Def Leppard Remixed and Adrenalized - Homage to The Riffmaster

IF Steve Clark hadn't threatened to quit, there might never have been a Def Leppard story to tell. But the Sheffield band took his ultimatum seriously and the rest is...well...hysteria. After months of relentless rehearsal, the guitarist demanded that Leppard go out and play. They were yet to make their live debut - their world had been a boxy former spoon factory near the Sheffield United football ground. A music journalist from the local evening newspaper was among the visitors who picked their way carefully up the rickety staircase. Although he may not have noticed the bottles of sour milk littered around the rehearsal room, the five teenage musicians' performance had his full attention. At this time (1978) the steel city of Sheffield was awash with electronic sounds and Leppard were defiantly heavy rock. Unmoved by the non-musicianship of the electronic set, the writer became a supporter and remains so today. By then, Leppard were singer Joe Elliott, guitarists Steve (right) and Pete Willis, bassist Richard Savage, known as Sav, and drummer Tony Kenning.

In the beginning there was Atomic Mass whose chief components were schoolmates Sav, Tony and Pete. Apart from a 1977 local youth club jam, their only gig (unpaid) took place in the school gym. Unbeknown to the trio, aspiring rock star Joe Elliott was there. Summer arrived and school was out for ever, but Atomic Mass would carry on. Except now they needed a rehearsal room. It was Tony who found the grubby spoon factory (left) at a knockdown £5 a week. For Sav, there was distinct irony in being just a goalkick away from Sheffield United's pitch. As a promising young footballer, he had spent two years signed to the club nicknamed the Blades while his heart was always with city rivals Sheffield Wednesday. Eventually, United let him go, but music was taking over then anyway. All that Atomic Mass were missing was a singer.

Re-enter Joe who was and still is a committed Blade. After bumping into Pete, he was auditioned in his own bedroom. Joe was in and, with him, he brought a band name, Deaf Leopard, the result of schooldays doodling and dreaming of rock stardom. Late November saw rehearsals under way and the first original song emerged. Misty Dreamer was in the Christmas party set performed for half a dozen friends at the spoon factory. It was all very promising yet something was still lacking. They wanted to launch a twin guitar assault in the style of heroes Thin Lizzy. In the library of a college he was attending, Pete met Steve Clark. That led to a rehearsal room jam of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Free Bird anthem; classically-trained Steve's playing wowed the foursome who welcomed him aboard.

From February-July 1978 they rehearsed and wrote songs that would surface on their self-financed debut EP and first album On Through the Night. But Steve wasn't satisfied and got stroppy because he wanted to play for a proper audience. Faced with a mutiny, the band, now Def Leppard at Tony's suggestion, went public at a school gig for about 150 youngsters. It was low-key, but it was a start. Leppard grew from there to compile a mightily impressive career CV. In the 1980s, only Van Halen and Journey sold more rock band records in the US and Leppard can claim worldwide album sales of more than 65 million while playing to 50 million-plus fans in the last 15 years.

They were seized on by US cable TV networks with VH1 ranking them No 31 on its Greatest Artists of Hard Rock list. Bringin' on the Heartbreak was played incessantly on MTV where Photograph also eclipsed Michael Jackson's Beat It as most requested video clip, although Jacko hit back as his Thriller album held off Leppard's Pyromania from US top spot. In 1999 the band were among the inaugural recipients of a new Diamond Award in the US for over 10 million sales of a single album (Hysteria) - they now have two - and left their handprints at the Hollywood Rock Walk of Fame (above) the following year. Sheffield, which will for ever claim the band as its own, paid a similar, if slightly less glamorous, tribute in 2006 when Leppard were honoured with a bronze star on the Walk of Fame outside the Town Hall. The then Lord Mayor, Jackie Drayton, hailed them as "great ambassadors" who had done tremendous service to the city. They then went on to storm an audience at Sheffield Arena.

