I.1. Who formed the band and who are/were the members?
I.2. Is there some more information about the (former) band members:
I.3. In what other bands have they played before?
I.4. In which band(s) has Pete Willis been in since he left Def Leppard?
I.5. Where can I find Steve Clark's grave?
I.6. Where did they get the name of the band?
I.7. Have band members ever done solo projects?
I.8. What is "Clock"?
II.1. What are the official album releases?
II.2. Is "First Strike" an official release?
II.3. How many Def Leppard albums have been sold?
II.4. I'm new to Def Leppard. Which album(s) do you recommend?
II.5. Why are there two sleeves available for "Vault"?
II.6. Are there different versions of the "High 'N' Dry" album?
II.7. Why wasn't "Slang" a success?
II.8. Why do the Japanese releases of the albums have extra songs on it and which songs are we talking about here?
II.9. Which albums are accompanied by an extra CD?
II.10. Why don't they include lyric sheets with most of their albums?
II.11. Where can I get the rest of the lyrics?
II.12. When will the next album be released?
III.1. What does "Switch 625" mean?
III.2. What is "Swing 625"?
III.3. What is the relevance of "Release Me" by Stumpus Maximus And The Good Ol' Boys?
III.4. What does "Gunter Glieben Glauten Globen" (or whatever) from the intro to "Rock Of Ages" mean?
III.5. Do I really hear "Jesus of Nazareth, go to hell" at the end of "Love Bites"?
III.6. What the hell do they say at the beginning of Rocket?
III.7. Is there something recorded backwards during the bridge in "White Lightning"?
III.8. What is that Spanish stuff in the middle of "Slang"?
III.9. Did the band release demo recordings or alternative versions of their songs?
III.10. Which songs appeared on soundtracks?
III.11. Which songs are only available on B-sides of singles?
III.12. Why was "All I Want Is Everything" the only single off "Slang" in the US?
III.13. Where can I get a complete discography?
IV.1. Are the members online?
IV.2. Is there an official WWW-site?
IV.3. Where are the unofficial sites?
IV.4. Is there a mailing list?
IV.5. Is there a newsletter?
IV.6. Where's the usenet newsgroup?
IV.7. What do all these acronyms mean on the Internet?
IV.8. Where can I get the latest version of the FAQ?
IV.9. What is the "Hysterical"-document and where can I get the latest version?
IV.10. What is the "Ages Of Rock"-calendar and where can I get the latest version?
IV.11. What is the "Misheard lyrics"-document and where can I get the latest version?
IV.12. Is there an IRC-channel for Def Leppard fans?
IV.13. Which books about the band have been released?
IV.14. Which bootlegs are interesting?
IV.15. Is there a Def Leppard CD-ROM?
IV.16. Is there other Def Leppard software available?
IV.17. Is there an official fan club?
IV.18. What about unofficial clubs?
IV.19. Why doesn't Rock Squad / Info Active send me anything?
IV.20. How can I contact the band?
V.1. Why do the latest Bryan Adams-albums sound like Def Leppard?
V.2. Who are Booker T. Boffin, The Leppardettes, The Bankrupt Brothers and The Sideways Mob?
V.3. Who is this Malvin Mortimer person actually?
V.4. Which videos have the band officially released?
V.5. Where can I find bootlegs or old singles?
V.6. I live in (......). When will they play in my: country / state / city again?
V.7. Did Def Leppard ever do an MTV-Unplugged session?
V.8. Did Joe have a part in the movie 'When Saturday Comes'?
V.9. Does the band use pre-recorded tapes on stage?
V.10. What does "Bludgeon Riffola" mean?
V.11. Who is the guy covered with shaving foam on the inner sleeve of the "High 'n' Dry"-LP?
V.12. What's this "If you're gonna be a bear, be a grizzly"-thing on the "Pyromania"-vinyl?
V.13. I have more questions, but they're not answered in this document! Now what?
