Tag: Love Bites

Def Leppard – ‘Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits 1980-1995’ (1995) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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After five albums and another long delay between records, the band and label decided it was time to release a greatest hits package even though they were in the process of working on their nexxt album, ‘Slang’. This would also wrap-up the era pre-Vivian Campbell. From here on it was a different band and a new era. The greatest hits compilation is called “Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits 1980-1985 and was released in the UK on October 23, 1995 and finally in the US a week later on October 31, 1995. And has done pretty good over time going 5X platinum in the US and platinum and gold in numerous other countries as well. Grunge might be king at the time, but Leppard still sold some records.

A cool thing the band did to promote the album was play 3 acoustic shows on the same day…the catch was that it was on 3 different continents. The shows were in Tangiers, Morocco in Africa, London, England, UK in Europe, and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in North America. The feat also made the Guinness Book of World Records. Pretty crazy.

The album also had two different covers. This one you see above and there is one with an eye on it and the picture of the vault in the eye. I need to find that one. If that wasn’t enough, there were three versions of the album. Although most of the songs were the same, North America had “Miss You In A Heartbeat (Acoustic), while Europe had “Action”, “Make Love Like a Man” and “Heaven Is” and Japan had “Rock! Rock! Till You Drop” and a new track “Can’t Keep Away From the Flame”. A real fan would have all three versions…oops, guess I’m not a real fan. Okay, let’s get in to the songs, that is enough chit chat.

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Def Leppard – ‘Visualize’ (1993) – DVD Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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Def Leppard were trying to keep product moving to keep the fans happy between albums. They didn’t want the gaps between albums, that tended to be rather long, to not have anything come out. So, on October 5, 1993, they released another VHS video and this one was called ‘Visualize’. My copy is on DVD which came in 2001, but the original was a VHS only edition. It contained  promo videos, interviews and concert footage and it won a 1993 Metal Edge Readers’ Choice Award for “Best Home Video.” It ended up selling only around 50,000 copies in the States. I know I had it in VHS, got rid of that when the DVD came out and bought it again. On DVD, it is coupled with another VHS only release called ‘Video Archive’ which we will talk about later.

When you start the DVD, it makes you pick which language you want and it was so tempting to pick something other than English, but I went with the English version since I am uneducated American who only knows one language. When you click “Visualize” it starts out with some live footage and an interview short with the band, first Joe Elliott then Vivian Campbell, Phil Collen, Rick Allen and then Rick Savage. Good to see all the guys getting face time.

Video wise, the first one is off “Hysteria” and was the final single called “Rocket”. The reason it is here is the video ‘Historia’ was released prior to “Rocket” coming out as a video single. The “Rocket” video is a great one with the band in a warehouse with TVs all around showing clips of rockets and the band’s favorite artist that inspired them like Bowie and Elton John for just a few. The next video was for “Switch 625” and this was done only as a tribute to the passing of the band’s great guitarist, Steve Clark. He has been missed. The video is prefaced by a Japanese interview where Steve talks and jokes around. The band then talks about what he means to them. Very touching tribute.

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Def Leppard – ‘Live Sheffield 1992’ (Bootleg DVD) – DVD Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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I like my bootlegs. A good bootleg is hard to find and when I come across one, I get all excited. This time was no different. I found this DVD on eBay called Def Leppard – ‘Live Sheffield 1992’ and took a chance. I’m glad I did because the picture quality and sound are all excellent. There is a reason for that. The show was recorded in full both for TV and for Radio as Joe mentions after the first song. But like all Bootlegs, there are a lot of errors on the packaging.

First error, the show is called ‘Live Sheffield 1992’. It was in Sheffield, England that part is true…well that and it was live. The 1992 part was the first error. The show is actually from Don Valley Stadium on June 6, 1993 not June 24, 1992. Then we get to the track listing and obviously this person doesn’t know Def Leppard. The song “Too Late For Love” is called “Too Late Forever” and the song “Rocket” is called “Rock It” ( I can see that as an honest mistake). And the last is “Two Steps Behind” listed as “Too Steps Behind”. There are not a ton of errors, but I do love it when they have them.

