There was a TV show that talked about all the Classic Albums and Def Leppard were given one of those treatments. It was released on UK TV on May 27, 2002 and didn’t hit the States until August 27th, 2002. It had interviews from pretty much everyone involved. New interviews for the current band members and older ones for Mutt and Steve Clark. The band’s managers were interviewed as well as Ross Halfin, Jeff Rich and Rolling Stone’s David Fricke.
It kicks off with the band talking about moving to Dublin and the first song they started working on which was ‘Animal’. It took them 3 years to complete and get it right. It became the first single in the U.K. and finally gave the band their first hit in their home country.
They were in Dublin with Mutt Lange writing songs, but Mutt couldn’t commit to it as he was busy with another project. So, on to another producer. Jim Steinman was the first producer and Joe said Jim was a songwriter not necessarily a producer. The band did not agree with him ever. Jim wanted to capture the moment while the band was so used to Mutt and they wanted it to be perfect. They ended up paying Jim off for him to leave and they paid him a lot of money.
They then went to Nigel Green who was the engineer for Mutt, but he wasn’t Mutt. But around that time, Rick Allen had his tragic car crash where he lost his arm. They didn’t go in to detail of that until later in the show. This about the time Mutt finally came back in the fold and decided to produce the album. The work could seriously begin.
It is 2002 and the sound on the radio is now very different. Pop bands rule the world. Heck, even Bon Jovi had turned more to a Pop band with an album called ‘Crush’. Def Leppard chased the trend with this album and have moved completely away from their known rock sound to a more melodic pop record. They even brought some of the Swedish pop writers to help like Andrew Carlsson and Max Martin. Also included in on the writing was famed writer Marti Frederiksen who had worked with Aerosmith on the song “Jaded”. Phil remembers hearing this song and wanting Leppard to have a song like that. All these changes are huge and we probably thought this is not an album we were expecting from the band, but as it turns out, it was one we needed.
The album ‘X’, (or Ten), is the band’s 8th studio album, but its 10th album release if you count ‘Retro Active’ and ‘Vault’. The album was released on July 30, 2002, but only reached #11 on the Billboard charts. The album had 3 singles and never did well on the charts, I don’t remember hearing them on the radio. Heck, ‘X’ didn’t even get certified anything by RIAA…might be the first album of theirs to not get at least Gold. This album was a big change in more ways than one.
There wass one constant with Def Leppard and that was the line-up. It was still Joe Elliott, Rick Allen, Rick Savage, Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell. 10 years with this line-up and we are now 12 years after this and they are still the same line-up. Kudos to them. Maybe the band was in a good place at this time because this does seem like a happier album at times. I have even heard this album called the ‘Love Album’ as it has a lot of ballads and a lot of pop songs. I don’t have a problem with them doing a pop album…even Kiss did with ‘Unmasked’ and I like that album. So why not Def Leppard. Is this as bad as everyone says it is…maybe I’m the contrarian here, but I think it is awesome. I am a huge pop music fan, so this satisfies that side of my taste quite nicely. Let’s get in to it.
The first track and single off the album is the song called “Now”. The song was written by the band with the help of Marti Frederiksen who we mentioned earlier. If Phil wanted a song like “Jaded” with the classy, perfect production, well, he got it. “Now” is as slick of production as it comes. The opening acoustic guitars, the beautifully lush keyboards, a crazy cool bassline and a great snare beat, “Now” opens as great as any song they’ve done and when that chorus hits, the song is huge, with delicious harmonies and a great energy that drives the song. There is a rock element to the song, but let’s be honest, it is pop in all its glory. It is modern, but still has the Leppard tone to it that shows the band is still in there somewhere.
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.
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.
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 is ‘Rarities Two’ of the set. It is a 2 LP release and contains some rare tracks and rare live performances as well. All the songs are from the years surrounding these four albums.