In 1977, bass player Rick "Sav" Savage starts "Atomic Mass" with guitarist Pete Willis in Sheffield, UK. Pete meets Steve "Steamin'" Clark, who becomes the 2nd guitarist, and Joe Elliott, lead vocalist. Tony Kenning, drummer, completes the line-up. After renaming the band to Def Leppard, Tony gets fired, and for the recordings of the band's first EP ("The Def Leppard EP" / "Ride Into The Sun", 1979), Frank Noon from The Next Band is hired on a temporary basis. After placing an ad in a music magazine, 15-year old Rick Allen becomes the new (permanent) drummer. In 1980, the first album ("On Through The Night") is released, and in 1981, album #2 ("High 'N' Dry") sees the light. During the recordings of "Pyromania" (1983), the band's third official album, Pete Willis is fired due to the fact that he can't play his parts, due to heavy drinking. He is replaced by Londoner Phil Collen. In 1987, the long awaited fourth album ("Hysteria") is released and is the band's most sold album to date, more than 14 million copies worldwide. During the recordings of "Adrenalize" (1992), the fifth official album, Steve Clark dies from an overdose of alcohol and prescription drugs. After releasing "Adrenalize", Irishman Vivian Campbell joins the band. "Retro Active" (1993) is the first Def Leppard album he can be heard on. After a 'greatest hits' album ("Vault", 1995), which contains one new song, the first album with every song recorded with this line-up ("Slang") is released in 1996. At the moment, Def Leppard is working on album number 9. More about that in section II.2. The current line-up is: Joe Elliott - lead vocals / guitar Rick "Sav" Savage - bass guitar / vocals Phil Collen - guitars / vocals Vivian Campbell - guitars / vocals Rick Allen - drums
JOSEPH THOMAS ELLIOTT: Born: August 1, 1959 in Sheffield, UK Lives in Dublin, Ireland Divorced from Karla, current girlfriend Bobbie
RICHARD SAVAGE: Born: December 2 in Sheffield, UK Lives in Dublin, Ireland Married to Dara
PHILIP KENNETH COLLEN: Born: December 8, 1957 in London, UK Lives in California, USA Divorced from Jaqueline Has one son called Rory James
VIVIAN CAMPBELL: Born August 25, 1962 in Belfast, Ireland Lives in California, USA Married to Jewels
RICHARD JOHN CYRIL ALLEN: Born: November 1, 1963 in Sheffield, UK Lives in California, USA Married to Stacy Has one daughter called Laureen Shane
STEPHEN MAYNARD CLARK: Born: April 23, 1960 in Sheffield, UK Died: January 8, 1991 in London, UK Never married
PETE WILLIS: Born: February 16, 1960 in Sheffield, UK Other information unknown
Before Phil joined Def Leppard, he played in a band from London called "Girl". Girl released two albums ("Sheer Greed" and "Wasted Youth") and the line-up at the time was Phil Lewis (lead vocals, later in LA Guns), Phil, Simon Laffy (bass), Gerry Laffy (guitar) and Brillo (drums)
Before Vivian joined Def Leppard, he played in a number of bands. He formed his first own band, "Sweet Savage", with Raymond Hailer (bass,vocals), David Bates (drums), and Trevor Fleming (co-lead guitar) and made one 3-track album with them ("Killing Time"). When he was 18, Vivian joined Dio. Dio's line-up was Ronnie James Dio (lead vocals), Vivian, Jimmy Bain (bass), Claude Schnell (keyboards) and Vinnie Appice (drums). Dio albums that Vivian can be heard on are "Holy Diver", "The Last In Line", "Intermission" (live) and "Sacred Heart". Another band Vivian formed was "Trinity", with Pat Waller on drums, Davy Watson on bass and Vivian on guitars. They supposedly didn't manage to get a record deal, although some sources say they recorded an album in May 1986. For their "1987"-tour, Vivian joined Whitesnake, next to David Coverdale (lead vocals), Adrian Vandenberg (guitars), Rudy Sarzo (bass) and Tommy Aldridge (drums). He toured for a short time and left the band before the recordings of the next Whitesnake album ("Slip Of The Tongue") started. With Rob Lamothe (vocals, guitars, keyboards) and Nick Brophy (bass, vocals), Vivian formed "Riverdogs" and made one hell of an album ("Riverdogs") with them. For one self-titled album, Vivian joined "Shadow King" with Foreigner-singer Lou Gramm, Bruce Turgon (bass) and Kevin Valentine (drums).
