Page 38 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019

British steel: Steve
Clark, Rick Savage
and Pete Willis launch
their axe attack.

placed his new protégés as the opening act on the and Judas Priest. Allom was a bon viveur, giving the that one day,” Joe says. “Nine songs. It was easy.”
UK leg of AC/DC’s Highway To Hell tour, beginning band an education on fine wines. “Every night, on Leppard had a broad range of influences. Joe
in October 1979. the stroke of eight o’clock, there was much popping loved glam rock – Bowie, Bolan, Mott The Hoople.
As Rick Savage described it, this tour was for Def of corks,” recalls the singer. Steve was a Led Zeppelin fanatic. Pete was into UFO
Leppard a nightly rock’n’roll master class. “We saw The approach to the album was simple. As Joe and Judas Priest. Rick Savage’s favourite band was
how a seasoned headline act operated,” he says, explains: “We’d been playing most of the songs live Queen. Rick Allen’s was AC/DC. And all of this fed
“and how you interact with a big crowd. The for the best part of a year, and we just recorded into the songs for On Through The Night.
standard of musicianship in AC/DC was them live.” “We wanted to sound like Queen, Lizzy, Mott,
unbelievable. We would watch in awe of how great On the first day of recording, the band worked Slade,” Joe says. “Three-minute songs, with loads of
they were.” And for Rick Allen, there was a fast. “We got most of the backing tracks done in guitars and big choruses – short and sweet and to
memorable moment at London’s Hammersmith the point, like glam rock was in the early ’70s and
Odeon on November 1, when he celebrated his punk rock was in the late ’70s.”
sixteenth birthday, and his tender age was reflected The energy that Tom Allom captured was most
in the gift he received from Bon Scott, AC/DC’s evident on riff-heavy songs such as Wasted, Rock
famously hell-raising singer. Brigade and the newly titled Rocks Off, minus the
“Bon came in to our dressing room singing ‘Getcha’. “You can’t argue with the sheer raw power
Happy Birthday in that strange Australian- of Wasted,” Joe says. There was also live-wire
Glaswegian voice, and gave me a big bowl of electricity in two songs that were written in the
Smarties,” recalls Rick. “That was his funny way of studio at the last minute, It Could Be You and It Don’t
showing me some love.” Matter, the latter incorporating a novel approach to
In the first days of December – just three weeks percussion.
after their last date with AC/DC – Def Leppard “We couldn’t find a cowbell in the studio,” Joe
decamped to Tittenhurst Park, near Ascot in says, “so we used a kettle. It sounded just like a
Berkshire, to record their debut album. The place cowbell, but we dented it to fuck, destroyed it. The
was steeped in rock’n’roll history. It was where John next day, lady that came in to cook and clean went
Lennon, in the famous ‘white room’, was filmed ballistic when she saw what we’d done to it.”
singing Imagine with Yoko Ono at his side, and It was another track originally featured on the
where, after John and Yoko had moved to New E.P. that served as the album’s grandest statement.
York City, another ex-Beatle, Ringo Starr, had taken Overture had its title shorn of the definite article, but
up residence. “We were just soaking up that whole this epic piece, inspired by two mythic rock tracks
Beatles vibe,” Joe says. “And I drew the long straw – Xanadu by Rush and Emerald by Thin Lizzy – was,
and got Lennon’s bedroom.” in Joe’s words, “somewhere off in wacky world”.
The producer for the album, ‘Colonel’ Tom Jump for joy: Joe And if there was one song that pointed to the
Elliott celebrates
Allom, was an old hand, experienced in working Leppard’s success. band’s future, it was Hello America, with its big
with heavyweight bands including Black Sabbath chorus and harmony vocals multi-tracked by Joe.

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