Tag: def leppard

Live Review: Stepping Inside Def Leppard’s Monumental Caesars Palace Residency

Posted on by James Janocha

via Atwood Magazine

“I would like to introduce you to someone who I have known this August coming for… too long,”

Def Leppard vocalist Joe Elliott laughed, looking over at bandmate and longtime friend Rick Savage from across the stage at Caesars Palace. “49 years, it will be. We formed this fucking thing in August 1977, me and him. Him being, on the bass guitar, mister Rick Savage.”

49 years ago, in congruence with that fateful meeting in Sheffield, rock was changed forever when founding members Elliott and Savage created Def Leppard. It started as a project in art class for the then-teenage Elliott: tasked with titling a fictitious band, he settled on the rowdy, somewhat nonsensical Deaf Leopard. In the five ensuing decades, the real band – made up of vocalist Elliott, bassist Savage, guitarists Vivian Campbell and Phil Collen, and drummer Rick Allen – rose to the summit of rock in all ways imaginable, but not without their fair share of heartaches in-between.

While the current lineup has been a steadfast brotherhood for decades, tragedy has always loomed over Def Leppard. Whether it be the 1984 car crash that cost Allen his left arm, or the unimaginable passing of guitarist Steve Clark in 1991, the band has endured – and more importantly, come out the other side stronger for – a series of events that could have torn any other recording group apart. But here they are, nearly 50 years into the ongoing creation of their legacy, optimistic and powerful as ever.

Most recently, the band kickstarted a monumental residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. Spanning the month of February, the Las Vegas shows feature a brand new production including a fresh setlist, intricate stage design, and a return of fan-favorite tracks seldom explored in previous tours. From the venue to the onstage visuals to the detail poured into the band’s pop-up shop, it’s a truly one-of-a-kind show experience tailored for longtime and new fans alike.

Continue Reading…

Record Store Day UK Exclusive: Slang 30th Anniversary

Posted on by James Janocha

Def Leppard’s sixth studio album Slang celebrates its 30th anniversary with a brand new exclusive release for Record Store Day! Releasing for the first time featuring a second LP personally curated by Joe with B-sides and rarities from the time. This package is presented on pink vinyl with brand new enhanced artwork.

Pick up your copy on Saturday 18 April from your local participating indie record shop. Find a store near you at recordstoreday.co.uk

Def Leppard: “I practice a lot because you have to reach a certain bar otherwise it’s not acceptable.”

Posted on by James Janocha

Def Leppard V13

via V13

After more than four decades at the top, Def Leppard continues to mark new milestones while showing no signs of slowing down. Most recently, the band were honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, placing them alongside some of the most iconic names in music history. For guitarist Phil Collen, it was another moment that helped cement the band’s legacy, a reflection of a career that started in Sheffield and has taken the band to the world’s biggest stages.

Alongside the recognition, Def Leppard are preparing to return to the UK and Europe with a major summer tour. With decades of global touring behind them, Collen reflects on how life on the road has evolved, from the physical demands of touring to the game-changing advances in live production, sound, and visual technology. Whether playing stadiums, arenas, or extended residencies in Las Vegas, the band continue to adapt, embracing innovation while staying rooted in the musicianship and performance standards that have defined them since the early days.

In our latest Cover Story, and fresh from the release of their brand new single, “Rejoice”, V13 sat down with Phil to talk about Def Leppard’s recent honours, their upcoming UK and EU tour, and how the band continue to evolve in a rapidly changing music industry. From thoughts on technology, streaming, and social media to maintaining an organic live sound and the enduring thrill of walking on stage, Collen looks at where Def Leppard stands today and why the band’s drive and passion remain as strong as ever.

Congratulations on the recent Hollywood Hall of Fame Star. What was that like to get that and have yourself on that landmark? What did it symbolise, and what did it mean to you personally?