LP 1:
It kicks off with a demo of the song “Tonight” from the ‘Adrenalize’ album. The song sounds like the final version with minor exceptions. Musically, it isn’t fully flushed out, the “oohs-aahs” aren’t full gang style yet and pretty simple sounding. Still a lot to get it to the final stages, but cool to hear an early version of the song.
Next, we get a demo of “When Love & Hate Collide” from the greatest hits album “Vault”. Is another stripped down version of the final song. I don’t like the guitar tone on this one as there is this little high pitched riff throughout that annoys the crap out of me. They definitely improve on that for the final version. Joe’s vocals are not high in the mix and have a weird echo, but the essence of the song is there.
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.
I know, we’ve been doing a lot of Def Leppard Bootlegs from the Slang era, well, I do have a lot from that time. So bare with me for one more item. This time though, it is a Bootleg DVD so we get to actually the boys playing. This one was filmed down in Argentina back in 1997 and was actually recorded and played on Canada’s MuchMusic. How do I know that? Well, in the top left hand corner of the screen throughout the show is their logo. Yes, someone videotaped the show off their television and later transferred it to DVD.
When I googled the show, AI had this to say about it…Def Leppard performed at Cine Teatro Gran Rex in Buenos Aires, Argentina on April 19, 1997, marking their first show in the city and country. The venue is located near the coast and east of the city center, and was built in an Art Deco style in July 1937...Couldn’t have said it better myself. If I’m not mistaken, the song “Photograph” from the show was not shown during the broadcast and sadly, as a result, that isn’t here on this DVD either. Heck, what did you expect, he/she recorded it straight from the broadcast.
The band at the time and still today is still Joe Elliott, Rick Savage, Rick Allen, Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell. And they are all in fine form for this show. The setlist is basically identical to the Montreal Show I reviewed a couple weeks ago. The big differences being the Montreal Show had “Photograph”, “Another Hit & Run” as well as “Miss You In a Heartbeat” sung by Phil Collen. The Argentina show doesn’t “Photograph” but it does have, “Action” (which is great) and “Make Love Like a Man” (which is a horrible song). The DVD also has “When Love & Hate Collide” instead of “Miss You In a Heartbeat”, but I think I like Phil Singing “Miss You…” better. Everything else is spot on in same order as well.
Sometimes, when you buy a bootleg CD you have no idea what you are buying. This is one of those cases. I couldn’t find anything about the release other than the front cover. All it said was “Def Leppard – Live Bites” and it listed out a handful of classic Leppard songs. And it was cheap. Those two things were all I had to go on, so I bought it.
When I received the CD in the mail, It didn’t offer much else to it either. It did have a full track listing, but it was only 11 songs and from the looks of it, not a full live show…only pieces. There were two songs from ‘Slang’ and nothing later that told me it was from around 1997 at the very least. There was nothing in the booklet…ha! booklet…one sheet of paper…so not really a booklet…that gave me any indication of where these songs were recorded. The back of the CD had something that said the following…
Having sold over 65 million albums worldwide since their debut release in 1980 and proved themselves as one of rock music’s hardest working and consistently powerful live bands, Def Leppard remain one of only five rock groups who can claim two separate original 10 million-plus selling albums.
The band’s first show in this beautiful city since August 1992 for the Adrenalize Tour sees them at the Centre Molson in Montreal, Canada on September 15, 1996. A tour that ran from May 9th, 1996 through to April 27th, 1997 in support of their new album, at the time, ‘Slang’. No more ‘In the Round’, the band played on the traditional end stage set-up, but instead of 20,000 people, the place held anywhere from 5,000-9,000 people. No more massive shows, they were no doing a straight up rock show with less lights and less everything. A pure rock & roll show.
