Page 13 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019
P. 13
Def Leppard: the
really early days.
Rob Verschoyle (childhood friend of Steve Neal Kay: Steve and [Maiden singer] Paul Di’Anno Joe Elliott: We were a bunch of kids destined for
Harris): I met Steve when I was twelve and he brought it to me on one of the week nights. Steve factory life. We knew the opportunities we were
was ten. The difference between the rest of us and said: “’Ere, mate, give this a listen when you’ve got being given. We were not going to screw this up.
Steve was dedication. He’d be playing bass all the a minute.” I said: “You’ll be lucky. I’ve got millions
time. He became a trainee draughtsman, but he of tapes to listen to.” But that night I put it in the Rick Savage: We were teenagers, and we had this
gave that up to concentrate on playing. His whole player and listened to it. I thought: “Fuck me, this belief that anything was possible. When that way
life was like that. Anything he did, he went at it is going all the way.” I phoned Steve up at two am of thinking is moulded into the group at that very
a hundred per cent. and said: “You’re going to be really rich, because early stage, it never really leaves you.
what you’ve got here is nothing short of brilliant.”
Steve Harris: I wouldn’t say I’m a control freak.
I just like to get things done. Steve Harris: He played it at the club and people
began voting for it as In January 1979, Def
Neal Kay (DJ/founder, Heavy Metal their favourite track. We Leppard released their
Soundhouse): Since 1975 I’d been building up started getting into these self-titled debut EP. With
a small venue in Kingsbury as a heavy metal Sounds charts, which were “THINGS WERE GETTING A copies glued together by
discotheque. It was known as The Bandwagon in compiled from requests Joe Elliott and his mum,
the Prince Of Wales pub, but I rechristened it the there. That’s what got the BIT TAME, AND THEN PUNK it was available via mail
Heavy Metal Soundhouse. The main room held ball rolling for Maiden. CAME ALONG AND KICKED order and at gigs, costing
about seven hundred people, and we had a fuckin’ EVERYBODY UP THE ARSE.” the princely sum of £1.
ginormous sound system. I kept badgering Geoff Biff Byford: We played
Barton at Sounds to come down, because I knew it some universities with Iron Andy Dawson (Savage) Biff Byford: Def Leppard
was unique, and a great press story. It took a long Maiden, supporting a band did the EP and sold it in
time to convince him but in the end he came. called Nutz. The people who booked it said they’d Sounds. I like that early stuff. It was killer.
never seen bands go down so well that sounded so
Geoff Barton (writing in Sounds, August crap. We quite liked that. Joe Elliott: We were just a bunch of teenagers
1978): “The decor resembles Dodge City, messing around, doing what we felt was right. But
American B-movie Western style but, with Getcha Rocks Off did have a vibe about it that was
alternating flashing lights/darkness, your eyes above and beyond what everyone else seemed to
never really adjust to notice that much detail. One hundred and fifty miles up the M1 in be doing. I think there was a good reason we got
The Bandwagon and the music that’s played there Sheffield, another equally ambitious group the deal that hundreds of other bands couldn’t
is very much a present day reality, no matter what of youngsters had their eyes firmly set on seem to get at the time.
the fashion pundits might tell you. And to me, and rock stardom. Singer Joe Elliott, bassist Rick
a goodly number of other punters, it’s like a little Savage and drummer Tony Kenning had Andy Dawson: Everybody I knew went out
bit of heaven on earth.” formed the band Atomic Mass while still in and brought that EP. There was a rock disco
their mid-teens. By the time on Friday, and that would be
Neal Kay: After Geoff Barton’s double-page they played their first gig, in played every time.
spread in Sounds, suddenly all these demo tapes a school canteen, they had
started arriving from oppressed bands who changed the band’s name to Joe Elliott: That naiveté can
couldn’t get out. Among these tapes was the Def Leppard. really drive you. And we weren’t
Iron Maiden demo. stupid. We learned our craft from
Biff Byford: Def Leppard were listening to other people. We were
Steve Harris: We did a four-track demo and gave very young. They were four or students of Pete Townshend and
it to Neal Kay. five years younger than we were. Ray Davies and Plant and Page
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