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Thursday, 26th June 2008
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London, England - Media Reviews

Def Leppard/Whitesnake at Wembley Arena By David Sinclair

Def Leppard and Whitesnake, those kings of the rock zoo, demonstrate that they still know how to roar.

A double bill of superannuated heavy rock groups with a zoological theme may not be everyone's idea of a great night out. But boy, these two bands went for it in no uncertain terms. With the smoke machines on overdrive and the air-conditioning turned off (for a while) it didn't take long to create an authentic 1970s-style fug inside the densely packed arena.

Def Leppard were slicker and, if possible, even louder as they trundled through a selection of their bubblegum-metal anthems leavened with a handful of songs from their new album, Songs from the Sparkle Lounge. While the 'Snake remained a vehicle for Coverdale's ego trip, the boys in Leppard took a more collegiate approach. The singer Joe Elliott spoke of the group's early days playing in working men's clubs in Sheffield, while the performance was infused with a spirit of laddish camaraderie.

Combining the blow-dried arena-rock of Bon Jovi with the wily showbusiness acumen of Queen, they hammered out a string of hits including Pour Some Sugar on Me, Armageddon It and Let's Get Rocked. Engulfed by this tidal wave of heavy rock memories, the audience responded with an impressive display of clapping and chanting of its own.

By The Times 2008.


Def Leppard @ Wembley Arena, London By Mike Elliott

Def Leppard are a British Institution there's no denying it, and when they walked onto their specially designed Sparkle Lounge stage at Wembley Stadium in London to an explosive crowd, you knew that the band were slap bang in the middle of their element.

Recent comments in the media had suggested that Def Leppard were a band touring a greatest hits package with another outdated band in Whitesnake, but to the sold out Arena, nothing could be further from the truth. Naturally the band riffled through all of their big hits, 'Pour Some Sugar', 'Photograph', Armageddon It' and the like, but there was also a huge reaction to new tracks from 'Songs From The Sparkle Lounge' like the first single 'Nine Lives'. Of course the best thing about the new material, is that live, it stands shoulder to shoulder with their classic well known material. The band are obviously proud of it, the fans love it, and it doesn't sound like a band going through the motions.

That being the real point that is clear from this concert. Def Leppard are not a band going through the motions, touring for the money. They're out there because they want to be. The band hardly stand still the entire set, zipping all over the place like rabid wolverines, no one trying to dominate the spot light, each letting the band as a whole shine.

When the dust settles, and the final chords of 'Let's Get Rocked' ring out around the arena, and the band depart for the final time, pausing first for a photograph with the crowd behind them, you're left with the feeling that Def Leppard can still rock like hell, and all in all, this didn't even come across as the band at their best.

By Komodorock 2008.


Whitesnake & Def Lep at Wembley By Planet Rock

For Def Leppard, you may wonder how they could follow that, but follow it they did. Sheffield's greatest rock export displayed the charms of a band at ease with big audiences and big expectations.

From the opening drum beats of 'Rocket', Joe Elliot picked up where Coverdale left off. With a new album to promote, the Lep weren't afraid to play new material from Songs From The Sparkle Lounge alongside their standard classics. Tracks like new single 'C'mon C'mon' were lapped up by an eager crowd alongside anthems 'Animal' and 'Hysteria'.

Most surprising track of the night was their cover of David Essex's 'Rock On'. Unashamedly fabulous, Rick Savage's bass solo atop the drum riser was a real rock moment and reminded us all what Def Leppard were put on this earth to do.

Rock fans were given what they deserved last night. And Whitesnake and Def leppard proved that if you get it right, true rock still reigns supreme.

By Planet Rock 2008.


Thursday 26th June By Dave Ling

For my money, despite Joe Elliott's own vocal irregularities, Leppard were by far the superior band. Just like Whitesnake they sent the sold-out Arena into waves of warm-waving, shout-it-out-loud delirium. The best part came with an acoustic 'Two Steps Behind', followed by 'Bringin' On The Heartbreak' and a bristling electric conclusion. In a consummate display of arena rock showmanship, their success was sealed with exquisite versions of 'Hysteria' and 'Armageddon It'.

By Dave Ling @ 2008.


Def Leppard, Wembley Arena, London By Nick Hasted

Led Zeppelin chose the relative glitz of the O2 Arena for their comeback. But in Wembley Arena's shed of a rock venue, where old-fashioned fans feel more comfortable, Def Leppard are carrying on regardless.

The band have been on hard rock's cutting edge twice in their careers. Thirty years ago, as part of the new wave of heavy metal, they took a punk-like axe to the blowsy solos of Jimmy Page's generation. Then, with producer Mutt Lange, they took rock into the 1980s' techno-pop heart with Pyromania (1983), a massive-selling monster that duked it out with Michael Jackson in the US, and gave lessons in studio sheen and shag haircuts to Bon Jovi and Spinal Tap. The latter also spoofed Leppard's one-armed drummer, Rick Allen. His retention after the car crash that cost him a limb shows their fortitude. But, never taken seriously even by rock fans in the UK, the cutting edges that Def Leppard found led them nowhere special.

They open here with their biggest 1980s hits, "Rocket" and "Animal", spliced with material from redundant new album Songs from the Sparkle Lounge. The soggy 1995 power ballad "When Love & Hate Collide" makes Westlife look hardcore, the acoustic guitars for "Two Steps Behind" only making things worse.

The idea that Leppard connect to rock'n'roll's primal source, suggested on "Blue Suede Shoes"-quoting "Rock On" and others, meanwhile, seems sacrilegious. But it is not wholly wrong, as they prove when they hit this show's heart.

Singer Joe Elliott tosses the acoustic guitar to a roadie, as if to signal, "Enough of that". Then "Hysteria" begins. Elliott and bassist Rick Savage bend towards the crowd, and topless guitarists take soloing turns, to authenticate the music's layered harmonies and undodgeable 1980s synthetic punch. "Pour Some Sugar On Me" has a metallic smack shared with Sheffield contemporaries ABC, more than tonight's harder co-headliners, Whitesnake.

"We got something to say," goes "Rock of Ages". But they don't. There's no poetry, meaning or rebellion here. Just a sledgeham-mering to success from working-class roots. Carrying middle-aged heft in a tossed-on T-shirt, Elliott is barely a rock star. But, prancing round the stage and hitting high notes technology lets hang in the air, he does enough. Sheer volume and drive get even my cynical feet dancing.

All Def Leppard have, really, is a tricked-up version of rock's original beat, and the tenacity to keep playing it when most people think they're a joke. For their fans, that's admirable.

By The Indepedent 2008.

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