guns N' Roses: Appetite For Destruction (Geffen)
Review by Deborah Frost, Creem, December 1987
WAS IT REALLY worth the wait? Four years and nearly two million dollars later, Def Leppard has finally unveiled their new "masterpiece." What Hysteria's constipated ...
Profile and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, May 1988
They talk in units of a million. They plan tours like military invasions. They know the rules, Def Leppard: it takes craft, hard graft, spectacle ...
Report and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 3 November 1988
Once maligned, concert merchandising is now rock's hottest business ...
Retrospective and Interview by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 1 September 1990
For those off us old enough to remember, the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal was the start off the greatest period ever for Metal ...
Obituary: Steve Clark — Hard Rock Hero
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 10 January 1991
THE DEATH of Def Leppard's guitarist Steve Clark, aged 30, on Tuesday morning was the latest disaster to strike the Sheffield group. On New Year's ...
Overview by Stuart Maconie, New Musical Express, 19 January 1991
Bring your good taste to be slaughtered! To mark Iron Maiden's ground-breaking success (any bleedin' excuse — Ed), STUART MACONIE investigates the subtle and many-faceted ...
Def Leppard: Adrenalize (Bludgeon Riffola 510978)
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, May 1992
NARROWA five-year wait! Layered guitars! Walls of harmony! It can only be Def Leppard... ...
Various Artists: The Freddie Mercury Tribute, Concert For Aids Awareness, Wembley Stadium, London
Live Review by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 2 May 1992
IT'S, UH, KINDA TRAGIC ...
Def Leppard: Cherry Pie In The Name Of Love
Profile and Interview by Steve Mascord, On The Street, 5 May 1992
"I DON'T think there’s any danger we’re going to turn into Journey or Foreigner because they never had balls, those bands," Joe Elliott's Yorkshire twang ...
Review by David Quantick, Q, June 1996
FOR DEF Leppard, it really ought to be That Time Of The Career. ...
Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 15 November 1996
Rusty metal with extra irony ...
Def Leppard: On The Road: Again….
Report and Interview by Ben Myers, Kerrang!, October 1999
"RIGHT," SAYS Joe Elliot. "I think it's time for a few drinks." ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001
Frank Noon (replaced by Rick Allen, b. 1 November 1963); Steve Clark, b. 23 April 1960, d. 8 January 1991, London (replaced by Vivian Campbell, ...
NWOBHM: Never Mind The Bollocks
Retrospective by Paul Elliott, MOJO, February 2007
Threatened by punk, Led Zep, Sabbath and Purple came under fire in 1977. A year later Iron Maiden, Def Leppard and Saxon led a New ...
Def Leppard: "We never wanted to smoke weed and stick two fingers up to The Man"
Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 21 July 2020
ON THE FIRST day of December 1987, Def Leppard arrived for a concert at the Tacoma Dome in Washington state. Embarked on the initial North ...
Book Review by Barney Hoskyns, Financial Times, 15 February 2022
AS INELEGANT acronyms go, NWOBHM was at least onomatopoeic: an approximation of metal's thudding, bludgeoning bass registers. Certainly the "New Wave Of British Heavy Metal", ...
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