Jason Nahrung

Def Leppard

It has been more than 20 years since DEF LEPPARD ’s Hysteria album rocked the charts, concreting the English band’s place as rock legends. Since 1992’s Adrenalize, and despite a number of albums since, the outfit has largely untroubled the charts, left behind by changing musical tastes. Now there’s a new glimmer in the group’s career, with their latest album, Songs from the Sparkle Lounge, reaching number five on the US Billboard charts.

The reason for the resurgence in interest is, according to guitarist Phil Collen, due to a little bit of the old and a lot of the new. “There’s a reason that bands like us and Bon Jovi did well in the first place and got replaced by the alternative thing – there were so many shitty bands that had no substance, all this hair metal, it was all about flash and missing the point. I think there’s room for that and there’s room for the real stuff. That’s what we’re seeing now. And there’s the whole retro thing, the t-shirt thing and the Guitar Hero thing; that all adds up and it all helps really.”

Collen joined the band, formed in Sheffield in 1977, in time for 1992’s Adrenalize, following on from the 1980s chart-toppers Pyromania and Hysteria. He acknowledges that the internet and computer games such as Guitar Hero have afforded classic bands a new lease of life by exposing their music to a new generation.
Nine Lives, the lead single from Sparkle Lounge, was released as a download for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, ahead of the song release. Also made available for the game were Pyromania hits Photograph and Rock of Ages. While the collaboration with country singer Tim McGraw on Nine Lives also gave the single a boost, Collen says the band’s integrity was also a factor in its success.

“I think it’s down to the timing. If we’d done a standard Def Leppard album that was based on ballads and stuff like that, it wouldn’t have had the same attention. It’s a rock album that some people deem as being a bit of a brave move. But we didn’t think of it like that, this is what we wanted to do. By being very natural and not trying to please other people, anyone really, even fans or record company executives, I think there’s a certain amount of integrity that shines through. We’ve been putting records out and no one’s paid any attention, for whatever reason. This time they are. We’ve been slogging away at it. We don’t feel any bitterness, it’s how it is really. If one doesn’t stick you give it another shot.”

Perseverance is a Leppard trademark, having overcome the overdose death of guitarist Steve Clark and the setback of having drummer Rick Allen lose an arm in a car accident – an injury he overcame to continue playing. Collen joined the band after founding guitarist Pete Willis was booted out for alcoholism. “You’ve got be ambitious and inspired and enthused,” Collen says. “We’ve always been trying. It’s been a struggle, a lot of bands can’t deal with that. We’ve experienced life in general together, births, deaths and marriages, divorces, all of that stuff, we’ve been through that together.”

The collaboration with McGraw came about through Allen, whose brother is McGraw’s tour manager. “(McGraw) said ‘I’d love to work with you guys’, and I had that in the back of my head. I ran into him at one of our shows at the Hollywood Bowl and I sang him a bit of it. Before you knew it we had the basis of it, and then it was doing bits and pieces. It was a year before he’d done his vocal on it. It took a bit of time but it was pretty cool, it wasn’t a hack song-writing thing, it was born out of fun and a bit of real inspiration really. It was the right reasons for doing it.”

Collen says a key to the album’s vitality was writing it on tour, as opposed to sequestering themselves away in a studio. “We’ve been touring consistently for the past four years and I think we’ve done so much better as a band. Before, we’d tour an album and it would be three years before the next one came out and there’d be this huge gap, you’d pretty much have to learn how to do it again. “ By starting it on tour, you’re singing every night, playing guitars every night, you’re in that live rock band mode as opposed to sitting around in the studio three months after you’ve come off tour and you’re in domestic land and you forget what you do for a living. The great thing is when you do it like this you keep your finger on the pulse and it reminds you why you’re there.”

Songs from the Sparkle Lounge is out through Mercury/Universal.  Def Leppard will pounce on Canberra on Tuesday November 11 at the AIS Arena, with special guests Cheap Trick and The Galvatrons. Tickets through Ticketek.