With Paul Di'Anno (ex-Iron Maiden), Janick Gers (Iron Maiden), Neil Murray (ex-Whitesnake, ex-Gary Moore) and Clive Burr (ex-Iron Maiden), Pete joined rock opera project called "Gogmagog". A demo called "I Will Be There" ismade. In 1987, Pete formed "Roadhouse" together with Trevor Brewis (drums), Wayne Grant (bass), Richard Day (guitar) and Paul Jackson (vocals) to make one self-titled album with them. It seems Roadhouse doesn't exist anymore.
If you want to visit Steve Clark's grave, you have to go to a place called Wisewood Cemetery. To get here, start in Hillsborough (UK) and get a cab to the cemetary. The grave is situated close to the entrance. As the road drops down from the entry gate, keep to the left as it splits into a "Y". Follow the edge of the path ank keep looking at the rows on the left. Steve's grave is easy to spot, just a couple of plots in from the edge and only a few rows down. The grave stone is a modest piece to grey/black granite with an engraved picture of Steve, standing, head slightly bowed, looking straight ahead, guitar slung way low -- his typical pose.
Being a schoolkid, Joe had a fantasy of having a rock band called "Deaf Leopard". He made posters, tickets, all kinds of stuff for this fictitious band all day long. When he joined Atomic Mass, he suggested this band name to Sav and Pete, who agreed. However, the UK was in its punk days. Lots of punk bands had animals in their names at that time, and while Deaf Leopard didn't want to attract punk fans (who would visit the band just because the word "Leopard" appeared in the name) and disappoint them, they changed it to "Def Leppard". The band claims that the resemblance with "Led Zeppelin" is a coincidence.
Joe has recorded the title song for the 1996 movie "When Saturday Comes", as well as an instrumental song for that movie called "Jimmy's Theme". Although the soundtrack says it's a Joe Elliott song, Joe got help from Phil and Sav. Also, Joe recorded a song called "Don't Look Down" together with Mick Ronson, for his album "Heaven and Hull".
Phil has recorded an instrumental for the Jeff Beck tribute-album "Jeffology", titled "Cause We've Ended As Lovers".
Vivian has recorded an instrumental for the same album, called "Led Boots". Before he joined Def Leppard, Vivian had plans to do a solo album, but that's not going to happen in the near future. At the moment, Vivian has a side project called "Clock"
Clock is Vivian's side project, in which he plays when he's not working with Def Leppard. It's just a hobby-thing and Vivian has no intentions whatsoever to leave Def Leppard. Clock is located in LA, and have the following members: Vivian Campbell: guitars and co-lead vocals P.J. Smith (formerly of No Sweat and Toe): keyboards, guitars, and co-lead Mark Schulman: drums vocals Sasha Krivtsov: bass guitar Their music can be described as 'heavy-Beatles meets Crowded House with an edge'. Clock just released an 11-track CD, which costs 10 US Dollars (plus another 3 for postage in the US or 5 Dollars for the rest of the world) and can be ordered by sending checks or money orders out to Jammin' Planet and send to:c/o BlackStar Entertainment256 Vernon Avenue, Suite #3 Long Beach, CA 90806 USA
1979: Ride Into The Sun (The Def Leppard EP) (Not available anymore)
1980: On Through The Night
1981: High 'N' Dry
1983: Pyromania
1987: Hysteria
1992: Adrenalize
1993: Retro Active
1995: Vault - Greatest Hits
1996: Slang
No!! This album contains demo recordings of the band, made in 1978 and 1979. It was released in 1984 by former managers Pete Martin and Frank Stuart-Brown. The band wasn't happy with this release and the judge decided that the album should be taken off the shelves. Officially, it's illegal to sell this album in the shops now, but with a lot of luck, you'll find it on record fairs or mail-order companies (on CD or LP). The songs you will find on this album are the first demo recordings of "Heat Street" (never released officially), "Answer To The Master", "See The Lights" (never released officially), "When The Walls Came Tumbling Down", "Wasted", "Sorrow Is A Woman" and "Glad I'm Alive" (never released officially).