This show was broadcast on the radio in Montreal and southern Canada as well as across the U.S. And what we have here is a wonderful bootleg of that show across 2 CDs. A fun fact, a month later on October 23, 1996, the band would enter the Guinness Book of World Records for being the first band to play on three continents in a 24 hour period. That has nothing to do with this release, but figured why not throw that in for good measure. Back to the bootleg, this one sounds fantastic, there appear to be no errors in the track listing as far the titles are right, and the pictures are even of the era of the band. Finally, a bootleg with no mistakes.
Well, it was completely devoice of mistakes actually, the opening track “Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)” actually fades in part way through the song. I am guessing someone forgot to hit “record” on the tape deck. Otherwise, the only issue. The song sounds great, but man, they are playing it at warp speed. They then go into a track from ‘High & Dry’ that doesn’t get played enough, “Another Hit And Run”. The guitar work is sensational on this one and has a great solo. Then we get “Animal” and then the ballad “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad” which for me is one of the better songs on ‘Adrenalize’.
We are now in the mid 90’s and the rock bands from the 80’s were basically gone. Ok, they were still around, but they were not cool. Those bands were try going darker, heavier and try to match the grunge scene and the style of rock that was going on at the time. Def Leppard were no different as far as not being cool anymore (except I still thought they were). Thankfully though, they did not follow the other bands and go heavier and grungier. No, instead they went in a direction no one saw coming. They experimented with new sounds, new instruments and delivered an album that was like nothing you’ve ever heard from them. They tried something entirely new.
The result of the new sound was ‘Slang’. It was a darker album for sure, but not grunge dark. Lyrically dark. The band members were not having the best of times around then. Joe Elliott and Rick Allen had both been arrested for spousal abuse (not to each other, they weren’t married to each other). Rick Savage was suffering from Bells Palsey and the death of his dad. And Phil Collen was going through a divorce. All of that impacted the writing of this album.
Another thing that impacted the album was that there was no more Mutt Lange. He wasn’t involved at all. However, we did get the impact of Vivian Campbell as this was his first studio album he had made with the band since he joined. I think that helped change things up as well. The band ended up producing the album themselves with Pete Woodroffe. They also recorded the album completely different. No more Lange style of one instrument, one note at a time. This time around, they recorded it together. A novel concept.
It was released on May 14, 1996 and it did not do well at all. Well, it did go Gold, but it didn’t go Platinum. It only went to #14 on the Billboard albums chart. They did release 4 singles but no Top 40 tracks anymore. Nope. Times had changed. However, it doesn’t mean that this album was not good…not in the slightest.
The opening track, “Truth?”, was blatantly obvious that this was not the same band. A darker, more foreboding sound. Very experimental as the band show no signs of their old self and that is why this song is a stellar choice to open the album. It says, hold on to your hat…this is going to be different. It’s heavy drumbeats and very progressive guitar work are exceptional an unlike anything else they’ve done. When I first heard this back in 1996 my initial reaction was…WHAT???? But it quickly turned in to “HELL YES!!”.
The next track, “Turn to Dust”, was an even bigger departure. With the band’s use of a sarangi in the opening of the song, you get a South Asian folk flair. There is a Beatles tone to it and even a Bowie shout-out so the boys haven’t completely abandoned their roots. The chorus is a little heavy and totally killer. It isn’t anthemic, but it is catchy and even better then the opening track.
The first single and title track, “Slang” is one of two songs that might be considered more of their older sound, but still nothing like anything else they’ve done up to this point. You could possibly dance to this one too. Heck, even Joe raps a little on this one. WTF??? Yeah, that was my first impression as well. But, I love it. They are keeping us on our toes with this one. A song about phone sex too…huh!!!
“All I Want is Everything” is up next and it slows things down. A ballad that is nothing like the well-polished ballads of the past. It is dark, foreboding and the guitar tone is gritty and morose. The chorus has a great melody and is quite brilliant. It took me awhile to get in to this song, but I think I’m finally there. I had always wondered why so many people liked this one as at first I didn’t. I put the headphones on and really listened to it and started to hear things I’d never noticed before, certain notes and textures, and eventually I found the song to be one of the finer moments on the album.
