Page 43 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019

On stage in 1981:
nice show, shame
about the shirt.

Scorpions in Europe. Elliott was working on a
building site when, in January 1981, he was told
they’d have to wait another month for Mutt. “I
went to my record collection, took Double Vision
out and snapped it in half.”
When Leppard did finally start recording with
the producer, in March 1981, it was the start of
what would become the most fraught yet
ultimately rewarding relationship of the band’s
career. With his chiselled, clean-shaven looks and
light-coloured, curly hair, Lange could have been
Elliott or Sav’s elder brother. In fact he would
become the father figure of the group as, over the
next seven years, he helped to transform Leppard
from NWOBHM rejects into globally acclaimed
rock superstars. Mutt held the keys to all this and
more, as he proved time and time again. All you
had to do was follow his rules – to the letter.
“The first day, he was giving us directions,” There’s no place like
Elliott recalls, “and Pete was eating this apple. Mutt home: Leppard give LA
just went off at him, really ripped into him, cos Pete a northern welcome.
wasn’t paying attention. It was like being at school; “Let’s go to work!”
we were all staring at the floor going, ‘Oh, God…’” Leppard would turn up each day at Outside Battery
Studios, London.
That had been at the well-appointed John Studio One – the larger of Battery’s two
Henry’s Rehearsal Studios in north London. With main studios – to find Lange already hard
the steady-as-she-goes commercial breakthrough at work. “He was always first in and last out,” says
of On Through The Night, and now the recruitment Elliott. “Later on, he’d just sleep in the studio – however, “it started to click. I’d got the verses done,
of a producer of Lange’s stature, the budget for work until 4am then pass out on the couch. He just piecing them all together, and [Peter] Mensch
Leppard’s second album had increased worked his butt off, and he instilled that in us.” looked at Mutt and went: ‘Is that my fucking
exponentially – as had expectations for its success. One of the new songs they’d been played at singer?’ He’d never heard me sing like that –
Suddenly the pressure was on. Reading was When The Rain Falls. “Mutt saw it as neither had I. I thought, if this is what working
When, in March 1981, recording finally potentially our Highway To Hell,” says Elliott. “But with [Mutt] can do for me, then I’ll put up with all
commenced, at Battery Studios in Willesden the words were all wishy-washy, introspective the pain.”
Green, north-west London, Mutt was already “like bollocks: me stuck in my parents’ house ’cause it’s “It was the first time any of us really experienced
the sixth member,” says Allen. “High ’N’ Dry was raining. Mutt said: ‘We’ve gotta go more global.’ So what hard work is about,” says Allen, who’d begun
starting with a blank canvas, all we had was just we thought more of Queen, We Will Rock You, and “to doubt my ability to play drums. I was
riffs and beginnings of ideas. [Mutt] proceeded to renamed it Let It Go.” competing with [AC/DC drummer] Phil Rudd.
tear the fucking thing apart and piece it back During the vocal recording of A Certain Heartache People ask who your influences are as a drummer.
together, bit by bit.” – which, at Mutt’s instigation, had been renamed Well, really, it’s Mutt Lange.”
Despite its out-of-the-way location, Lange Bringin’ On The Heartbreak – an exasperated Elliott When the album was finished three months
favoured Battery for its excellent 1976 Cadac went next door to Battery’s Studio Two, where later – “lightning-fast compared to the months and
analogue desk – an antique now, state-of-the-art Whitesnake were recording Saints & Sinners, years we spent on the next two albums with Mutt,”
then. Originally known in the 70s as Morgan, seeking advice from vocalist David Coverdale. says Elliott – they had created what Savage calls
Battery had hosted a wealth of UK rock talent, “I watched David lay down a vocal with one “the launch pad for the rest of our career”.
including Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Paul take. Next thing he gets out the brandy, and I’m
McCartney. A decade later it was the crucible in leaning on the piano, listening to him tell all these ot that anyone could have foreseen that
which the Stone Roses forged their game-changing Deep Purple stories. I’m getting bollocks-drunk, when High ’N’ Dry was released in July
debut, and where Lange returned to record albums and David’s going [deep-voiced and Yorkshire N1981. For despite a recanting five-star
for Shania Twain and Bryan Adams. When Leppard accent]: ‘Don’t you worry, brother Joseph, it’s review in Sounds, the album singularly failed to
first arrived, Iron Maiden had just vacated it, having gonna be all right!’” catch fire in the UK, barely scraping the Top 30.
been working with their own stellar producer, Elliott’s only other memory of that day is “Everybody loved it,” recalls Elliott, “but nobody
Martin Birch, on their second album, Killers. “puking all over the pavement”. But the next day, bought it. We toured the same places we did a É

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