Page 76 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019

“…ooh, in the name of love.”
The Steve ‘n’ Joe show.

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we were different men. Finishing an album is the
hardest part, but that gave us the energy we needed to “WE SET OUT TO BE THE
see it through.”
Mutt Lange took five months to mix Hysteria, most
of that time spent setting the mood. And there was BIGGEST BAND IN THE
one more ball-breaking kick for Leppard when he
had to spend three weeks in hospital with a leg injury. WORLD. AND FOR A SHORT
Finally, in early 1987, the album was finished: in the
end a dozen tracks instead of the usual 10, with a lot
of good songs having fallen along the wayside. WHILE WE WERE.”
“We’d had the original 10 songs,” Rick Savage
recalled, “but we were writing new ones all the time.
The amount of time we spent on that album meant JOE ELLIOTT
things kept going out of date, and this was a way of
keeping it fresh. But it got to the stage where we had word of mouth led to rotation play on radio stations ‘reverse’. You couldn’t go back to that way of
12 songs and nobody wanted to throw another two across the United States. Suddenly the album was working.”
out. So we thought we’ll give them two more tracks shifting tens of thousands a day. In the end it sold 16 Joe Elliott was once asked if he felt the album
than normal – which gives people a bit better value million copies. actually was, in fact, a bit over-produced. Predictably,
for money.” If any one track summarises the Def Leppard he didn’t: “It’s big production, though. It’s huge. It’s
Everyone held their breath as the release date was philosophy, it must be Pour Some Sugar… It’s simple, using the studio to your benefit; you don’t just go in
announced for August – 43 months, almost five it’s anthemic, it acknowledges inspiration from a and play live then master the tapes, you have to
years, after the project had originally begun. Futures range of sources, and the lyrics are tongue-in-cheek, create. That’s what we did.”
and careers were now riding on how many copies entertaining and upbeat. It’s in the spirit of I Love Almost 20 years after its release, Elliott has been
Hysteria would sell. The target could be no less than Rock’n’Roll but is much more than that, with the interviewed about Hysteria a countless times (he
six million. careful blend of guitars, layered vocals, strong describes it as a drawer in his mind which he opens
Animal was the first single (Women in the US), and it melody and shouty bits. And if Elliott’s raspier-than- when he’s in the mood but would rather ignore at
gave the band their first UK hit – an extremely usual voice makes it sound like it hurt to sing like other times). “If one word sums the whole experience
positive sign. Over the following months another five that, it’s because it did. up, it would be ‘determination’,” he says. “We were
tracks were released as singles as the band headed out “One of the reasons it took so long to finish the still young – I was 24, Rick was 20. We could deal
on tour, performing in the famous ‘in the round’ album was our approach to production,” Savage with things like that. But you couldn’t again – Pink
format (which required them to be taken from the reflected, years later in 2002. “The way we produced it Floyd have always said there could never be a The Wall
dressing room to the stage, through the audience, in started a new wave of recording technology. You can 2. There could never be a Hysteria 2.”
laundry carts). now do in an afternoon what took us three months Hysteria did everything that was expected of it and
Where fate had been throwing punches at Def with Hysteria.” more. It took more time and energy from the band
Leppard it was now smiling on them (and maybe “It’s incredible to think how fast everything’s than anyone could have thought possible, but gave as
even throwing them a kiss or two). Sales of the album become,” Elliott says. “When we put the reverse much back. Elliott summed up both the secret to
faltered, then stalled at around five million (which for vocals on Gods Of War, you physically had to take the creating a classic album and the result of achieving
just about any other band would have been a tape off the reel, put it on backwards, record it to one when he said: “We crossed over without selling
success). But then strip club dancers started using another reel, then put the tape back again. Now you out. We set out to be the biggest band in the world.
Pour Some Sugar On Me as their backing track, and just select the section you want to reverse and press And for a short while we were.”

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