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This weeks program features songs from David Bowie, Whitesnake, The Beatles, Sparks amongst others, as well as some stories from Joe!
Radio show time is Saturdays at 6pm (GMT) / 1pm (EST) and repeated on Tuesday nights @ 9pm (GMT) / 4pm (EST).
For those in the U.K. tune into Joe’s weekly radio show on PlanetRock.com.
Follow the monthly recap playlist on Spotify HERE
For those listening outside the U.K. listen live from this site HERE. Please not this Surf.com internet site may not work in some countries. As a quick fix, please download a VPN application and set it to the UK territory. Then download the Planet Rock app and boom, it works!
JOE ELLOTT’S SONGS FROM THE VAULT ON SIRIUS XM’S DEEP VINYL
Tune into Joe’s new monthly radio show on Sirius to hear artists like Roxy Music, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Queen, Kansas and more!
WHEN:
Premiere – Thursday, 4/18 at 4pm
Encores 4/19 10pm, 4/20 10am, 4/21 12am, 6pm
Visit your local record store and pick up a copy of the new Story So Far: The Best of Def Leppard Volume 2. Info & locations HERE
This weeks program features songs from UFO, THE SCORPIONS, GIRL, RAINBOW amongst others, as well as some stories from Joe!
Radio show time is Saturdays at 6pm (GMT) / 1pm (EST) and repeated on Tuesday nights @ 9pm (GMT) / 4pm (EST).
For those in the U.K. tune into Joe’s weekly radio show on PlanetRock.com.
Follow the monthly recap playlist on Spotify HERE
For those listening outside the U.K. listen live from this site HERE. Please not this Surf.com internet site may not work in some countries. As a quick fix, please download a VPN application and set it to the UK territory. Then download the Planet Rock app and boom, it works!
via Louder
On Friday evening, Def Leppard were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame by Queen guitarist Brian May.
May paid tribute to the band’s work ethic and spoke about how they overcame adversity after drummer Rick Allen lost his arm in a car accident and the death of guitarist Steve Clark in 1991.
As for their music, May said: “They released 50 singles, most of which were hits and many were number ones. There was this kind of feeling abroad in the press, particularly in the UK, that maybe that made them uncool.
“But let me tell you, those songs, the fact that they wrote real songs that people can sing and carry in their heads is the reason that Def Leppard will be remembered in hearts and minds long after all of us have left this Earth.”
Taking to the stage, Def Leppard vocalist Joe Elliott spoke about the chance meeting between him and guitarist Pete Willis in 1977, which led to the birth of the band.
Elliott also paid tribute to Willis, who was also enshrined with the band, saying: “Sadly Pete couldn’t be with us tonight, but I want to emphasise how very important Pete’s role in this band was in the early days.
“He was a terrific player, had a very mischievous sense of humour, but he brought plenty of great musical ideas to the band.”
Closing his speech, Elliott thanked their families, wives and children “who help to keep us grounded and also give us a good reason to keep doing what we do.”
He added: “And last but absolutely not least, my fellow bandmates here. We’re not blood, but we’re the closest thing to brothers this only child has ever known. I couldn’t and wouldn’t want to do it without you guys.”
Def Leppard then took to the stage to play Hysteria, Rock Of Ages, Photographand Pour Some Sugar On Me, before coming out at the end of the ceremony to lead an all-star jam of Mott The Hoople’s All The Young Dudes with Ian Hunter.
They were also joined by May, Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone from the Zombies – who were also inducted into the Rock Hall on Friday night – Steven Van Zandt and Susanna Hoffs from The Bangles.
Stevie Nicks, The Cure, Radiohead, Roxy Music and Janet Jackson were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
via Planet Rock
Close friends with Def Leppard for decades, Brian May has guested on stage with them numerous times, including for a performance of ‘Now I’m Here’ at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness in 1992.
Speaking on stage at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, Brian spoke about joining Def Leppard at a Los Angeles gig in 1983 to play a mashup of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Travelin’ Band’ and Led Zeppelin’s ‘Rock and Roll’, which nearly ended with him being engulfed by flames.
Fortunately for Brian, Def Leppard frontman and Planet Rock DJ, Joe Elliott, was on hand to save him.
Brian explained:
“Cut to September ’83, I’m in Los Angeles, again we’re recording an album, which, this time, is The Works, I think, and I go out. This time, Def Leppard are playing the local arena, which is the legendary L.A. Forum. I go down there, very inconspicuous, I sit in the back, and when these boys hit the stage, I have to tell you — I have never seen anything like it. I’ve seen some great shows in the Forum, but I’ve never seen an audience react like that. They got to their feet, they never sat down and they screamed and shouted the whole way through the performance. Def Leppard killed that night. I went backstage to see them afterwards, they invited me, and just like when we first played in the States, all their moms and dads are there — very proud moms and dads, and I get introduced to them. And the boys say, “Will you come out and play with us tomorrow night?” So I said yes, and the rest is history. We played “Travelin’ Band.” It’s history because I nearly lost my career and my life because this is Pyromania and the production has all kinds of fire. Joe warned me, he said, “Watch out for the fireworks at the end, just be careful.” But I’m at the end, we finish “Travelin’ Band,” we’re up behind the drums and there’s a kind of chasm in front of us where the fire’s about to come out — I have no idea. I’m gone, I’m like giving it all this, and Joe’s going, “Brian, Brian!” And I’m thinking he’s just kind of appreciating me, you know? He’s going, “Brian, Brian, the fire!” Anyway this huge sheath of flame comes up in front of me, and just in time, Joe’s dragged me out of it — otherwise I wouldn’t be here tonight. So early on in their career, Joe Elliott saved my life!”
