Birmingham, England - Media Reviews

Def Leppard @ NEC Forum By Ida S. Langsam

Birmingham is the second largest city in England.

An industrial center likened to Detroit, it's a 90-minute train ride from the center of London.

This was the opening night for the Birmingham Forum, a 3,000 seat (less) hall and extension of the local indoor arena/convention center.

Def Leppard were inaugurating the place, which looked like a cross between a high school gymnasium decked out for the dance, and the inside of a circus tent.

Due to (the lack of) British Rail train schedules, we arrived smack dab in the middle of intermission, after opening act Tesla had already performed.

The small lobby was sparsely populated with a smattering of fans who mostly stood around drinking something called 'Arena Lager', a brew sold in plastic bottles so that the empty containers can't be converted into missiles to be thrown at the band.

It struck me, as I looked around at the subdued metalheads in their torn jeans and worn leather, that it could have been any concert hall in any city in America and every single member of the audience would have fit in instantly.

Except for the accents overheard in bits and pieces of conversation, it might as well have been L'Amours in Brooklyn, NY.

As soon as the announcement was heard introducing the band, the fans abandoned their beers to dash inside.

Without much fuss, Def Leppard went right into the first tune, 'Stagefright'.

The Forum's sound was absolutely dreadful, but the room's energy was incredibly high.

The crowd managed to take the arena attitude to a swollen height.

And this response, mind you, was for a band reportedly far less popular on their home turf then over here in the colonies.

The stage set was minimal - a seven step tier topped by Rick Allen at his drum kit.

As the band broke into their next tune, 'Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop), I noticed how Allen's left leg didn't stop bouncing'.

This non-stop human metronome seemed to be a replacement for the musician's physical loss of a left arm to pound the skins with.

What a fervor! What wild abandon!.

The entire band was much harder, much fiercer than on the new LP - it was very exciting.

The constant motion of the other four members was exhausting to watch - they ran back and forth, up the stairs then down again, and front man Joe Elliott was constantly raising his arms, throwing his head, hair and hands flying in a whir.

At the end of the tune, the crowd erupted, sounding like the soundtrack to a football/soccer match.

There were many shafts of coloured lights pouring down, like rays through stained glass windows in a cathedral.

By the time they launched into 'Women' Def Leppard were absolutely mesmerizing.

The simplicity of the presentation was brilliant, with no stage entrapments and no costumes.

The set had an air of pure rock 'n' roll energy and a love of the music.

A supercharged version of 'Another Hit And Run' was performed next - with no patter or small talk from the band.

At the end of the song there was a very tight orchestration of the five-note ending which ended bang-on Elliott's cue.

This was as near perfection for a live concert as it within memory.

Elliott encouraged the audience to react in a very natural manner, not at all condescending in his attitude.

He has learned well, and this style should go over big with American audiences.

During 'Too Late For Love' the crowd clapped their hands in time to the music, holding their arms way up above their heads to do so.

'Billy's Got A Gun' left the crowd with a few moments to breathe, until the steady, driving rhythm of 'Armageddon It' turned all their attention back to the stage.

Steve Clark's guitar solo didn't do anything for me, but did elicit a decent response from the crowd.

It was accompanied by a pattern of coloured lights on the ceiling, reminiscent of a disco-era mirrored ball (ugh).

This was the one low point of the show, but the visuals during 'Gods Of War' displayed a gorgeous curtain of light running straight across the back of the stage.

The song faded out to the sound, look and fury of a WWII air raid bombing blitz in London, and ended with an explosion, complete with blinding white light.

Then it suddenly became Vietnam circa 1969 with the sound of helicopters overhead beaming down spotlights of jungle green.

The smoke of war filled the hall as Def Lep dove into the introduction for 'Die Hard The Hunter'.

The band was everywhere at once, bounding all over the stage, and making the performance of rock 'n' roll look easy and fun, as it should.

The entire feel of the event was one of a local band playing in front of an audience of their friends who are there to cheer them on.

By now, the crowd was happy - make that delirious - clapping along to such old favourites as 'Bringin' On The Heartbreak' and 'Foolin'', which was followed by a unanimous show of fists in the air to greet 'Animal' the first U.K. single off the band's Hysteria LP.

'Pour Some Sugar On Me' borrows liberally from Queen's 'We Will Rock You' (Brian May turned up backstage at one of those gigs and presented Elliott with a complete set of Queen albums on CD).

It was at this point in the show that the London audiences showered the band with sugar cubes, thrown lovingly onto the stage.

Clever, very clever, those Brits.

'Let It Go' had the kind of guitar finale that showcased notes played at the squeak end of the scale and inspires fans to play air guitar.

'Rock Of Ages' came on like a long;lost friend, stirring up favourite memories, then mid-song, Elliott pulled one of the neatest tricks in the book, he began to incorporate rock classics into the tune, without so much as changing the tempo or the beat.

It had to be heard to be believed, but there he was, singing snippets of 'Not Fade Away', My Generation', 'Radar Love', 'Come Together' and 'Whole Lotta Love'.

Before you knew it, there were 'thank you;s' being tossed out to the adoring fans, and the band was gone.

By Hit Parader 1987.

Back

share this page:

---

---