Page 59 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019

On reflection, Elliott is keen to stress the HOW METAL WENT POP says Elliott. “I met George Michael and he said:
importance of Pete Willis’s contribution to ‘I bought Photograph – great song!’ That’s when
Pyromania. The guitarist co-wrote four of the DEF LEPPARD OPENED THE DOOR TO you know you’re crossing over.”
album’s 10 tracks, including Photograph, the key hit STADIUM METAL FOR EVERYONE ELSE. Leppard began touring the US in March,
single. And despite his run-ins with Mutt Lange, supporting Billy Squier on 24 dates. Squier was
Willis also played the rhythm guitar parts on every It’s no surprise that Def Leppard made it first still a big star at the time, “a bona fide arena-rock
track. Phil Collen joined the band for the final in America. They may have come from sensation”, as one critic called him. But Def
stages of recording, when they returned to Sheffield, but they were purveyors of pure Leppard blew him off stage night after night. On
London for overdubbing and mixing at Battery Americana, a sound that had its natural April 29 Leppard began their first headlining US
Studios. Collen played solos on five of the tracks, home on the radio there. Cheap Trick had tour, with support from Krokus and Jon Butcher
with Steve Clark taking the other five. been doing it since the 70s. So had Boston Axis. The first of these shows was a sobering
and Styx as they sowed the seeds of AOR, experience: a 10,000-seater sports arena in Odessa,
which to pop metal was the kind of cousin it
T WAS only when the album was being probably couldn’t marry – the blood lines Texas was only a quarter full. But within a matter
mixed that Elliott got a true sense of what being too close, and all that. of weeks shows were selling out. “By the summer
IDef Leppard had achieved with Pyromania. Then at the start of the 80s, radio rock got we were flying. We sold out two nights in Detroit
“We knew we’d done something that had never pretty. Pat Benatar and Rick Springfield faster than Zeppelin did!” Elliott states.
been done before,” he says. “And a lot of that was spiked their hair, wore spandex and marked Two more singles were lifted from the album:
down to Mutt.” out a genre. Springfield’s Jessie’s Girl and first Rock Of Ages, then Foolin’. Both received such
The producer was a hard taskmaster whose Don’t Talk To Strangers, and Benatar’s heavy airplay in America that the singer admits:
relentless pursuit of perfection pulled the best out Shadows Of The Night, Love Is A Battlefield and “I swear to God I turned the radio off cos I got sick
of each band member, none more so than the Hit Me With Your Best Shot, powered by the of hearing us every 20 minutes!”
singer. “I wasn’t fucking David Coverdale,” Joe emergent MTV and endless airplay, were During one amazing period in August,
ubiquitous hits.
shrugs. “We went to a lot of effort to make me They ushered in pop metal’s glory years, Pyromania was selling 100,000 copies a day in the
better than I was. It was hard work, but you got the heady days of the mid-80s when Bon US. The album climbed to No.2 on the Billboard
something unique. I was right on the peak of my Jovi, Europe, Bryan Adams and Def Leppard chart – second only to Thriller. “We actually out-
performance, and there was no better man than began getting hits. Songs like Photograph, The sold Thriller for one week,” Elliott says, “but that
Mutt to push me. Sometimes I’d be thinking, ‘Jesus, Final Countdown, Run To You and Livin’ On A just happened to be the week that the Flashdance
how many times have I gotta do this? I’m gonna Prayer, that retained the pop sensibility of soundtrack went to No.1, with us at two and
lose it!’ What Mutt got was a great performance Rick Springfield while being noticeably Jacko at three.”
from someone who isn’t a great singer.” tougher. The look was exaggerated too; On September 17, 1983 Def Leppard arrived in
Mutt was equally obsessive about backing ripped denim, big hair and lots of guyliner. San Diego, California for the Pyromania tour’s
vocals, using all five band members – and himself 117th and final stop on the US mainland. It turned
– to create stunning multi-tracked vocal Ratt: big-haired out to be the biggest headline show of the band’s
80s pop metal.
harmonies in the style of Leppard’s heroes Queen. career up to then, with 55,000 fans packing the
“The backing vocals on Foolin’ and Billy’s Got A Gun Jack Murphy Stadium to see Leppard plus support
are just nuts!” Elliott laughs. acts Mötley Crüe, Uriah Heep and Eddie Money.
But the producer’s masterstroke was to bring in That was just five years since Joe Elliott had
80s keyboard maestro Thomas Dolby to play on scrawled Def Leppard’s name on the walls of
the album. Mutt had employed him to brilliant Sheffield City Hall. Now 24, he was the rock’n’roll
effect on Foreigner’s 4: it was Dolby who played star of his dreams. As the band waited in darkness
the synthesisers on the hit ballad Waiting For A Girl before going on stage, with The Rolling Stones’
Like You. And he played a key role on Pyromania. Start Me Up booming out around the stadium,
“The band and Mutt, we wanted to make a really Elliott thought to himself: “Six months ago we
modern rock record,” Elliott says. “We wanted an didn’t know shit from shinola, and now we’re the
album that sounded the way Spielberg’s movies biggest fucking band on the planet!”
looked. And Thomas Dolby was perfect for that.” When the Pyromania tour eventually finished, in
The massed synthesiser chords Dolby added to Bangkok on February 7, 1984, after a triumphant
the intro of Rock Rock (Till You Drop) transformed a return to the UK and dates in Europe, Japan and
straightforward kick-ass rocker into a cutting-edge Australia, the album had sold more than six
stadium-rock anthem. As the opening track on GETTY million copies in the US alone. Pyromania was, as
the album, it was an emphatic statement. predicted, the birth of a legend. And for Joe Elliott
Elsewhere, Dolby added subtle textures to Foolin’ In the UK Pyromania was still selling slow. It its success was a very personal victory.
(reminiscent of Waiting For A Girl Like You) and peaked at No.18. And after a showcase gig at “When I was a kid in Sheffield,” he says, “I was
dramatic flourishes to Die Hard The Hunter. London’s Marquee club on February 9 the band’s this geeky twat who liked music and wasn’t living
The final mix of Pyromania was completed just British theatre tour drew disappointingly small in the real world. At 17 I was useless with women.
before Christmas 1982. It had taken nine months audiences. Joe called it “The Nobody Cares Tour”. They used to laugh at me if I asked them for a date.
to finish. However, at a cost of more than £1m it In America, however, it was a different story. I had no confidence with women. And now, all of
had to sell at least three million copies to get Def The album’s lead single, Photograph, was a huge a sudden I didn’t need any – they were chasing me
Leppard out of debt. Joe Elliott should have been a radio hit. “Photograph blew out the door the way all over the place! But the truth is, that was never a
worried man. He wasn’t. “We knew we’d made a More Than A Feeling or Radar Love or Black Betty did,” priority. All I ever wanted was to be a star.”
great record,” he says. “And we knew it had the
potential to be huge.”
Pyromania was released on January 20, 1983. The “WE KNEW WE’D MADE
album received great reviews. Rolling Stone
magazine’s David Fricke awarded Pyromania four A GREAT RECORD, AND THAT
out of five stars and stated: “This young band
demonstrates surprising sophistication as it
manipulates old heavy metal tricks into tight, IT HAD THE POTENTIAL TO
invigorating songs.” In Kerrang!, future Classic Rock
contributor Malcolm Dome hailed Pyromania as BE HUGE.” – JOE ELLIOTT
“the birth of a legend”.

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