Tag: Demolition Man

Def Leppard – ‘Tokyo 1999: The Japanese Broadcast 2 CD Set’ (Bootleg – 2022) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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Def Leppard toured extensively for their latest album, ‘Euphoria’, which came out June 8, 1999. That tour brought them to Japan where they played 8 shows, three of which were at Tokyo’s famed Kokusai Forum where this disc was recorded. It is said that this was the October 1st show. However, the bootleggers have it wrong. The band only played “Wasted” on the October 2nd show which was actually recorded in full and broadcast on the radio and it was actually filmed to be shown on TV as well. Why we don’t have an official release of this show from the band is strange. We do have a few songs that from this show that were released on The Collection, Volume 2 Box Set on the Rarities 3 LP from that set.

As with most bootlegs, this CD has one glaring mistake. Look at the picture below and see if you can spot it. And no, it isn’t the fact the picture is with some of the members of Journey. Nope. It is the fact that the picture has the late, great Steve Clark in it who died back in 1991 a full 8 years prior to this release. He isn’t even on this release so shouldn’t have a picture. The bootleggers, however, seem to get all the song titles right and even the spelling. That is pretty rare! Now, that is all I have on this release so let’s get to the show which is the full set list with 22 songs and almost 2 hours worth of music spread over 2 CDs…it is awesome. And one cool thing is they play at least one song from every Leppard album released to date. Good job boys…good job!

The album opens with “Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)” which is played at 100 mph as the band seems to be in a hurry to get through it. The band sounds fantastic though, guitars are crisp, drums are powerful and Joe sounds terrific. Always a great opener. And they don’t slow things down as they rip through the Sweet cover of “Action” and I do love Lep’s version of this one. They made it their own. A high energy romp that keeps the pace at breakneck speed. They go in to the first new song and play “Demolition Man” and talk about fast…holy crap I think they sped it up the tempo even more. It is bam bam, next song, bam bam, next song…you get the idea. The new song fits well into the vibe of the live setting. I dig it.

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Def Leppard – ‘Rarities 3’ (2019) – Album Review (the Def Leppard Collection Series)

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On June 21, 2019, Def Leppard released the second set in their four volume The Collection box set. There is a CD and a vinyl version of the set and my set is the vinyl version. It is 10 LPs and contains the albums, ‘Adrenalize’, ‘Retro Active’, ‘Slang’ and ‘Euphoria’. It also contains 2 Rarities collections called Volume 2 and Volume 3. Since we have already discussed the albums in this set, it is time to start with the rare tracks now and first up we did ‘Rarities Two’ of the set last week so I hope you enjoyed that one. This week, it is another 2 LP release and it is called ‘Rarities 3’. It also contains some rare tracks and rare live performances and like ‘Volume 2’, the songs are from the years surrounding these four albums.

LP 1:

The first track is an alternate version of “When Love & Hate Collide” from ‘Vault’. This version is a stripped down version with only a piano and the string arrangement from Michael Kamen that was used on the original version. This one is a really beautiful piece as that orchestration is perfect. Joe’s vocals are so emotive and you can really feel those lyrics. Great version, might be my favorite.

Next up is the B-Side to the original “When Love & Hate Collide”. The song, “Can’t Keep Away From the Flame” was written by Joe Elliott & Phil Collen and is another wonderful acoustic track. The sound harkens back to that 70’s rock sound that influenced the band so much. Could you compare it to Zeppelin, I don’t know…maybe…they do in the liner notes. Whatever you want to say it sounds like, all I know is it sounds awesome.

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Def Leppard – ‘Euphoria’ (1999) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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In 1998, Def Leppard went back in the studio to record their seventh studio album, ‘Euphoria’. The band’s plan for the album was pretty much, don’t abandon the original Leppard sound. Go back and record an album that sounded like the albums that made the band famous. And the album turned out exactly like that. After creating an album like ‘Slang’, that was a brand new sound for the band and wasn’t that successful. This was probably a smart idea. It was produced by Pete Woodruffe and Def Leppard at Joe’s Garage Studio’s 1 & 2 in Dublin, Ireland and would be released on June 8, 1999. The album would actually be moderately successful, hitting #11 on the Billboard charts and it would go Gold in the States.

Longtime friend and producer, Robert John “Mutt” Lange, came and helped out with the album, but only spent four days in the studio giving them advice rather than sitting at the boards working. Heck, he even helped write a few songs and sang backing vocals on a track. I’m sure his direction in those short four days helped the direction of the album. Speaking of direction, the band’s look went in a different direction too. The hair was cut short, the clothes were nicer and they looked like a more modern rock band going in to the year 2000. But musically, it was back to their heyday of the 80’s and early 90’s. And not a moment too soon.

The band was still Joe Elliott, Rick Savage, Rick Allen, Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell and is still that band today as I write this in 2024. What I like about this album is that Vivian keeps getting more involved and has a lot more writing credits on this one. His influence on the band is evident. The band have aged well, matured and delivered us a solid Leppard album.

Coming out of the cage with a roar is the opening track “Demolition Man”. A high energy, fist pounding rocker. The song sees the typical gang type vocals on the chorus, the fast, frenzied guitars and Joe spitting out lyrics at breakneck speed. A banger of an opener that let it be clear, Leppard was back with what you want to hear, yet sounding both old school and modern at the same time. A nice mixture of the two.

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