This show is not the full setlist. Sorry to disappoint. It is the 1 hour highlight show that was broadcast on Yorkshire TV and on Japanese TV and consisted of only 14 of the 20 shows played that night. It cuts all the solos, but it also cut some really great song choices, however, the quality of the video is so good and the editing is done so well, it feels like a single show and is really enjoyable regardless. Now, an interesting fact, the full show recording is the bootleg that is called “The Circus Comes to Town” which I want to get one day on CD. I believe it might be an audience recording, but still the full show is a great set of songs. Lep has released some of this performance officially on the Video Archive video they released a short time later. Still less songs then on here though. Let’s get in to this show.

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Def Leppard – ‘Historia’ (1988/2001) – Video Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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In 1988, Def Leppard was flying high. They were at the top of their game, MTV was blasting all their videos all day long. Now was a perfect time to compile all their music videos together in one place and sell it to the buying hungry public on VHS. The video was called ‘Historia’ and it was released on July 5, 1988 and went on to sell over 200,000 copies in the U.S. alone making it a double platinum release. Back in the day, I bought this up on VHS the day it came out. Ran home, popped it in and sat back and enjoyed all the videos of the band from the ‘On Through the Night’ album up to ‘Hysteria’. It was 17 videos of pure Leppard magic. Oops, it was 18 videos actually on the VHS tape because “Love Bites” was added as a bonus and not listed.

Then in 2001, in the DVD era, Def Leppard released ‘Historia’ again except this time as a 2 video set and released with ‘In the Round, In Your Face’ live concert. And if that wasn’t enough, they updated with 5 more videos from the album ‘Slang’ and ‘Euphoria’. And of course, I went and bought this as well. The bad news is, I don’t have the VHS tape anymore as I didn’t think I’d need it anymore which I don’t, but would still be cool to have in the collection though.

The video kicks off with the some old timey style silent film like music and a some openings notes about the videos. Then it goes in to the only video from ‘On Through the Night’ with the video for “Hello America”. It was full of special video effects and why was the drum set out front??? Man, they all looked so young. Really great to see this early promotional video from Top of the Pops. Then we get three more promotional videos all from ‘High & Dry’. We get “Let It Go”, “High & Dry” and “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak (Version 1 with Pete Willis)”. All three were shot on the same day and done with live performances. I remember when I first saw these videos I thought they were the coolest as they looked so cool up there on the stage rocking out. And we get the first glimpse of the Union Jack shorts Rick Allen would help make famous.

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Def Leppard – ‘Live in Mountain View: August 17, 1988’ – Bootleg DVD (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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With Bootlegs, you never know what you are going to get and that is especially true with concert DVDs. In my search for anything Def Leppard, I came across this live DVD of Def Leppard from their ‘Hysteria Tour’. The show was recorded on August 17, 1988 at the Shoreline Amphitheater just outside of Mountain View, California. The show was recorded using either a still shot of the video screen or the actual footage used for the venue video screens themselves. And the video quality is supposed to be great, along with the sound.

The show itself is the typical ‘Hysteria Tour’ show you would expect from the guys. By this time they were already basically ignoring anything from ‘On Through the Night’ and ‘High & Dry’ except for one song. The set list consisted of only one track from ‘High & Dry’, it included 7 from ‘Pyromania’ and 6 from ‘Hysteria’. No covers, nothing. 14 tracks and a little over an hour and a half long in length.

Earlier, I said the picture quality was supposed to be great, but that was not the case for this copy I have on DVD. I am sure this recorded off a copy of a VHS tape that was recorded of a copy of another VHS tape and another VHS tape and so on and so on. The quality at times is unwatchable especially when the stage is dark. If the stage is all lit up, the picture looks decent considering this is VHS technology on a DVD. However, the sound is spot on through out. Clear and you can hear everybody. This would’ve been better as a CD only concert bootleg in my opinion.

When you compare this set list to their famous live release, ‘In the Round, In Your Face’, it is an identical set list with one exception. In the encore you get an extra song with the band doing “Love Bites”. Otherwise, everything is pretty identical. The other show was recorded 5 months earlier in February 1988. 

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Def Leppard – “Love Bites” (1988) – 7″ Single (Part 6 of 7) – (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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On August 3rd, 1987, Def Leppard released their fourth studio album, ‘Hysteria’.  Little did they know this ground breaking album would go on to sell over 25 million records, produce 7 hit singles and go to #1 on the Billboard Charts. The next single we will discuss is “Love Bites” which is the only Def Leppard song to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.  Considering this was the sixth single off the album and with the success of “Pour Some Sugar on Me”, I was completely surprised by that fact (PSSOM did go to #2). The single was released everywhere in July 1988 almost a year after the albums release.

