Newcastle, England - Media Reviews

Media Review - By Ian Ravensdale

I've got to say even though he's a mate, it rankles me to hear Bob Weir of the Tygers Of Pan Tang yelling "Are you ready to ROCK Noocassell" in his best Ted Nugent when he lives five miles down the road. But that aside, in the space of a few months the Tygers have evolved from a bunch of lads messing around in a local club to being a real band.

I still don't go for the musical mayhem they stormtroop out, you understand, but everything's starting to make a lot more sense now. They've really only got one song and one guitar intro that Rob disguises with flanges, echo boxes and dozens of other doo hickiees, but it doesn't seem to matter anymore. Within the limited territory they've carved out for themselves, the Tygers get better with every performance. Except this one.

Adhering to the non-acceptance of prophets, the crowd aren't quite as receptive as they might be, so the band don't give out quite as much as they have been doing on the other dates. After all, blowing it in front of your peers is likely to be a lot less comfortable than fluffing it in the company of strangers.

Strangely, Def Leppard suffer the same problem. Despite a near as dammit full house, they're still having to prove themselves on this tour. Judging by the time it took the audience to get off and banging, I'd be very surprised if Leppard are the favourite band of many of tonight's attendees. No, for most of them it's just another heavy metal night out. They'll be back tomorrow to see Saxon, but the gig they're really looking forward to is Rush.

The Def 'Uns age is probably a contributing factor. Even HM fans must have inhibitions about letting it all rip when the kid playing the guitar looks as though he could still get half fare on the bus. But by far the most telling way that Leppard's youth holds them back is in their lack of any real identity. The 'Barron Knights Of HM' jibes are legitimate enough, but instead of one number sounding like Lizzy and the next like Priest and so on, it's as though they've tipped all their influences into a bag, stirred them up and shaken them out in a different order so that each song has traces but doesn't sound like any one band in particular. Just the whole lot, put through a mincing machine.

Leppard are exceptionally competent musicians for their age, no doubt about it. But while the first (Zeppelin, Purple) and second generation (UFO, Priest) of heavies had years to develop their personalities, the Defs were tossed in the deep end and haven't managed it yet. The absence of a direction that they could truly say was their own indicates that it could have been too much too soon. They're bright, down to earth, Northern lads, so I hope for their sake Leppard can hold it all together.

By Sounds 1980.

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