|
|
|
| Tue, Dec. 01 - - Mobile - RSS | |
|
|
Def Leppard rides again
Def Leppard rides again--the quintessential '80s pop-metal band has a new album and is on tour with Journey
Date published: 7/6/2006
By EMILY GILMORE Def Leppard survived being lumped in with the hair-metal bands in the '80s. The popularity of grunge didn't stop them. And the rise of hip-hop hasn't kept fans away. The British band may not sell as many albums as it once did--1983's "Pyromania" and 1987's "Hysteria" both achieved diamond status by selling more than 10,000,000 copies in the U.S., while the group's last studio album, "X," didn't even go gold--but they insist on rocking, and audiences are eating it up. The band toured last year with Bryan Adams to promote its platinum-selling two-disc "Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection." Now Def Leppard is back on the road--this time with Journey--to promote its latest album, "Yeah," a collection of covers of songs the fortysomething band members loved growing up. The tour, which will stop at Nissan Pavilion in Bristow tomorrow night, has been "unbelievable" so far, Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen said last week in a phone interview from the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn., where the band had played the night before. "It's like being out in the '80s again." The crowds have been huge, with both the devoted and the curious filling the seats, Collen said. The Def Leppard-Journey combo works, he said, because the fans know practically every song each band performs. They both have been around for about 30 years, which means they each have an enormous number of hits with which to thrill audiences. Collen attributes Def Leppard's longevity in part to that wealth of material that many bands these days have difficulty amassing. Also, "in our case, it's certainly the integrity of us not going away," he added. " We've sort of been at it the whole time, and I think you get a sort of respect for that, as well." So tomorrow's audience is sure to hear "Photograph" and "Pour Some Sugar on Me," but Def Leppard also will offer up some choice cuts from "Yeah," which some critics have called the band's best album in years. "I don't know why that is," Collen said. This was a "selfish" project for Def Leppard, he said--they made the album purely for themselves without thinking about how the fans might like it.
Date published: 7/6/2006
|
 |
|||
|
|||
