Newcastle, England - Media Reviews

Big cat's big let down by Ian Ravendale

The Def Leppard backlash starts here (What, already? - Ed.)

Def Leppard Newcastle - The section of the Mayfair's balcony that's screened off for use by the mixer and his lighting lads resembles the tube at five o'clock. Friends, mums and dads, friends' mums and dads; everyone's gathered together to share in their boys' glory. A six (not five) figure deal with Phonogram, tours with Sammy Hagar and maybe Ian Gillan. It's all systems go for Def Leppard.

I'm here, as much as anything, to see what it is that they've got that elevates them above dozens of other similar young heavies up and down the country. If I was hoping for some sort of great insight it didn't come.

Joe Elliott is an OK singer and when bassist Rick Savage comes in as well it gets quite good. Elliott makes the standard full-lunged bellows, lets out some Plant-y 'woah, woahs' to a phantom steed and yells "Is everybody feelin' alright" at regular intervals. He moves acceptably, backwards and forwards and sometimes side to side (reminding me a bit of Les McKeown actually). He claps and whirls the mike, but there's no real conviction. Nothing that says "Watch me! I'm something special!", the way that the better new frontmen like Dave Smith of Zorro or Bob Smeton of White Heat do have.

Maybe it's because at average age 18 the band aren't musically mature. They're tight enough, so they must work a lot, but there's still an obvious lack of experience. Like, it's pretty clear that Leppard have only twelve numbers rehearsed up and ready to go. Eleven for the main set and one for the encore. So when, as in this case, they are called back for a second encore it's got to be one of the previous twelve again. Touches like that sort the men from the boys.

Clothes-wise, it's archetypal HM satin and spangles. And even though the band favour yellow and black prints, in keeping with the 'Leppard' part of their name, it all comes over as being rather indenti-flash. 'Dressy-up'.

Musically they've got very much the same problem. I've got no kinship with the form but I can tell yer Rush from yer Zep and yer Quo from yer AC/DC and to me, as yet, Leppard don't have their own sound. They make the noise but it isn't yet their noise. When they do their Lizzy covers, it comes out like Lizzy. When they do their own songs, every twist and turn fits into a well-ploughed furrow.

Heavy metal is known as anything but innovative, but I was hoping for some freshness at least. Instead, numbers that start off slow and soulful and build up to a chugga beat alternate with numbers that do the opposite. The guitar break, a drum solo and the regulation pseudo-cosmic lyrics. I, and you, have heard it dozens of times before. As, I'm sure, have the band.

Sorry to be a damp squib lads, but do you really need all the cliches? The bricks and mortar are there. All that's needed is an architect and some new plans.

Sounds 1979.

By Steve Drury 1992.

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