On Through The Night: 1 million
High 'N' Dry: 1 million
Pyromania: 10 million
Hysteria: 16 million
Adrenalize: 7 million
Retro Active: 1.7 million
Vault - Greatest Hits: 6 million
Slang: 3 million
All of them!
In Europe (and some countries outside), a limited edition of "Vault" was available, including a 9-track live CD (recorded in Sheffield). The booklet of this CD shows a picture which seems to be a combination of an eye and a vault. The CD case also has a cardboard sleeve, which has the original sleeve, the grey door of a vault.
Yes!! After the release of "Pyromania", "High 'N' Dry" was re-released with two extra songs: "Me and My Wine" and a remix of "Bringin' On The Heartbreak". However, in 1993 both songs were removed again from the US release. So at the moment, the "High 'N' Dry"-version with the two extra songs is available everywhere in the world, except in the US. By the way, the orginal version of "Bringin' On The Heartbreak" was done with Pete Willis. The remix has Phil Collen playing on it and was done during the Pyromania recordings (as was "Me And My Wine") and extra keyboards were added.
Probably because the band's record company, PolyGram, didn't promote it as much as they could. Only one single was released commercially in the US. Some US DJ's didn't even know about the existance of "Slang", while record companies normally send out posters, promo CD's and other things like that to all the radio stations. Why PolyGram didn't do much about it this time, after the big successes of "Pyromania", "Hysteria" and "Adrenalize", is a mystery. It definitely wasn't the case that the album was bad, since lots of articles in magazines were positive about it. Most professional reviewers thought that "Slang" was a big step forward and that was very positive. Still, "Slang" sold three million copies worldwide.
Japanese record stores sometimes buy albums from American distributors. This is cheaper for them, so they make more money out of it if they sell the albums for the regular price. This isn't really helping Japanese economy. Therefore, an extra song is added to the Japanese release of certain albums. When customers have the choice between a regular (US) release or a Japanese release with one song extra (for the same price), the choice is easy. By buying this Japanese version, the economy in Japan will improve. It seems it's necessary in order to avoid a collapse of the Japanese economy. The extra song on the Japanese version of "Hysteria" is a live version of "Love And Affection". On "Adrenalize", "Miss You In A Heartbeat" and "She's Too Tough" are two extra songs. On "Vault", the Japanese are treated with "(Can't Keep Away From) The Flame", and on "Slang", the extra song is "Move With Me Slowly".
Mostly in Asia and Europe, some Def Leppard CD's are released with an extra limited edition CD. "Retro Active" had, in some countries, a 4-track live CD called "In The Clubs... In Your Face", recorded in Bonn, Germany. The limited edition of "Vault" had a 9-track live CD, recorded in Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield. And finally, some versions of "Slang" are accompanied by a 6-track CD with an acoustic performance in Singapore.
Maybe just because the lyrics weren't that serious, and without a real
message (or the message was "get down on the backseat"
Probably sometime late 1998. Maybe even 1999. You never know with Def Leppard. At the moment, the band is writing songs and recording demos. Some possible song titles are:- Spanish Sky- Telephone- No Matter What- Space- Kickin' It - Alive- Child- Goodbye- Only Love- Guilty The band is considering to have Bob Rock to produce the album, but no final decisions have been made yet. About the sound, the band said the following: "I think we're going to keep it a more straight rock album like 'Hysteria'. Just tons and tons of rock material". "We're looking to create something along the lines of 'Pyromania'. "We're trying to figure out our direction, but assured it will be a rock album, a guitar album". "If there was an album between Pyromania and Hysteria, this would be it." "It's been a long time since we made an album like this".