The song was originally brought to the band by the legendary producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange.  The song was a country song at the time and of course the band put their spin on it and turned it in to one of the great rock power ballads of the time.  The title for the song actually came from another song that Leppard was working on and that song later became “I Wanna Be Your Hero” which was the B-Side for “Animal” in the US. The B-Side of this song is actually a live version of the ‘Pyromania’ song “Billy’s Got a Gun”.

What I like about the song is that the guy is so in love with this person that he is actually going a little nuts.  Hell, just touching her drives him crazy.  But he isn’t sure she feels the same way.  He keeps questioning her.  Maybe it is really his own insecurities that are causing him to doubt the relationship.  Or maybe she doesn’t love him and he really senses something missing.It is such a heartfelt, emotive song.  The lyrics paint a great picture that you can visualize exactly what is going through the guys mind and you might have even experienced those feelings yourself. 

A SIDE:

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Def Leppard – ‘Hysteria’ (1987) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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On August 3rd, 1987, Def Leppard released their fourth studio album, ‘Hysteria’.  Little did they know this ground breaking album would go on to sell over 25 million records, produce 7 hit singles and go to #1 on the Billboard Charts.  The members didn’t change as it was stilll Joe Elliott, Rick Savage, Rick Allen, Steve Clark and Phil Collen who got his first writing credits on this one. Whether you like this album or not, there is no denying the impact it had on the world of music. In fact, I have so many copies of this album. I have it on CD, cassette and vinyl and in fact, I have three copies on vinyl. The original album, the picture disc and the one that came in the box set The Collection, Vol. 1. I would say I’m set.

The album was a labor of love for the band as it took several years to record and they struggled so much during this time. There were so many setbacks during the recording of the album.  First, Robert John “Mutt” Lange turned down the producing job for the record after he had recorded “High & Dry” (my personal favorite) and “Pyromania” although he did help in the initial song writing for the record.  The band went through several producers during the recording including working with Jim Steinman of ‘Bat Out of Hell’ fame.  Their relationship did not go smoothly and he was later fired (they paid him a lot of money to get out of the contract so it must have gone really badly). Later in the process, “Mutt” did come back and produce the final product and then history was made.

The second big obstacle was Rick Allen’s car accident that severed his arm.  Yes, the drummer of the band lost an arm.  With all respect to the band, they did not abandon Rick.  They stood by him and supported him until he was capable of playing the drums with one arm using an electronic drum set and a set of foot pedals to compensate for the lost arm.  It definitely was a trying time.  I won’t go into much more as you can watch the documentary or read the book to learn more otherwise we could go on forever and ever talking about the making of this album as it had been 4 years since their prior release ‘Pyromania’. Instead, we can jump right in to the album as I feel we are here for the music anyway.

The first track on the album is the song “Women”. The song was the first single for the album in the U.S., but “Animal” was the first everywhere else. The reason for that is that Leppard wanted to make sure their core audience, the males, would understand what they were going for with the sound of this new album. They knew women might not like this one, however, the song isn’t degrading women at all. It is actually inspired by the important women in Joe Elliott’s life and is an anthem that actually pays tribute and celebrates women both their beauty and their strength all with a biblical background to it.

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Def Leppard – ‘Hysteria U.S. Tour 1988’ – Tour Book

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It has been awhile since we’ve gone through a Tour Book and this time around, we have a three set series on Def Leppard Tour Books. Only 3 because that is all I have at this time. And we are kicking it off with the band’s biggest tour, Hysteria. The Tour ran from 1987-1988 and I saw it 3 times. Yep, three times. Twice in Atlanta, one of which I won on a Radio call-in show, and once in Chattanooga, TN because we had to see them again.

Looking back, what was great about these shows is that I got to see Steve Clark play as he passed a few years later. The band was Joe Elliott, Rick Allen, Rick Savage, Steve Clark and Phil Collen and the album Hysteria was their biggest selling album of all time going Diamond with well over 12 million copies. It spawned an impressive 7 singles and they were the biggest band in the world at that time. They are still one of my favorite bands of all time and why I didn’t buy a tour book back then is beyond me…probably because I was a broke high school student…we will go with that. So, here is the book in all its glory…

The cover is above as the header and if you notice the triangle cut out. When you open it, you get to see the same concert shot wrapped by the Hysteria album cover.