Leppard had survived Pete's 1982 sacking for alcoholic over-indulgence and the tragedy of two years later when Tony's replacement, Rick Allen, lost his left arm in a New Year's Eve car crash. Phil Collen, London-born former Girl guitarist, had slipped easily into Pete's spot, but there were still alcohol-fuelled worries. During the making of 1983 album Pyromania, Steve had consulted a psychiatrist about his own drinking problem. Rooming with Pete can't have helped, although his new partnership with Phil - the Terror Twins (pictured) - brought him out of himself. For, despite his archetypal axeman image, blond Steve was basically shy. "A smashing lad," many would recall fondly.

To support their monster fourth album, Hysteria, the band had launched a 1987 world tour that wound up in October of the following year. Work would then begin on a follow-up album with recording under way in the Netherlands before Leppard relocated to Dublin. They surfaced to play Tear It Down at the MTV Video Music Awards - never realising that this would be Steve's farewell show. He had been in and out of rehab and, in mid-1990 as recording continued, he was given six months' leave of absence. On January 8, 1991 Steve was found dead at his London home after taking a mix of alcohol and painkillers prescribed for three broken ribs. He was 30 years old. The talented but troubled Riffmaster was buried in his native Sheffield. For the other stunned band members, the antidote was the same as the post-Rick's-accident remedy - finish the album which saw 1992 release as Adrenalize.

The following year Leppard were feted by a 40,000 sell-out crowd as the first band to play Sheffield's new Don Valley Stadium. They had donated a B-side, Two Steps Behind, previously available only in the UK, for the end credits of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Last Action Hero movie and the track, with Michael Karmen strings, achieved worldwide success. This prompted them to remix remaining B-sides and rarities as a farewell nod to the Steve "Steamin'" Clark era with Retro Active and enter a new phase, though neither they nor fans would ever forget him. Album Adrenalize was dedicated to Steve's memory and track White Lightning was heralded as an appropriate epitaph. Belfast-born Vivian Campbell (ex-Dio/Whitesnake) had been blooded as replacement in April 1992, joining the Leppard line-up for the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley. Viv (above), who takes time out with his own Clock band, has paid personal homage to Steve with Only the Good Die Young on Songs from the Sparkle Lounge, 2008's Leppard album. It was most fitting and very touching.

The "new boy" has settled in well as a member of the Leppard family and told Chicago's Southtown Star that he had always felt part of this band of brothers. He has also been heard to describe his 18-year stay as "a sustained pleasure" which has offered him a chance to finally make his solo album debut as a singer with bluesy Two Sides of If. YouTube videos have also shown him solo and acoustic on Pour Some Sugar on Me and Hysteria for a concert by Rick's wife, Lauren Monroe, while both he and the drummer appeared at The Mint, Los Angeles, as the same lady's special guests. In an interview for the Weekender entertainment guide of The Free Lance-Star at Fredericksburg, Virginia, Viv revealed there was a strong desire within Leppard to be one of the great British bands with the members always striving to write the best songs possible, music that would endure.

Outside the Leppard den, Joe has popped up in all sorts of places with a recurring theme being a Cybernauts project shared with Phil, playing Bowie/Ziggy Stardust/Spiders from Mars favourites. Meanwhile, aside from his Man Raze band project, Phil was also to be found on Short & Sweet, a track from album Back from the Dead, marking the 25th anniversary of movie This Is Spinal Tap. All in all, Leppard seemed to be at peace with the world. When their long-standing working relationship with Peter Mensch and Cliff Burnstein had run its course, they shook hands with California-based HK (Howard Kaufman) Management.

They're in good company - Aerosmith, The Eagles and Lenny Kravitz just for starters. They also relish the "lovely feeling" (Joe's words) of being label-free after fulfilling a 30-year commitment to Universal Music. Leppard could do a short-term deal, but they're not obliged to license to anyone. Having played Dublin, the UK's 2009 Download Festival and a Nashville country awards TV show, they returned to the road across North America to justify their website's tag as Britain's greatest rock arena attraction. After opening in Camden, New Jersey, Leppard actually had a day off which they spent doing a round of press interviews in New York then Joe headed for the Big Apple's Rockefeller Park to introduce hero and friend Ian Hunter at an evening open-air gig, joining him on stage for All the Young Dudes. Hamburg, New York, celebrated Def Leppard Day to mark the band's appearance at nearby Darien Lake Performing Arts Centre as the tour took them through to September 12 and a second break, although Joe lingered to join Cheap Trick as special guest vocalist for their Sgt Pepper live extravaganza at the Las Vegas Hilton.