“I regard all these guys as great friends and kind of part of my family, that’s why it’s so important for me to be here. I wouldn’t have let anybody else do this (induct them).”
He also hailed them as “a magnificent rock group, in the classic tradition of what a rock group really is” and “a bunch of magnificent human beings.”
Following their induction, Def Leppard closed the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday night with an all-star performance of Mott The Hoople’s ‘All The Young Dudes’.
The Sheffield rockers played the David Bowie-penned song alongside stars including Queen’s Brian May, Steven Van Zandt, The Zombies’ Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent, the Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs, and Mott The Hoople’s Ian Hunter.
Stevie Nicks, Radiohead, The Cure, Roxy Music, The Zombies and Janet Jackson were also all inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Friday.
via Metalhead Zone
Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen had a recent interview with 93.1 WMPA, and discussed how can he be in great shape at 61, him not using any drugs and how did they earn millions of dollars in their early days.
Here is the interview (Transcribed by Ultimate-Guitar):
93.1 WMPA:
“When ‘Women’ premiered on MTV [as the second single off 1987’s ‘Hysteria’], I later read that it was not as big as you thought it was gonna be. Was Hysteria a slow burner when it first started?”
Phil Collen:
“We were in really serious debt, like, $5 million in three years. Studios and everything – shipping, cargo, hotels, and god knows what.
So we were really in debt, and the first three singles didn’t have absolutely any traction at all. I mean, they were out there… But now you look back and you see ‘Hysteria,’ or ‘Women’ – I think ‘Animal’ was the third one – you look at them now, ‘Animal’ is a Top 10 single in England. They caught fire later on, but we were still $3 million dollars in debt when that happened.”
93.1 WMPA:
“Your health regiment has become something of a legend. I mean, a lot of you guys look exactly the same as you did 30 years ago. What is your key to success – because I believe you’re in your early 60s, are you not?”
Phil Collen:
“Yeah, 61. The really easy one is just consistently working out. You don’t have to kill yourself, but just keep the blood flowing in the joints. If I stop doing that – even just kicking the bag or something like that – within a week or so, I start aching, I start feeling like the rest of the population of my age.
“So last night, just kicking the bag, all of a sudden the pain’s gone. You got to be consistent with it, and diet. I don’t drink, I don’t take drugs, I don’t smoke, none of that stuff, that really helps.
“I’m a vegan – I know some unhealthy vegans, but again, you just apply and when you’re traveling, you just feel better. It helps, it’s amazing, and that doesn’t cost anything.”
Click here to read the whole interview.
via Magic 98.3
Def Leppard was the final band to be presented at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony tonight (March 29) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Brian May of Queen did the honors of presenting the Sheffield, England band and appropriately asked, “I would guess from tonight, 65 years after Bill Haley and the Comets’ ‘Rock Around The Clock,’ rock and roll is alive and well, am I right?”
In May’s speech, he explained how Def Leppard came into his life. In 1981, Queen was in the studio, and he went to see Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow. Def Leppard opened, but he missed them. However, he visited their dressing room, thus, beginning their friendship.
May described hearing “Photograph” for the first time and being blown away by it. He said that when he finally saw Def Leppard live that he, “…never seen anything like it, I have never seen an audience like that. Def Leppard killed that night.” He then recalled joining them on stage and how it almost ended his life.
“The album was Pyromania, and there was pyro everywhere!” said May. He would then describe how he almost got hit by the band’s on-stage pyro, but singer Joe Elliott ended up saving him.
May made a point to recognize Def Leppard’s lengthy career saying, “They endured being very fashionable and very unfashionable. They got attacked for making hit records!” But those hits, May pointed out are why they will be remembered for a long time: “After all of us are gone.”
“These guys are a magnificent rock group,” May simply stated.
When it was time for the band to speak, Elliott spoke movingly about the band’s original guitarist Pete Willis and emphasized his importance to the band in the early days. (Willis was not present at the event). He also remembered the band’s other original guitarist, the late Steve Clark.
“We love him and we miss him every day,” said Elliott. “We’re solid, we’re appreciative of who we are and what we stand for.”
Elliott added, laughing, “If alcoholism, car crashes and cancer couldn’t kill us, the ’90s had no f—ing chance!” He also thanked drummer Rick Allen, who got a standing ovation and visibly teared up. He thanked the rest of the band and said, “We’re not brothers, but we’re the closest thing to blood that this only child has ever known.”
No one else from the band spoke; instead, they grabbed their instruments to perform a mini-set of “Hysteria,” “Rock Of Ages,” “Photograph” and “Pour Some Sugar On Me.” After that, they were joined by May, Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent of The Zombies, Susanna Hoffs, Steven Van Zandt and Ian Hunter for “All The Young Dudes.”
An edited version of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will air on HBO on Saturday, April 27 at 8 PM ET.