Page 79 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019

Robert John Lange in 1948 in Rhodesia (now Zambia) but
utt Lange – man or machine? That’s a
question many have tried to answer
but no satisfactory conclusion has
been reached. I’ve been in the
Mbusiness in one form or another for
30 years and I’ve never met the fella. In fact I’ve only ever
met a handful of people who’ve brushed by his presence,
and even they confess that he’s a hard one to crack. As a
recluse he’s pretty hard to get to know, but he has a solid-
gold reputation as a hit-maker extraordinaire; a knob-
twiddler with a track record that would shame even
masters of the art such as Roy Thomas Baker, Jimmy
Miller, Trevor Horn, Jeff Lynne and Quincy Jones.
Arguably he’s the guy that got the golden ticket and
one that he used to brilliant, some might even say
magical, effect with Def Leppard. A band that utilised his
talent on no less than four separate albums, starting with
the rough and ready sounds of High ‘n’ Dry (1984) and
ending with Adrenalize (1992) but commercially peaking,
of course, with the mega-selling (20 million-plus
worldwide) Hysteria album (1987), which became, in
effect, a greatest hits album, containing no less than
seven smash singles. It remains a remarkable
achievement, not purely because of its unquestionable
commercial achievement but as a statement of the
perfect blend of pop and rock, a sound that Mutt fully
refined and used to further success with artists further
down the line.
So who is this shy, retiring man? Well, as far as I know,
he’s never done an interview in his life, preferring to let
Deaf School, the Boomtown
the music do the talking. There are very few photos in
existence and most of what are available have been
snatched by paparazzi and are linked to the fame of his
ex-wife Shania Twain. They show him mostly in pensive,
stoney-faced mood, suggesting that he is on a constant
mission, reviewing the day’s work in his head and
figuring out how it can be improved tomorrow.
So what do we know about him? Well, he was born
String driven thing:
Joe and the boys get raised in Durban, South Africa, the son of a German
back to basics.
mother and a South African father. It was his parents who
gave him the nickname of ‘Mutt’. By the turn of the 70s
he’d caught the rock’n’roll bug and formed a local combo
called Hocus (who cut a few now hard to find singles)
based in a place called Muldersdrift on the outskirts of
Johannesburg, More importantly it would find him
working with his school friend and future wife Stevie van
Kerken who had been a sort of child protégée and now
lead singer of the band.
Although Hocus failed to connect commercially, Mutt’s
songwriting and fledgling production chops brought him
into contact with other South African musicians and
entrepreneurs, not least of them Clive Calder and Ralph
Simon, two
MARTYN GOODACRE/GETTY forward-thinkers about to take
‘Mutt was
on the lookout
for bigger and
better Leppard to a
opportunities.
Calder, in whole new level,
particular, had one that placed
spent time
working for EMI them firmly on
in their A&R the map as
department and
was looking to international
branch out by contenders.’
setting up a
production and
publishing company, a situation that took flight around
1974, with Mutt being retained as a sort of in-house
producer/songwriter. A year later the trio sensed that
South Africa was far too restrictive on a number of levels
(artistically and politically) so they agreed to pool their
resources and move to London in order to try their luck
in a far more opportunistic environment. Stevie also
joined them, having married Mutt a year earlier.
Setting up a base of operation from Calder’s bedroom
and calling the company Zomba (the capital of Malawi, by
the way), they got to work on a number of fledgling
productions and undertook a barrage of song-pitching.
Mutt and Stevie were even signed, under the unlikely
handle of Stephen, by Dave Dee (of Dozy, Beaky, Mick &
Tich fame) to a tiny label called Antic (a spin-off of
Atlantic Records) and released a now very rare and
Shang-a-Lange: besides expensive single in 1974, titled Right On Running Man.
Def Leppard, Mutt has
produced bands such as Calder (who would later become the wealthiest man in
AC/DC, Michael Bolton, the music business on the sale of Zomba to the German-
Rats and Nickelback. owned BMG Company in 2002) and Simon wasted little
time in representing Mutt to a variety of acts and labels,
trying to secure production work. In the meantime Stevie
Lange started to carve out a reputation as a go-to backing
vocalist, lending her talent to a variety of artists,
including, but not limited to, Sweet, Colin Blunstone, Jim
Capaldi, fellow South African Trevor Rabin, Rick
Wakeman and UFO. And Stevie’s talent didn’t stop there:
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