“It is great plus where they put it is right next to the Capitol Records building, and we are next to Paul McCartney, Ringo, George and John Lennon on the right side, on the left side, we’ve got Tina Turner. So great a company. That was really cool. It’s just another one of those things. I’m not really into awards and all that stuff, but when you get them, and especially that one, that’s pretty cool.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame did that a few years ago, so it just cements stuff, it’s really good. That particular day was wonderful. The weather was great. Jon Bon Jovi gave a wonderful speech for us, and Bruce from the label did so all of it really worked out. It was the perfect day, and it was great to get that star as well.”

Def Leppard have had a lot of awards in the past, but what was it like actually hearing for the first time that you’re gonna be immortalised in possibly one of the most famous locations for Hollywood and movie stars and musicians?

“It was great. I live in California. I live in Orange County, it’s like an hour and a half drive, an hour and twenty, depending on the traffic, so I’m up there all the time, actually. I just never even thought about even being on this, when they said that, and when you actually see it, it’s actually really cool.”

Continue Reading at V13.net

Diamond Star Heroes Live From Sheffield Out Now!

Posted on by James Janocha

The show, recorded in 2023 in the band’s hometown of Sheffield at Bramall Lane during “The World Tour” with Mötley Crüe, is now available on Blu-ray+2CD, 2CD and 2LP. Pressed on red, white and black splatter, the vinyl nods to the home kit colors of Sheffield United FC, who play their home matches at Bramall Lane. Additionally, the 4K UHD will be the band’s first 4K release and includes One Night Only Live At The Leadmill, previously released last year.

GET IT NOW!

Def Leppard Receive Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Posted on by James Janocha

In his own speech accepting the honor on behalf the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band, Elliott said, “From all of us up here, including [founding guitarist] Pete Willis and the late, great [guitarist] Steve Clark, we all say to each and every one of you, to our collective families, especially our parents who helped us get where we are now, just simply, to our incredibly loving fanbase, two words: thank you!”

📸 Ross Halfin

Def Leppard Reflects on History, Hellraising, Health Scares, Hitmaking Strippers and Walk of Fame Honor

Posted on by James Janocha

via Variety

It shouldn’t be hard for anyone to accept the idea that Def Leppard is getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Oct. 9 alongside other showbiz legends. After all, the band has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide and set an untold number of heads bobbing and fists a-pumping with undeniably catchy anthems like “Photograph,” “Pour Some Sugar on Me” and last year’s glam rock callback “Just Like 73.”

And yet…

“You’re immensely proud of it, but to be a part of it is a little strange, to be perfectly honest, because we’ve always been fans of musical icons and film icons,” says the band’s bass player, Rick Savage, known to friends as “Sav.” “It’s almost like you’re talking and thinking and acting in the third party, so it’s still taking a little bit of time to sink in.”

It’s tempting to dismiss Savage’s comments as false modesty, given the flash and sparkle of the band’s music and image, along with the massive sales and their 2019 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But Def Leppard is, at its core, a brotherhood of working-class kids from the British Isles, raised by parents who lived through the deprivations of World War II. And work they do: they’ve played 2,700-plus shows across six decades and as many continents, carrying on in the face of personal tragedies as they’ve navigated career peaks and valleys, from stadiums to state fairs and back to stadiums again.

Next year, the band will settle down briefly for a Las Vegas residency — its third — at the Colosseum Theater at Caesars Palace from Feb. 3-28. In the meantime, they’re working on a batch of new recordings they hope to release next year.

“It’s a very different situation to touring,” says lead singer Joe Elliott of the Vegas residency. “You’ve got people coming from all over the world, not just all over the country, to come see us, so we try to put on a different show. The first residency in 2013, we opened for ourselves as a fake band called Ded Flatbird, and we did all the really deep stuff for 45 minutes, and then we went off and came back on and did ‘Hysteria’ and [other] stuff. Then the residency in 2019, I generally — ”

Elliott pivots mid-thought, without taking a pause.

“It’s funny, the closer things are to me, the less I can remember them,” he muses. “But ask me about 1980, I’ll tell you everything.”

