Tag: The Hothouse Flowers

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

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic8 Comments

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 – ‘Retro Active’ (1993) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic22 Comments

The band was now five albums in but it had been 12 years total. Not a great track record. They wanted to not have 4 years or more between albums again so it was decided to release a compilation album to hold fans over until the next release. But this wasn’t any ordinary greatest hits compilation, nope…that would’ve been too easy. The band decided to pull together a bunch of rare tracks and B-sides and put them together on one release…but still…not so simple as they re-recorded parts, remixed others and gave us a solid collection of songs from their career over the span of 1984 up to 1993. It also gives us some of the last recordings of the late, great Steve Clark.

The album would be called ‘Retro Active’ and released on October 5, 1993. It would spawn three singles including “Two Steps Behind”, “Miss You In A Heartbeat” and The Sweet cover for “Action”. Both “Two Steps Behind” and “Miss You In A Heartbeat” would go Top 40 and the album would go on to sell over 1,000,000 copies in the U.S. alone. Heck, even the opening track, “Desert Storm” would hit the U.S. Mainstream Rock Chart at #12 without even being released technically as a single.

One really cool aspect of the album is the cover which was designed by Hugh Syme and Nels Israelson. The image is a photographed of a woman sitting in front of a vanity mirror. However, she is positioned just so, along with other items, so that when you moved the album further away from you it turned in to a skull. A really cool concept

The album opens up with an outtake from the ‘Hysteria’ album called “Desert Song”. It was originally recorded as an instrumental and is the last song released by the band to feature Steve Clark on guitar. In fact, it is noted as the only song in the catalog to feature both Steve and his replacement Vivian Campbell who did some background vocals on the song. I know I said it was originally an instrumental and it was, but lyrics were written when the pulled the song back out after forgetting about it for years. The song is about Mick Ronson who was dying of cancer around this time. It is a killer opening track, hard hitting and a really cool Clark tone to it which is so missed. The bass work is great on this as well as the guitars. To me, the song sounds more like it would’ve fit on ‘Slang’ then on ‘Hysteria’. A truly fantastic track.

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