Although some sources say it refers to the date (June 25th? June 2nd 1975?) when Steve Clark lost his virginity, it seems it doesn't really mean anything. While designing the sleeve for "High 'N' Dry", the songs weren't finished yet. So, instead of putting existing song titles on it, fake ones were written down, including their time. One of those songs was called "Switch", lasting 6 minutes and 25 seconds. The band liked the way it looked on the sleeve: "Switch (6:25)". Since they didn't have a title for an instrumental song that Steve wrote, they used this title for it, including the numbers.
The band recorded an alternative version of "Switch 625", which was based on a totally different rhythm, including other sounds and stuff. It's in fact just another way of playing it, and because it 'swings', they renamed this version to "Swing 625". The song has never been released.
Stumpus Maximus is, in fact, the band's tour manager Malvin Mortimer. The Good Ol' Boys are Def Leppard. It's not a regular version of the old Engelbert Humperdinck song. With every verse, Stumpus is singing higher, until the end when he does nothing but screaming. It was meant as a joke, and was released as the B-side of the "Rocket"-single and other singles.
Nothing! It sounds German or something, but it doesn't mean a thing. During the recordings of the song, producer Mutt Lange was so tired of saying the same old "one, two, three, four" over and over again, that he just started to say gibberish. The band once jokingly said that it meant something like "running through the forest silently", but don't take that too seriously.
NO! You don't. Really. You really really really really don't. Honestly. Discussed to death, it just ISN'T what's being said. No, really. The thing you hear right after "If you got love in your sights, love bites", is Mutt Lange saying "Bloody hell". One more time: YOU DO NOT HEAR ANY REFERENCE TO JESUS!
When you would play it backwards, you would hear "We're fighting with the gods of war".
There is indeed. Play it backwards and you will hear "She's got the rhythm of love", a line from "Heaven Is".
In the bridge of "Slang" (the song), during the 'It's my intention to be your obsession'-part, you will hear a woman saying 'Mi pasion, mi obsesion, queria que eastuvieras conmigo', which means 'My passion, my obsession, how I wish you were here with me'. The guy just says 'Uno, dos, tres, cuatro', which of course means 'One, two, three, four'.
Previously available on B-sides (with a little luck you'll be able to find some of those singles), Def Leppard released demo versions of "Tonight", "Miss You In A Heartbeat", "She's Too Tough", "Two Steps Behind", "When Love & Hate Collide", "Truth?" and "Work It Out". There is no demo version of "Tear It Down". There is a version that was released as B-side to "Animal" (or, in some countries, "Women"), but this is a normal studio recording. The version on "Adrenalize" is just a remake. The same goes for "I Wanna Be Your Hero", "Ring Of Fire" and "Ride Into The Sun"; the versions released before "Retro Active" are not demos, but originals. On "Retro Active", these songs are remixes and have a bit more overdubs and soundeffects. Two alternative versions of "Tonight" have been released as B-sides. A so-called "Version II" (which sounds the same as the demo) and a "Warts Acoustic Version". Then, there are remixes or extended versions of some songs. These are "Animal (extended version)", "Pour Some Sugar On Me (extended version)", "Rocket (the Lunar Mix)" (though there are different versions which are all called 'the Lunar Mix'), "Armageddon It (the Nuclear Mix)" and "Excitable (Orgasmic Mix)". Finally, lots of live songs have been released as B-sides, see III.11 for a complete list of all the B-sides.
Joe recorded two songs, "When Saturday Comes" and "Jimmy's Theme" for the movie "When Saturday Comes". Not a Def Leppard song, but still 3/5 of the band is on it (Phil and Sav co-wrote and played on it too). "Two Steps Behind" is on the soundtrack to the Arnold Schwarzenegger-movie "Last Action Hero".