Nineteen eighty was a milestone year for Def Leppard. Not only did it mark the release of their debut album, “On Through the Night,” in March, it brought them to Hollywood for the first time. Their plane touched down at LAX on May 18, and they checked into the historic Chateau Marmont Hotel on the Sunset Strip. Band members had a day or so to do a few touristy things, like pay a visit to the Rainbow Bar & Grill, famous as a hangout for British rock stars like Led Zeppelin and Keith Moon of the Who, and get scammed by a shop that sold them overpriced, faulty cameras. Then it was time for their show, opening for the Pat Travers Band at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on May 20 — the first concert on their first-ever U.S. tour.

The band moved “Hello America,” the second track from “On Through the Night,” to the front of the setlist, introducing themselves to the audience with lyrics seemingly made for the moment:

Well, I’m taking me a trip,
I’m going down to California
Yeah, I’m going to try
Hollywood and San Pedro Bay

Elliott had composed the words the previous year in his windowless six-by-six-foot basement office at Osborn-Mushet Tools in the band’s hometown of Sheffield, an industrial city 160 miles northwest of London known as a steel production hub. Never having been to the Golden State, he used an atlas to pinpoint the locales he namechecked, unaware that San Pedro Bay, the busiest seaport in the U.S., is hardly a picturesque tourist destination.

“I had a cassette playing all day, just listening to Alice Cooper, Mott the Hoople, all those kinds of [things],” recalls Elliott, who had risen from an £8-a-week apprentice to chief buyer at the company, purchasing everything from stationery to overalls. “But we had the band together by then, and I would have backing tracks to the songs that we’d worked on two days previously and be writing lyrics. And maybe last night I was watching some show that had the beach in Santa Monica on it — the palm trees and the guy roller-skating up and down the path, blah, blah blah — and I’m thinking, ‘God, get me out of here.’ And so all that was kind of a metaphorical ladder out of this factory.”

As the lights went down at the Santa Monica Civic that night and Def Leppard took to the stage, the band was relieved to hear some polite applause.

“They weren’t screaming for us, but it wasn’t total silence,” recalls Elliott. “We could just hear three or four kids shouting, ‘Wasted!’ [their debut album’s first single]. And I remember turning around to one of the guys and going, ‘Oh, my God, they’ve actually heard of us!’”

Variety’s review of the show by the late Cynthia Kirk noted the “respectable response” from the crowd and a “‘long live rock’ anthem or two that suggest the early potency of Foghat,” then zeroed on the band’s youth — at the time, they ranged in age from 20 (Elliott and original guitarists Steve Clark and Pete Willis) to 16 (drummer Rick Allen) — and Elliott’s “apple-cheeked good looks [which] offer more femme appeal than is typical for this mucho macho genre.”

Unlike the Foghats of the world, they weren’t scruffy men pushing middle age who looked like they stank of stale beer and cigarettes — they were as young or younger than many in the audience. They also weren’t pouty New Romantics sporting makeup and frilly shirts like other emerging British acts of the moment, such as fellow Sheffield natives the Human League and Heaven 17. They were pretty, but undeniably masculine, and they didn’t stand stock still, poking out one-finger parts on a synth. They could play, sing, shake, prance and pose with the best of them, as evidenced by a bootleg video of their second show on the tour the following night in Fresno that has surfaced on YouTube.

Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to Honor Def Leppard With Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Posted on by James Janocha

WHO | HONOREE Def Leppard
EMCEE Sirius XM radio personality Bob Buchmann
GUEST SPEAKERS Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Resnikoff, President & CEO UME
WHAT Dedication of the 2,825th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
WHEN October 9th, 2025 at 11:30 AM PT
WHERE 1750 N. Vine Street in front of the historic Capitol Records Building
WATCH LIVE The event will be streamed live exclusively at www.walkoffame.com

Def Leppard will be honored with the 2,825th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Thursday, October 9th at 11:30 am PT at 1750 N. Vine Street. Def Leppard will receive their star in the category of Recording. Joining emcee Bob Buchmann will be Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Resnikoff.

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce administers the legendary Walk of Fame for the City of Los Angeles and has proudly hosted the globally iconic star ceremonies for decades. Millions of people from here and around the world have visited this cultural landmark since 1960.