Unlike a lot of Tour books, we don’t get an individual band member page talking about each member. Basically every page has all the members as it is a band…

This next page give us a little history on the band from the release of the ‘Hysteria’ album up to the 1988 leg of the tour. It is a nice long essay that is a must read.

More and more band shots…

This next one has a little flap on the right side…

And when folded out, changes the picture to this…

Now we are to the page where the band thanks the road crew. This time they take it a step further and give you pictures of the road crew which I think is an awesome touch!!

And lastly is the Merch page and one last band photo…

Oh yeah, can’t forge the back cover…

And that is everything. I hope you enjoyed the walk through the book and we have two more Tour Books to go through over the next couple weeks. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Thanks for hanging around.

Here is a list of all the Tour Books we have reviewed over the years. Links are provided so you can go see some history.

Alice Cooper:

Kiss Tour Book Series:

Bon Jovi:

Rush:

Def Leppard:

  • Def Leppard – Hysteria U.S. Tour (1988)

Judas Priest – ‘Priest…Live!’ (1987) – Album Review (The Complete Albums Collection Series)

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It was time for Priest to release another live album. After the success of the band’s 1986 album ‘Turbo’ and the very successful tour called ‘Fuel for Life Tour’, the band was still riding high. It was decided to capture this new era of Priest with a live album. The album takes songs from two of the band’s shows on the tour. The first was from my hometown of Atlanta, Ga from the show on June 15, 1986 at the Omni. Back then I would’ve been 17 years old and about to start my Senior Year in High School which means I was in to the whole glam rock scene with the likes of Poison and Ratt and those bands. I wasn’t listening to Priest so completely missed that show…now I look on it sadly because what a show it would’ve been. The second show they took songs from was from the Dallas, TX show on June 27, 1986 at Reunion Arena. And from the sounds of this album, both shows were spectacular.

What I find really cool about this release is they did the same thing Kiss did with Alive! and Alive II. They did not repeat any tracks on the albums. Yep, all the songs on Priest…Live! were from the era after ‘Unleashed in the East’ so you get an entirely new set of songs. As a fan, I completely appreciate and love that fact. Then you can throw on both albums and play them back to back and get a killer show with no repeats. Good job guys.

The track listing is great with over 15 tracks covering the 5 albums. You get 5 from ‘Turbo’ which makes sense since that is the album they were touring at the time. You get 4 from ‘Defenders of the Faith’, 2 from ‘Screaming for Vengeance’, only 1 from ‘Point of Entry’ and 3 from ‘British Steel’. The version I have has 3 bonus tracks which is 1 from ‘Defenders of the Faith’, 1 from ‘Screaming for Vengeance’ and ‘Hell Bent for Leather’ which would technically be the only repeat, but since this is a bonus track and not on the original album it doesn’t count.

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Judas Priest – ‘Defenders of The Faith’ (1984) – Album Review (The Complete Albums Collection Series)

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In May of 1983, Judas Priest played one of their biggest shows at the US Festival in California. They played on what was called Metal Night with bands like Motley Crue, Scorpions, Quiet Riot, Van Halen and Ozzy. It was a very memorable event. Then three short months later, the band was back at in the studio in Ibiza, Spain where they had recorded their prior album ‘Screaming For Vengeance’.

They recorded the album from September to November 1983 with Tom Allom again at the helm. Well, they weren’t recording the whole time because when they arrived all the studio equipment was gone. Apparently the owner of the studio had some money issues. They had to get all new equipment shipped in and had to get it in to the studio. Rob tells in his book, ‘Confess’, they had to put a bunch of logs together and put the giant console on it to help roll it in to the studio. That had to be a sight to see. They definitely worked hard to get that album made…when they weren’t partying in town.

The album was done and the sound was very much like ‘Screaming for Vengeance’. The band felt that had tapped in to something special with that album so they basically repeated it on ‘Defenders of Faith’. Now they didn’t repeat really, but they wanted a similar vibe and sonic feeling. Which they achieved. And they achieved it with the band in tack from the last album with Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton, K.K. Downing, Ian Hill and Dave Holland. The album was released on January 4, 1984 and went all the way to #18 on the Billboard charts and went Platinum in the US with over 1 million in sales.

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