| ....... |
| ... Greetings all you mighty Lepps fans wherever you are! It's quite interesting to note the number of gig reviews on this website rarely originate from the U.K. despite the fact that I would guess that there are a considerable number of visitors to this website from British shores. So, as a true Def Leppard fan, and, I suppose, a frustrated rock journalist, I feel it my duty to give fans of the greatest band that has ever lived, a little insight into just what happened on Sunday. I could talk about how, what should have been a two-hour journey took my brother and I the best part of four hours, thanks to Britain's fantastic motorway network! About how, during that journey, I had to endure listening to my favourite soccer team bore the pants off me (again!!). Or maybe you'd like to know how we had to ask the entire population of Birmingham just how to get to the venue!! Having finally arrived, (mainly thanks to a very helpful cab driver!) the first thing we decided to do was get ourselves a decent spec which, as it turned out, was about 20ft from the stage. The place itself wasn't your normal 'run-of-the-mill' concert venue, more of a rock 'club' almost and certainly different to any of the venues I'd seen Def Leppard play previously. Ricky Warwick kicked the show off with his acoustic set. I'd seen him play at Manchester Apollo back in February and once again he put on a really good show. On both occasions, I kind of felt that the audience didn't really give him their full attention, as there were still quite a few milling about buying merchandise and whatever. He did a song called, "Three Sides to Every Story" which, when he played Manchester, he did on his own. On this occasion, he was joined on stage by a somewhat unknown guitarist by the name of Vivian Campbell! I have to say that I was hoping that the great man was going to accompany him as I know that you guys in the U.S. have had the chance to witness their collaboration at gigs over there. Next up was a band called Must. The first thing that struck me was their lead vocalist who (and he probably won't thank me for this!) was a resemblance between Meatloaf, Robert Smith from a band over here called The Cure coupled with the voice of Chester Bennington from Linkin' Park! Even after the first couple of songs, my brother and I were saying that you couldn't help thinking that their material sounded like something you'd heard by someone else. The lead vocalist also did little to whip up any sort of enthusiasm within the crowd which I don't really think did them any favours whatsoever. Certainly, whenever I've been to see them, The Lepps have always had top-notch support acts. However, this time I thought that Must were a little sub-standard. And so to the highlight of the evening - The mighty Lepps!! To get the crowd going, Queen's 'We Will Rock You' was played to warm up the audience's vocal chords for the main event, you could feel the excitement growing as everybody waited for the Lepps to make their grand entrance. 'Disintegrate' kicked in as the audience clapped in tandem to the pounding rythmn booming out through the amps. And then 'Action'!! Literally. Not the song that I thought they would open the show with, they'd opened with 'Let It Go' back in February which was absolutely fantastic, but when you're watching a Lepps show you're not really arsed which song they open up with, or what set they play - although I'm sure everybody has their own particular favourite tracks. My brother who, incidentally, is 10 years older than me was ecstatic that they played 'Action', as he really is one of the biggest 'Sweet' fans around and that was the kind of stuff he grew up listening to. At this juncture, I also must point out that I have him to thank for introducing me to Def Leppard when he played 'Animal' to me way back in 1987! Anyway, back to the show. Next up was 'Rock! Rock! 'Til You Drop'. Again, another song which always goes down well live. Even at this early stage in the proceedings, it was blatantly obvious that Joe had the audience in the palm of his hand. And then a particular favourite of mine, especially live, 'Make Love Like A Man' in which Mr. Phil Collen displayed his vocal talents. It may just be me, but I always think that Phil has a similar sounding voice to Joe, more so on record rather than live. Is it just me? Probably!! The hits followed, 'Hysteria', 'Four Letter Word', 'Promises', 'Slang', 'When Love and Hate Collide' and the almighty 'Women' (surprisingly not 'Too Late for Love'), you name them, they were being played. What struck me was how all five of them totally enjoy what they do. Going off on a bit of a tangent here, I was reading the interview with Vivian on DefLeppard.com and he was saying about how the band weren't making any money from this leg of the tour. But I think the fact that they have decided to add these extra dates, not just in the U.K. but other parts of Europe, really reflects just how much the band enjoys performing for their fans. In the glorified world of 'celebrity', it's nice to see five guys, who can justifiably call themselves music legends, who don't have their heads stuck up their own backsides. Then came the 'acoustic' part of the show, namely 'Two Steps Behind'. It was at this point I decided to 'phone a good friend of mine in Toronto. She'd come to see the Manchester gig with us but unfortunately she moved to Canada in September, so I thought I couldn't disappoint her and therefore decided to give her a blast of what she was missing! As all you Lepp fans probably know, the second half of the show is just basically the band playing their greatest hits - Armageddon It, Photgraph, Rocket, Animal, 'Sugar' and tonight was no different. Was a little disappointed they didn't play a couple more from 'X', especially 'Long Long Way to Go'. If ever there was a Def Leppard song that should have been a hit then LLWTG was it!! It's absolutely criminal that the record company never promoted the song on radio, TV or through the music press. It makes it even more puzzling as Universal are churning out crap from artists, not even worthy of being on the same label as the mighty Lepps. And so to the encore, which commenced with 'Love Bites' and including a 5-hour guitar solo from Vivian which was great!!! And then for the final song of the evening. Joe said they couldn't think of anymore songs they could do, so he just had one question for everybody, 'Do ya wanna get rocked?!'. The overwhelming answer was yes as everyone in the place just went bananas! And so another tour over. With regard to the Def Leppard gigs I've seen in the past, the two that I have been to see this year have probably been the best (although 'In the Round' in '92 was something else). The band just seem to get better and better as they get older, they themselves have said that. So I hope this has given you a taste of just what happened on Sunday and let's hope that 'there will be a next time' for many years to come. |
 |
 |
 |
 |