Cheap Trick and Man Raze, replacing Poison, were due to support on the third and final leg of the tour, set to resume at Reno, Nevada, on October 22 and feature 23 dates taking in Canada and making up for a missed Nashville gig, cancelled in August when a Leppard suffered a bereavement. But the leg turned out to be a non-starter, scrapped due to "unforeseen personal matters." With great regret, the band, who had expected to be on the road until November 28, announced: "We know how truly blessed we are to have such committed fans. That's why we've agonised over this decision. Even if just a single concert, we don't take cancelling shows lightly. But, unfortunately, life's commitments need to be the priority." Belatedly, that would spark 2010 Leppard split rumours which Joe shot down in the Sheffield evening newspaper. He had felt his place was with pregnant Kristine before experiencing the joys of fatherhood through the birth of son Finlay.

So the band had a chance to rest up and get their breath back, although Phil was back playing with Man Raze as UK tour support for Alice Cooper prior to celebrating his 52nd birthday. Viv said Merry Xmas Everybody by performing Slade's festive perennial as guest of The Section Quartet at the Largo in LA, Rick, who had turned 46, sent a holiday message to the service veterans he works so closely with and Sav spent his 49th at home with family in Sheffield. Joe's Down 'n' Outz, who had opened on the final night of Mott the Hoople's reunion gigs in London, were found to be recording a studio album and backed the front man and Sav in a personal tribute to a former Sheffield radio presenter, friend and supporter at the local City Hall on May 30, 2010. The Down 'n' Outz recording activity resulted in My ReGeneration, a 10-track collection of songs from Mott-related artists available initially with Classic Rock magazine before general release boosted by bonus tunes ahead of a band performance at the July 25 inaugural High Voltage Festival at Victoria Park, London, following a warm-up at The Borderline three days earier. My ReGeneration was also a six-part Saturday evening radio series hosted by Joe on Planet Rock then extended by 13 weeks as he played tracks that had inspired him.

While Billboard revealed that guitar veteran Carlos Santana planned a version of Photograph with Chris Daughtry vocals on his new album out in September, Viv had his own New Year nostalgia trip to look forward to, having been signed up to play with Scott Gorham, Brian Downey, Darren Wharton and more as Thin Lizzy on a 2011 UK tour by the resurrected Irish hard rockers with a January 4 Dublin special to mark the 25th anniversary of founder-member Phil Lynott's untimely death. Then Joe was in the frame as the World Entertainment News Network reported he had been chatting with Scott Gorham about re-recording Lynott vocals for a Lizzy project to remaster and remix two or three of their classic albums. Talking to Guitarist magazine, Scott hoped Joe would be on board to start remixing at his own Dublin studio this year. Lo and behold, the US-born guitarist came knocking on Joe's door in mid-August.

For Leppard fans, there had been a chance to snap up Shots from the Sparkle Tour Vol 2 books and 2010 calendars. An album follow-up to Songs from the Sparkle Lounge appeared to be some way over the horizon, however, and, in fact, Joe said just about as much to Noisecreep, the heavy metal/hard rock music site launched by AOL Music, even though he and Sav had already come up with ideas for fresh material and turned their attention to browsing through live tracks for release as a compilation.

There was a buzz of anticipation in the Leppard camp when the band, as free agents, confirmed a strategic hook-up with Primary Wave, one of the largest US music publishers. Not only did it mean the musicians' song catalogue being marketed to a wider audience through such outlets as a video game, mobile phones, big and small screen offerings, but plans were mooted for the five to star in TV cartoon adventures.
A re-energised Leppard could look ahead to a return to the road in 2011.

Check out Leppard music videos further down...

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

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