Def Leppard Remixed - The Thunder God Roars Back

NEW Year's Day, 1985. While the rest of the UK indulged in traditionally over-the-top celebrations, the Def Leppard camp was in shock. Drummer Rick Allen (right), just 21, was lying in the intensive care unit of a Sheffield hospital after being thrown out when his American sports car hit a wall and overturned on the outskirts of the city. His left arm had been ripped off at the shoulder. By chance, two nurses were on the scene within minutes, tending Rick's injury and packing the arm in ice before the transfer to hospital where hopes rested on the miracle of micro-surgery. The limb was sewed back on in a four-hour operation and a lot of prayers were said, but an infection set in and the arm had to come off...for good. After six years with the rock band, it seemed that the youngest member's career was over.

The Leppards were in disarray. Before the gleaming black Corvette Stingray ploughed into the brick wall as Rick and his then girlfriend returned from a country drive, the musicians were taking a festive break prior to resuming work on fourth album Hysteria. They had enjoyed a phenomenal 1983 with predecessor Pyromania and single Photograph attracting huge acclaim and sales - the album sold 100,000 a week for the bulk of that year in the US where the total shipped would be more than seven million. During February and March the band headlined in the UK, spring found them supporting Billy Squier on the road in America then billtopping for the first time. Once the Pyromania world jaunt had wound up in Bangkok in early February, the musicians relocated to Dublin to work on individual song ideas.

Activity switched to Hilversum, Holland, as recording began in August. Robert John "Mutt" Lange (right), aka the sixth Leppard, had produced Pyromania and the previous High 'n' Dry, but needed a break after toiling over The Cars' Heartbreak City. Although Jim Steinman, of Bat Out of Hell worldwide fame, was now at the controls, what worked for Meat Loaf was not compatible with Leppard's style. Mutt recommended Nigel Green, engineer on High 'n' Dry. Then Rick had his accident. When the rest of the band had got over the initial shock, they decided they owed it to their drummer to carry on recording with Nigel. Meticulous Mutt finally made a studio appearance in the summer of 1985 and broke the bad news - just about everything needed re-recording! Meanwhile, Rick's positive mood was in overdrive once his physical scars were healing.

What followed was the uplifting story of a very determined young man driven to overcome seemingly impossible odds and prove that he could still compete at the highest level on the rock stage. The band were putting no pressure on Rick - they weren't looking for a replacement. If he could reproduce his muscular drumming with the aid of a custom-built electronic Simmons kit, he was still a Leppard. There was a secret try-out at a local pub, but the first big test would come as the band tackled eight European Monsters of Rock shows on a summer of 1986 tour. Status Quo's Jeff Rich, recruited as back-up on drums, missed a gig on a series of Irish warm-ups and found himself redundant - the Thunder God was back and on fire.

A stupendous reception at the August 16 UK leg of Monsters was particularly satisfying, erasing memories of six years earlier at the Reading Festival where the audience, believing Leppard had sold their souls to Uncle Sam, pelted them with bottles and cans. The band could move on and, by New Year 1987, Hysteria recording was complete; Leppard couldn't escape from the studio yet, however, as another album's worth of tracks were put down in February as B-sides. August was well worthy of celebration as Hysteria's release was marked by the launch of a world tour in the UK. Seven of the dozen tracks would impact as singles with the album zooming towards a global bonanza of 16 million copies. The band stayed on the road to promote Hysteria until October 1988, completing almost 230 gigs and playing the US in the round.

While Rick's accident was obviously traumatic, Leppard had already experienced the disruption of line-up changes. The first came as early as November 1978 when original drummer Tony Kenning (right) was fired; he had skipped some rehearsals and his girlfriend was moaning that he spent too much time with the band. It was four months after Leppard's public debut with a Sheffield school gig - their first pay day (a teacher offered £5 from his own pocket). More significantly, the sacking was just a week away from the Hull recording of an EP on their own Bludgeon Riffola label. The Next Band's Frank Noon was scrambled for the session and the events were followed closely by Derbyshire schoolboy Rick Allen who had noted Leppard's progress and was particularly excited by the Sheffield evening newspaper's Leopard Loses Skins story. Having played rock covers and been baptised on the pub and workingmen's club circuits, Rick auditioned and got the drumming job. It was November 28 - less than a month after his 15th birthday.