One of the more fun songs on the album is the rocker “Work It Out”. Vivian Campbell’s first major contribution to the band and it is a homerun. It has a more industrial sound, it is heavier and that bass at time from Sav is so freaking funky. And some of the best bass work, bar none, on the album. I gravitated to this one immediately and might be one of my favorite tracks on the album…if not THE favorite track.
“Breathe a Sigh” gives us another ballad and this one is another departure for the band. There are some R&B moments with those verses both musically and even how Joe delivers those lyrics. It is soft, subtle and tantalizing. The chorus is old-school Lep with those lush vocal harmonies that would make the boy bands jealous. It really shines amongst the darker material on the album.
Then we get the first misstep for me with “Deliver Me”. I do not like Joe’s singing on it at all. The song is a rocker though so it has that going for it. Joe’s vocals are deeper, grittier and maybe it is too far the other way from Lep, but it does nothing for me. The chorus does pick up and make things better, but the slow, droning verses kill it for me.
The band goes all heavy metal on us with “Gift of Flesh”. The heaviest song the band has done in years and definitely the heaviest on this album. It feels almost apocalyptic, there is an urgency to it and there is something we haven’t talked about at all on this album…a guitar solo. The best one on the album (or at least the most memorable one at least). This song is slamming from start to finish and can I get a Hell Yeah!!!…I can’t hear you!!!
Then the album ends with not 1, not 2, but 3 ballads in a row. Wow! Talk about changing things up. But don’t expect to be bored, not by any stretch of the imagination. It kicks off with “Blood Runs Cold” which could possibly be on of the most haunting songs the band has ever done. Musically, it is ethereal, so much so that it could break if you touched it. Joe delivers the lyrics so emotionally and you can feel the sadness, the pain and the heartache. My favorite ballad on the album.
“Where Does Love Go When It Dies” sees the band get all philosophical with this acoustic beauty. It is about as old-school as they get, but yet it still feels different and more sophisticated. Joe does it again lyrically and vocally and gives us another brilliant track and this one will make you stop and think. You can’t say that too many times with their songs.
Then we get the final song and most epic on the album, “Pearl of Euphoria”. It opens with a killer bass line (Sav does it again). Elliott’s vocals are deliberate, darker and deeper in tone. It has a similar modern tone like “Truth?” and yet there is a 70’s tone a la Zeppelin. It has that otherworldly lyrical content you expect from Zeppelin. The guitar playing is exquisite and some of the finest on the album. There are so many great things about this one I don’t know where to begin. What a way to go out.
Track Listing:
Truth? – Keeper
Turn to Dust – Keeper
Slang – Keeper
All I Want Is Everything – Keeper
Work It Out – Keeper
Breathe a Sigh – Keeper
Deliver Me – Delete
Gift of Flesh – Keeper
Blood Runs Cold – Keeper
Where Does Love Go When It Dies – Keeper
Pearl of Euphoria – Keeper
Track Score is 10 out of 11 Tracks or 91%. This is one of the most surprising albums the band has ever put out. It took me a couple listens to get it back in the day, but when I did, I was all in. A very dark album versus everything else in the catalog and fit with the darkness of the 90’s music that was out, but it was nothing like the 90’s music at the time. It was its own animal or beast. Def Leppard stretched their legs with this one. They experimented, tried new things and some people might not get it, but those of us that do are given a masterpiece. Now, it isn’t as good as their earlier albums, but it might be one of the best they’ve done since ‘Hysteria’, even to this day. My Overall Score is a 4.5 out of 5.0 Stars. I pull this out more than any other album except the first four. I can’t recommend this one enough.
NEXT UP: DEF LEPPARD – ‘MONTREAL: THE CLASSIC 1996 BROADCAST – (BOOTLEG CD)
2 Loud 2 Old Music 