He would celebrate his 16th in distinguished company, playing London's Hammersmith Odeon where Leppard opened for American rocker Sammy Hagar. Rick had left the classroom behind, while his fellow musicians gave up their day jobs on the strength of signing a recording deal with Phonogram (in the UK) and Mercury (US). Debut LP On Through the Night, produced by Tom Allom, and single Hello America surfaced in March 1980 before the band committed their management future to Leber-Krebs, specifically US twosome Peter Mensch and Cliff Burnstein who later formed Q Prime. Follow-up album High 'n' Dry was on the shelves in July 1981 and Leppard were back in the studio for New Year 1982 to start recording a third. But there were internal tensions caused by guitarist Pete Willis' (left) heavy drinking and producer Mutt banished him from the studio. He never returned or played on stage as a band member again. Singer Joe Elliott did the firing and hiring - friend Phil Collen, of Dumb Blondes and Girl, was in for Pete.

Tragedy would strike Leppard hard again in 1991, but Rick himself would go on from strength to strength. In 1996, the year of album Slang and a world tour that broke new ground in South Africa, he switched to a semi-acoustic drum kit for the first time since his accident and continues to use one depending on whether he's in a stage or studio setting. Before work began on the Euphoria album follow-up in 2001, Rick and his wife, Lauren Monroe, a musician and healing practitioner, launched the Raven Drum Foundation in support of trauma victims (right); in co-operation with Leppard, the foundation also offered free concert tickets to active and veteran military personnel for the band's last North American tour. The couple provided music for US documentary short Saving the American Wild Horse in 2008 when Rick also produced and played on Lauren's Freedom Sessions album.

So what was next? After a Dublin arena appearance with Whitesnake and Journey, Rick made a return to the scene of one of Leppard's many triumphs. Before performing on a US country music TV awards show then launching the North American tour, the band headlined the third and final day of the UK's seventh Download Festival at Donington Park, Leicestershire, where Rick had made his remarkable - and poignant - 1986 comeback at what was then Monsters of Rock. It was quite an emotional return with Joe recalling the drummer's "spiritual rebirth" at the venue 23 years earlier and earning a massive roar from the assembled thousands as he invited Rick to take a bow then accused him of "blubbing all over his cymbals."

*Any Leppard fan who was unable to get to Donington Park or who wanted to relive the band's triumphant performance was able to watch them rocking through Animal, Armageddon It and Hysteria on the event's website at www.downloadfestival.do.uk
**VH1, in association with Live Nation, also launched six-week concert series Live & Loud Fridays with Leppard performing three songs from their show at Hartford, Connecticut. Meanwhile, VH1 Classic turned the spotlight on Download '09 with Leppard spotlighted on stage and behind the scenes.

Link to Leppard PART 3 further down

Hysteria iPhone (2G,3G,3GS) Skin

This Def Leppard removable & reusable skin features the Hysteria artwork. These skins are made from premium grade 3M vinyl and adhesive technology so they apply easily and remove without leaving any residue. Also, a high gloss over laminate, which adds durability and a photo quality finish to is added to these skins.

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This Def Leppard removable & reusable skin features the Def Leppard band logo artwork. These skins are made from premium grade 3M vinyl and adhesive technology so they apply easily and remove without leaving any residue. Also, a high gloss over laminate, which adds durability and a photo quality finish to is added to these skins.

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Did you join the thousands at Download 2009? It was a performance to remember for fans when Def Leppard triumphed as the final day's headliners. A party from the band's Sheffield back yard made the trip and their diary of the day's events along with pictures and videos can be found at

DEF LEPPARD - Diary Of A Day At The Download Festival 2009